Hi all! As I already said, there will be no more video reviews from me, but text reviews are fine. Therefore, welcome: a small review of a fun and meaty game – Magicka.
Nowadays, it won’t surprise anyone that developers of a very specific style of games are starting to try themselves in completely different genres. Here comes the Swedish company Paradox Interactive did not lag behind fashion trends and released not just another thoughtful, realistic global strategy, but quite a fantasy adventure game.
The main and only distinguishing feature Magicka is the ability to research and create your own spells (the total number of which, according to the developers, is about 1000) by combining 8 initial elements: water, life, shield, cold, lightning, death, earth and fire. The very possibilities of creating spells are limited only by the player’s imagination. Combine fire and earth with each other and you get a meteorite, earth and cold – an ice block. Of course, some restrictions still exist. For example, you cannot combine the antipodes – fire and cold – with each other, but at the same time, combining fire and water will give you steam that can be used for further combination. No one forbids using all these elements separately, but then the power and effectiveness of spells is significantly reduced.
Meet Vlad. And he is NOT a vampire.
But, unfortunately, this is where https://malayclubcasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ all the advantages of Magicka end. Experimenting and searching for spells gets boring after about two hours of play. Yes, there are a lot of combinations, but there are no effective ones, and the enemies become stronger and stronger as you progress. That’s why you have to, huddled in a corner and wrapped in a shield, shoot all sorts of enemies with the simplest but most effective spells, besides, the use of something global and deadly can simply easily turn against the player himself. In principle, these same spells can also be used to charge melee weapons that are paired with a staff, but this is not of much use, because it is discharged after one hit, and the damage caused is far from critical.
The same blow with a sword charged with the energy of death.
Some entertainment can come from searching for various secrets, cunningly hidden objects, as well as books with spells that cannot be picked up in the usual way, but this also quickly gets boring.
As for the plot, there is none in Magicka. Or rather, it exists, but it is so banal and illusory that it is practically not felt as you progress. Moreover, you can go through the entire game from beginning to end without reading a single dialogue or talking to more than one character – you won’t lose anything. Also, there is no role-playing system, leveling, classes or hero parameters. Everyone starts the game with the same equipment, and only later, when selecting certain items, do they set some priorities for themselves in spells, based on the parameters of these items.
And this is the spell I use most.
But all of the above applies only to a single playthrough. Multiplayer is where all the fun and madness put into the game by the developers is revealed. Going through that same campaign in the company of three friends is still a crazy activity, I must say, and all because friendly spells affect both enemies and party members. It’s hard to even say from whom you will receive more damage – from the various creatures inhabiting the world of Magicka or from your own friends. After all, in the heat of battle there is no time for careful aiming and choosing spells: I threw more elements onto the stack, and hit! Bach! And your friend was torn to pieces.
This is what all the enemies look like after another battle.
By the way, the good thing about playing together is that when you combine spells from two or more players, they overlap each other and hit together, and this, you know, wow, what damage. However, there are also the opposite cases, when an unsuccessfully cast spell neutralizes all the damage inflicted on a particularly fat monster. All this, fortunately, crosses out and negates the dissatisfaction with monotony, tediousness and lack of plot, because it is very pleasant to create bedlam and chaos in the company of several friends.
What can we say about this game in the end?? Magicka is a crazy, interesting and fun game that, if there is at least one other person (or better yet, two or three), can give a lot of fun and draw you in for a long time. A solo company will only occupy you for a couple of hours – until you get bored with searching for combinations of spells and testing them on enemies; otherwise, playing alone is boring, tedious and completely uninteresting. Therefore, find yourself a suitable party friend, go to Steam, buy the game and go tear everything and everyone into small pieces.