Magicka

Overview

Magicka, Arrowhead Game Studios' first release, sets you up with a mage, mouse controls, infinite mana and an isometric view. The infinite mana system results in gameplay centred around the eight magickal elements -- combining and casting them with a series of keystrokes and mouse clicks.

The game was released on Steam and GamersGate on January 25th, and according to the publisher, Paradox, features "thousands" of possible spells, 13 levels, and lets you "experience the parody and satire of a clichéd fantasy world." The XBLA version is yet to have a firm release date.

Game Modes

Magicka is currently a cooperative game that supports 1-4 players in two game modes: Adventure and Challenge. Competitive modes are scheduled to be added to the game on June 21, 2011.

Cooperative Modes

• Adventure: explore the world of Midgård, and try to save it from destruction.
• Challenge: play against wave after wave of monsters for survival.

Competitive Modes (To be added on June 21st, 2011)

• Deathmatch: Players battle each other until one reaches the score required for victory.
• Brawl: Players start with a set amount of lives. Last man standing wins.
• Kreitor: Named after a member of the game's modding community, this mode features a unique mechanic. At set intervals during the match, additional spells are unlocked for the players to use against one another.

Magic / Gameplay

In Magicka, magic is cast by selecting elements with keystrokes, which stack up in your spell bar (shown under the player), and then firing them off via middle-mouse (self-cast), right-mouse (cast forward), shift-right-mouse (cast area), or shift-left-mouse (cast on weapon). Different elements cause the magic to take different forms and have different effects.

For example, to spray flame, you would simply tap the button for Fire, put one Fire element in your bar, then right click. To shoot a short lightning burst you would do the same with the Lightning element. But by combining Fire and Earth in your spell bar, you create a ball of fire. Or with Arcane plus Lightning, you fire a beam of swirling red lightning across the screen. With a single Shield element, you can put up a huge half-sphere shield and maintain it by tapping the space bar, or with Shield Earth, you could conjure a wall of rock in front of your character.

The elements and their respective effects are as follow:

	Water (Spray) Soaks Knockback Hazardous to mix with Lightning
	Fire (Spray) Damage over time Causes Panic Opposite to Cold
	Lightning Effective vs. wet targets Effective vs. armor Hazardous to mix with Water Opposite to Earth
	Earth (Projectile) High damage Knockdown Opposite to Lightning
	Cold (Spray) Slows Effective vs. wet targets Opposite to Fire
	Shield Protective Shield Can be boosted
	Arcane (Beam) Locks on Explosive Opposite to Life
	Life (Beam) Locks on Healing Opposite to Arcane

Combination Elements

Combination Elements are not castable from one keystroke, but function the same as their single keystroke element counterparts. These elements, like normal elements, take up only one slot of the player's spell bar. Both Combination elements can be combined with the standard eight elements, though, Steam and Ice cannot be combined.

Steam (Spray)

• Combination of Fire and Water
• Soaks
• Opposite of Cold

Ice (Projectile)

• Combination of Cold and Water
• Shoots multiple Ice Shards
• Slows
• Opposite of Fire

Magicks

Magicks are special, order dependent spells that the player can cast. Magicks are cast by queuing up the required elements in the correct order and pressing the space bar. The player can cycle through their list of known Magicks by using the scroll wheel. The name of the Magick and a transparent guide of the order of the elements needed to cast the Magick will then be shown in the player's spell bar. Nearly all of these are learned by finding spell books scattered through the game. Some of these Magicks are buffs, while others are offensive. Some will summon monsters to help you fight.

Grease(Water, Earth, Life)

• Creates a semi-circle of slippery grease in front of the caster.
• Can be set on fire and burns longer and hurts more than normal fire.
• Smaller monsters tend to avoid a grease fire.

Revive (Life, Lightning)

• Revives a fallen teammate.

Haste (Lightning, Arcane, Fire)

• Increase player movement speed.

Nullify (Arcane, Shield)

• Removes status effects from the caster.
• Cancels some area effect spells cast by enemies and other players.

Rain (Water, Steam)

• Soaks all living units except those with a shield.

Thunderbolt (Steam, Lightning, Arcane, Lightning)

• Creates a lightning bolt that hits the highest standing unit for massive damage.

Tornado(Earth, Steam, Water, Steam)

• Creates a large tornado that flings everyone close to it in the air, causing damage.

Conflagration (Steam, Fire, Steam, Fire, Steam)

• Creates a wave of fire from the front of the player dealing damage and setting targets on fire.

Time Warp (Cold, Shield)

• Slows time for all players and enemies
• Does not affect the M60 weapon.

Blizzard (Cold, Ice, Cold)

• Creates a large blizzard which slows all units.

Teleport (Lightning, Arcane, Lightning)

• Teleports the player a short distance forward.

Summon Phoenix (Life, Lightning, Fire)

• Summons a Phoenix at the caster's feet, that deals fire damage and revives all dead players.

Thunderstorm (Steam, Steam, Lightning, Arcane, Lightning)

• Essentially a Rain and Thunderbolt hybrid.
• Soaks all units.
• Many Thunderbolts fall from the sky randomly.

Raise Dead (Ice, Earth, Arcane, Ice)

• Summons a few ghouls to help you fight.
• Ghouls are healed by arcane and damage by life.

Fear (Ice, Arcane, Shield)

• Nearby enemies run away from the caster in random directions.

Charm (Life, Shield, Earth)

• Target creature fights by your side
• Charmed monsters will having floating hearts over their body.

Summon Death (Arcane, Cold, Ice, Cold, Arcane)

• Kills unit (friend or foe) with the lowest amount of health left.
• More or less useless.

Summon Elemental (Arcane, Shield, Earth, Steam, Arcane)

• Summons an inactive elemental.
• Elemental will take the form of what ever element touches it first.
• Elemental is healed by its element.

Corporealize (Arcane, Steam, Lightning, Shield, Arcane)

• Causes any ethereal daemons to materialize, something they do anyway when they attack.
• Essentially totally useless.

Invisibility (Arcane, Shield, Steam, Arcane)

• Turns the caster Invisible.
• Enemies will not directly attack an invisible player.
• Invisibility ends after casting, attacking, taking damage or colliding with an enemy.

Vortex (Ice, Arcane, Ice, Shield, Ice)

• Creates a large vortex that kills any unit that gets too close.

Meteor Shower (Fire, Earth, Steam, Earth, Fire)

• Acquired from purchasing the game prior to February 1st or getting the Wizard Survival Kit DLC.
• Causes many meteors to fall from the sky, hitting random locations on the screen.

Weapons

Melee

• Arcane Saber
• Blade of Chill
• Blade of Surt
• Captian's Axe
• Crowbar
• Excalibur
• Exotic Blade
• Frost Cleaver
• Gram
• Gungnir
• M60
• Mace of the Earth
• Mace of the Molten Core
• Morgul Blade
• Seaward Spear
• Sharp Sword
• Skyward Spear
• Stung
• Sword of The Masters
• Thunderblade
• Tyrfing
• Warhammer

Staff

• Aristo-Staff
• Daemon Arm
• Frost Staff
• Gnarled Staff
• Goblin Staff
• Righteous Rod of Runes
• Rod of Emergency Teleport
• Sceptre of the Troll King
• Staff of Malevolence
• Shield Staff
• Staff +1
• Staff of Deflection
• Staff of Fire
• Staff of Life
• Staff of the Dead
• Staff of Invisibility
• Staff of the White Wizard
• Staff of War
• Tesla Staff

DLC

Paradox Interactive announced on March 1, 2011 that one of the DLC packs for the game would be Magicka: Vietnam, along with a trailer. The press release states that the main objective of the new content pack for the aspiring wizards will be to " try to do what so many 80’s action stars have done in the past: blow stuff up". Released on April 12, 2011 & offering a lengthy scenario as a Wizard GI going through the Goblin-Cong jungles. Also included are new weapons, a new challenge map & a new spell for summoning a napalm strike on your foes. Other DLC packs include the Party Robes pack, which allows players to take on specific roles within the party, and the Final Frontier pack, which adds a Star Trek-themed robe, staff, and weapon combo as well as a challenge mode map based on an episode of Star Trek.

Full DLC List:

PC System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7 (32- or 64-bit)
• Processor: Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or equivalent
• RAM Memory: 1 GB
• Graphics Card: GeForce 7800 or equivalent video card
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c or better
• Hard Drive Space: 1 GB
• Sound Card: DirectX9-compatible sound card