Better shield up, I'm gonna try something.
Magicka is an interesting little game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios. I would call it an action rpg but it manages to avoid just about all the trappings of the genre. While you do have a life bar, there is no inventory, no potions to chug, no sidequests and at no time do you level up. You’re a wizard, and once you complete the tutorial, ostensibly all the magic available in the game is open for you to use (with the exception of Magicks you have to find the spell books for) right from the get go.
The story is often amusing, and seemingly aimed at other people who spend way too much time online. It should also be noted that with the exception of Vlad’s narration between chapters, all the voiced dialogue in game sounds a bit like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.
Movement is all left-clicked based, while the all important spell elements are mapped to the q,w,e,r and a,s,d,f. You can queue up to 5 elements per spell before letting loose with your furious magical energies with a few options to cast, right-click for normal, middle-click for self and it’s possible to add the shift key to the mix to change it to an area of effect spell. Opposite elements will cancel each other out in the queue, however, so it’s best to not just jam on the keys willy-nilly and hope for a useful spell to pop out. There’s a nigh endless amount of combinations, but in the heat of battle it seemed best to stick with the few things that worked well, like hosing monsters down with water before letting loose with an arcane, lightning and frost combined assault that generally led to beasts being frozen and subsequently exploded a few seconds later. The satisfying feeling this produces cannot be understated.
Your wizard also gets a staff and sword, but can only carry one of each at a time. These offer various effects, like being able to middle-click useful Magicks. I was particularly fond of the staff that let you charm before the Magick book that contained the combination was available. Melee always seemed like a last ditch resort, unless of course you stick with the m60 you can get early on, and much like Solid Snake wearing a bandana, it never runs out of ammo. Crowd control tactics become a necessity because it’s pretty easy to get overrun and have your spellcasting attempts interrupted, not to mention some pretty savage boss encounters where one slip-up can have you staring at the ‘Defeated’ screen more times than you’d like.
There’s also up to four player co-op, which I haven’t had the chance to test out but I imagine it’d make the game even more chaotic with various beam spells crossing the screen and imploding when opposing elements clashed. Good thing revive is one of the first Magicks you get access to. I only experienced one crash in my time playing through the game which happened during the chapter 8 boss encounter where an enemy was continuously spawning a zombie army causing the game to choke and die. Had to start the level over completely, leading to the last point of the checkpoints in the game have a tendency to be cruel as well, sometimes being too few and far between and they don’t actually save progress mid-level if you want to quit.
All in all, if you’ve got 10 bucks and a weekend to blow, you can do a lot worse than Magicka. The fun seems to outweigh the frustration and it is packed with an undeniable charm
