Yeah, *that* feeling. Newbie McDonald generation gamers probably have no f*cking idea what am I babbling on about, but those games had a soul. The little thing that Call of duty, Crysis or Halo do not have.
Why am I starting a review like this? Well, while playing Magicka, I felt *that* feeling again.
This game's initial release was only half-finished. Full of bugs (see upper image) and overall lacking polish. It felt like beta, really.
Now, after six months of patching and fixing, it is done. Not perfect, but complete.
The adventure mode itself (the "campaign") was also tweaked and lenghtened. Making the story roughly 15 hours long. Without screwing around, of course.
New stories, survival arenas, weapons, staves, robes et cetera, are available via DLC.
Even a new PvP mode was added. Making this game practicaly a must. But, after this long intro, let's start reviewing Magicka, shall we?
Magicka is a game about... well... magic. You control a wizard tasked with saving the world. Story might not be the selling point here, but it's awesome in it's own manner. It's here simply to make you laugh. And situations such as "Saving the world party" at the beginning are certainly up to the task.
As casual and cool as the storyline might be, there will be some pretty epic moments up to par even with Warhammer franchise.
Moreover, developers seem to be obsessed with sausages and mooses. Yeah. You'll see.
Anyway, in your quest you will be getting assistance from your tutor Vlad (Who is by no means a vampire!), Death or sausages. Perfectly logical, right?
There are many surprises along the way, and just when you'll think that you know what to expect, Magicka is again going to surprise you.
You can play either solo, or cooperative with up to three more players. I won't even mention how much awesomer (or whatever) the game gets while playing co-op. And yeah, friendly fire is always on.
But, players that seek variety in gameplay might wanna skip Magicka. Simply because solving "quests" looks basically like this: run, destroy, kill, kill, kill, run, kill, kill, kill, destroy, power the engine, kill, kill, run, kill, kill (Diablo II, anyone?!).
Yeah. You kill alot. I don't mind killing. Do you?
While gameplay revolves around single element (killing), variety comes in enemies. Goblins, trolls, orks, humans, salamanders, spiders, zombies, skeletons, beholders, dwarves, elemental creatures, huge serpents, vampires (khm, khm), sausages and a shitload of undefinable creatures. Not to forget about boss fights.
Hell yeah!
Now we can rest assured that we have enough things to kill. But wait, with what?!
Your basic weapons/tools are your elemental magicks. Water, Lightning, Life, Arcane, Shield, Earth, Ice and Fire. While preparing to cast a magick, you can conjure up to five elements to create a vast number of spells. Mines, shields, waves, traps, vulcanoes... hell, I don't know how many more there are. Except from your elements, you always have a staff and a sword. Both can be extremely potent if combined properly. Now, Magicka is not RPG. It's a hack and slash action game with isometrical camera viewpoint. There is no questing, money, or real loot. But, there are many, many, many staves, swords, axes and such to find and use. Some enemies might drop them, but you will find most of the equipment scattered around the world.
Graphics seem cartooney at the first glance, so I did not expect to see blood. Well, I'm glad to say that I was wrong. Decapitation, body explosion, blood spray... they are all here and they all look great.
Textures can be smudgy, and I noticed lack of antialiasing in Magicka. Furthermore, it isn't optimized as it should be. The game ran at 20-30 FPS (maximum settings, 1280x1024) on my PC (3.25 GB DDR2 RAM, ATi Radeon 4870, Intel Core 2 Duo 3.6x2 GHz). And, when comparing this to... say... Resident Evil 5 (DX10 mod, 1280x1024, maximum textures/shadows/details, no antialiasing, VSync off) that runs on stable 35-40 FPS, the result is not really satisfying.
But since I tested it on only one PC, it might be a software issue on my end.
To demonstrate just how awesome Magicka's take on gaming is, I posted two Vietnam expansion images. The left is that of Magicka, and the right one is Bad Company 2's. Epic.
This game managed to suck me in and hold me for a week. That is why I haven't writen any new reviews in the meantime.
Yeah, this is what I've been looking for. A rather unique pearl in today's generic gaming industry.
Get the Magicka full pack from Steam and for God's sake, play it.
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