I’m taking another little break from my usual project updates to talk a little about Magicka. Several years ago, a friend of mine had an idea for a game where you combine magical elements to make spells on the fly. The game would figure out what the spell should do based on the properties of the elements in the spell. We worked on the concepts for awhile but it was too complex for us to turn into a game. Magicka nailed this concept so perfectly that it manages to shine through the variety of technical glitches and design inconsistency.

A big thing to note is that Magicka is built on the XNA framework. That’s right, the same framework that Whirlygig uses and, if you’re a game developer, you might be using!

Gameplay

Magicka is a whimsical dungeon crawler that contains more, clever, geek culture references than any game I’ve ever played. It’s not an RPG because you don’t level up and your character does not change over time. Acquisition of loot does not really apply here. You have access from the beginning of the game to eight magic elements (and two more psuedo-elements) that you can combine any way you please into spells. Spells can have a variety of effects including beams, sprays, bullets, waves and more, depending on what elements are used and how they are cast. Most elements have an opposite that, if combined into a single spell, can be disastrous to the caster.

In fact, there are a lot of combinations that are deadly. For example, you can mix earth and fire together to create a nasty fireball. But if you accidentally self-cast it instead of casting it at a target….you rain a meteor down upon your own head. If you try to cast lightning while wet you’ll get a nasty shock.

In addition to combining elements there are spellbooks sprinkled through the game that unlock special spells. These are called “Magickas” and behave differently than elemental spells. Magickas require a specific combination. A Magicka combination can be cast as a regular elemental spell or cast in a special way that triggers the Magicka. Many of these spells are vital to surviving the relentless hoards of enemies.

Magicka is geared towards coop in a big way. However, friendly fire is always on. Combining streams can be super powerful but if you combine opposite elements in a stream you’ll blow yourselves apart. Lone wolves need not apply. Without a group strategy there will be lots of team killing. But…that can be fun too :P

The reason Magicka works so well is it makes you really feel like you’re casting spells. You don’t just push a button, deduct some mana, and successfully cast a spell. You can cast stuff as quickly and infinitely as you want. But, if you hamfist the ingredients because a troll is breathing down your neck, you may heal your enemy, blow yourself apart or….discover a whole new way to kill stuff.

Now onto some bad stuff. The difficulty is all over the board. There are something like 12 chapters in the game, each with several levels. The hardest chapter, in my opinion, was Chapter 6. I don’t want to spoil anything but I burned through the biggest bosses in the game (including the final dude) with little trouble. In fact, I defeated one boss in about 5 seconds without taking damage and it wasn’t a fluke. But Chapter 6 was so hard I thought it was the last level of the game until I beat it. I think difficulty would be less important in a coop playthrough but many people will probably play through solo at least once.

Actual difficulty isn’t always what makes the game hard…glitches can really get you. Throughout the game the screen will lock into place and you have to defend against waves of enemies. On three different occasions I defeated all enemies but the screen refused to unlock. I couldn’t progress until I suicided and played through the wave again. Another time I knew where enemies were going to come from so I just laid down a bunch of fire, killing them all. Then the dialog triggered but there was nobody left to talk. The game wouldn’t let me continue because it didn’t realize I already killed the baddies.

Another annoyance were cutscenes. There were several places where I died a lot before I figured out how to handle a challenge. Sometimes this meant watching a cutscene every single time I replayed. The spacebar supposedly skips the cutscene but it takes so long for it to fade out that it doesn’t save much time. Additionally, when you are killed, it takes awhile for the defeated screen to come up. As much as you will die in some places (if playing alone) it would be nice if you could get back into the action more quickly.

One last thing: playing this game with a controller is a joke. I started with a controller and the game was really, really, hard. I read a little online about some things and decided to try playing with keyboard and mouse. World of difference. Scenes that were very difficult with the xbox controller were a breeze with the keyboard. Spells simply take way too long to cast and have too much potential for error with a controller. A controller could work really well for this game but I think the control scheme needs to be redesigned (or user-customizable).

There were lots more, smaller glitches but most of them were visual-only. That being said, the game did crash to desktop three times.

Graphics

Magicka has perfect graphics. The spells are beautiful, the monsters are perfect and the environments are varied and rich. I can’t remember if it has a gore filter but enemies frequently explode in bloody chunks. These are more silly than macabre but it bears mentioning.

There were several graphical glitches that I noticed. For example, on a floating ship level there were lots of times where I would kill enemies, their ship would sail away, and the chunks of their bodies would be left hanging in the air. Overall these types of glitches were minimal and forgivable but that might be because some of the other glitches were so severe.

Audio

The sound fits the game. The voices are ridiculous as most of the game is voiced in a fake, nonsense language. This enhances the whimsy of the game and is actually hilarious in several places.

Technical

Well. I mentioned a lot of glitches in the gameplay section. Let’s just say that the technical execution of the game has some pretty serious glitches that I really hope they can work out.

The levels that were the most frustrating were largely due to getting glitch-killed. The AI is insanely wicked (maybe on accident?) sometimes and other times it’s so dumb that killing giant enemies is laughable. For example, if you throw up a rock wall enemies will attack it even if they could go around easily. So, it’s easy to kill the giant Yeti when he has his back to you, mindlessly banging on rock.

Summary

Despite what I’ve said about glitches and whatnot…Magicka is worth the $10. It is a very unqiue, fun, awesome game. It will occasionally frustrate you to the point of shoving your keyboard through your monitor but the spell casting mechanics will pull you back again and again. And some things that seem really, really hard simply need a different strategy.

The single player Adventure, while odd in it’s random difficulty, is good. Add to that Challenge mode and the fact that both game types are all about Coop play too and you have a game with a lot of play time.

There are also a lot of achievements to unlock, spells and secret areas to find, and new combinations to try.

I just hope they keep working on the technical issues because this game could use a little maintenance.