Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV or AMD 3500+ or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800/ATI Radeon X1900 or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound card, DirectX 9, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Every once in awhile, a game comes along that combines creative mechanics with solid storytelling and excellent programming (Morrowind comes to mind). They are games that we, as gamers, take seriously. However, occasionally a game gives us creative gameplay and uses it as a platform for humor. Dungeon Keeper and its sequel are the best examples of this. It is in this tradition of good gaming and humor that Arrowhead Game Studios has created Magicka, a game that incorporates numerous pop-culture references. Magicka strives to provide an absurd, and yet heroic, RPG-lite narrative, and couples it with a detailed system for using magic.

At the heart of its mechanics, Magicka uses a free-form spell-casting system. Rather than learn and cast specific spells, you are told instead to cast any one of eight different magical elements, in any combination, and wield them intelligently in combat. So, instead of using a skill marked “fireball,” you instead queue up the elements of fire (for fire damage) and earth (to create a projectile) and then cast them properly (against enemies, rather than at yourself). This means you’re free to create your own spells in ways that go beyond even the flexibility of games such as Oblivion. Using shards of ice to slice up enemies can be useful, or you can electrocute them with lightning. Want to get really creative? Why not conjure up some volcanoes to act as an impassible flaming wall? Or perhaps you think a troll needs to be slowed down while you kill it? Go ahead and use frost, lightning, and add arcane to create a freezing ray of death that immobilizes and injures the target. The possibilities are almost limitless.

Of course, with total freedom comes total responsibility. Magicka is always fully open to friendly fire. In multiplayer, casting the big spell that massacres a dozen enemies might just kill your friends, too. But even in single-player, friendly fire is always a possibility. Not only can you set yourself on fire, but also environmental considerations can further hamper your spellcasting. For example, targets that are soaking wet take much more damage from lightning attacks. However, if you are soaking wet yourself, even just trying to use the element of lighting in your spells results in serious damage to yourself. Also, certain elements don’t go well together, and they either cancel each other out or cause spells to fizzle. This means you can’t light a target on fire and soak it with water at the same time. The game forces you to make choices in your gameplay, and to adapt those choices to current battlefield conditions. Combine this with a “Don’t cross the streams” mechanic (unless you are very sure of the result) that is much like Ghostbusters, and you have a game in which spamming spells and blindly aiming them is a sure way to kill yourself and others.

In terms of the game’s humor, let me just say that it would take too long to list even half of the silly references that it makes. The story is a clichéd combination of tales you’ve heard before (that’s a good thing, by the way), and there are cameos by characters such as Connor Macleod, the immortal Highlander himself (his sword is a useful weapon in your quest). Movies that are referenced include everything from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to Return of the Jedi. Even the fighting style of your character is an allusion to Gandalf, for you fight with sword and staff. And the absurdity does not stop there: one favorite weapon of many players is the M60 machine gun. When these elements are combined with spellcasting druids who scream “shrubbery!”, a character named Vlad who constantly reminds you he isn’t a vampire, and a map of the setting that includes the island of R’lyeh, and you have a recipe for laughter-inducing moments that are interspersed with lengthy bouts of magical action.

For all its complexity, Magicka is a fairly easy game to play. Experimentation is useful when trying to get past tough spots, but the game favors improvisation and quick reflexes over careful parsing of which elements combine for the most damage. However, the game has its problems. First and foremost, there are installation issues on Steam. This is not a DRM issue so much as a problem with Steam being unable to install things such as XNA or trying to install them every time you run the game because it thinks they’re not installed. Another problem is that the game doesn’t mind on-screen borders very well. About once a chapter I blew an enemy so far off the map with a spell during a boss fight that it was stuck out of range of my spells, confusing the pathfinding AI. While the game normally scrolls as you walk, during a boss fight it stays in one place to keep you from fleeing. This means if an enemy is too far away thanks to an explosion, you’re out of luck and have to restart. A final problem is one that annoys me far more than any of the others. During fights with multiple enemies, there can be substantial skill lag. Considering that you can kill yourself with a badly cast spell, the lag associated with casting elements will anger some players after the fifth time they self-cast a healing spell that accidentally also contains enough fire to set themselves ablaze. I’m not sure what optimization the game needs, but Arrowhead really needs to fix this one little problem, as the game can get quite hectic. None of this addresses the other bugs the game had on initial release. Had I done this review a few weeks ago, I would be reporting on several other issues that have already been patched.

When I reviewed Stalin vs. Martians more than a year ago, I lamented that such a lousy game was the closest thing the game industry had to a humorous item that year (or at least, one that I got to play). I’m happy to say that Magicka fits the bill, being both funny and a solid game. It’s too bad a buggy release has marred it, because it would otherwise have been a shoo-in for the Seal of Excellence. Priced at $9.99 on Gamersgate, Magicka is a wonderful and well designed game being offered at a casual-game price. If you have the urge to do some serious spellcasting, pick up a copy…after the next patch.

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