With Crabs like these, who needs dragons? : A Magicka 2 Game Review

avatar
(Edited)

▶️ Watch on 3Speak


magicka 2 banner.png

(images and gameplay taken and captured from my personal playthrough of Magicka 2 which can be purchased here )

With Crabs Like These, Who Needs Dragons?

Hello folks, and welcome to another game review. This time we are visiting a local and online multiplayer (or singleplayer if one so chooses) game about Wizards fighting goblins, ogres, trolls, demons, and.... Crabs? This game sports a plethora of enemies, dozens upon of spell combinations available, and hilarious collateral damage. Definitely a hoot for local/online co-op. This game also has PvP too, but that portion of the game hasn't been explored as of writing this review. DISCLAIMER: This review is written WIHOUT COMPARISON to Magicka 1 and is written from the perspective of playing Magicka 2 as a stand alone title. Additionally this game was left open accidentally a few times so many of these hours were idle.

hive divider.png

This game was a rip-roaring time to play locally WITH gamepads, I highly recommend using a gamepad for this title, as the keyboard controls are "cumbersome" at best. I also recommend playing this arcane murderfest in multiplayer, me and my guest played through the whole campaign. And of course there are legions of bloodthirsty crabs, the murderous apex of the animal kingdom (apparently).

image.png
hive divider.png

Gameplay: Indiscriminate Carnage and... Laughs

The gameplay is fun, but the "hundreds of spell combinations" that the game advertises in it's description aren't QUITE as such. Realistically there are dozens of combintions (using the various buttons on the gamepad), and then variants of the potency of the ratio of said combinations. You can also physically attack with your sword or enchant your weapon to offensively or defensively use arcane trickery too (sometimes with MASSIVE consequences). Technically there are "hundreds of combinations" but not hundreds of spells. The variance of how potent each spell damage type is effected by how many "orbs" are used to cast the spell. For example 1 rock orb and 4 death orbs cast the same spell as 4 rock orbs with 1 death orb despite there technically being 25 ways to "combine" to obtain the EXACT same spell where the only difference is the ratio of elemental damage. There are "dozens" of UNIQUE spells at most, still that is plenty to work with and a lot of fun to experiment with. Half of the fun for this gameplay loop is "accidentally" killing your teammate or bystanders with your wonky spellcraft, with hilarious results.

image.png

hive divider.png
There are essentially 5 core elements and combining said elements can create a few secondary elements (death and water = poison, fire and water = steam etc.) These elements can be used offensively (attack spells) or defensively (wards and shields etc). The player can also acquire "Magicks" by playing the campaign and encountering spellbooks, these spells are equipped in your spell bar and you can alter your loadout at anytime. Enemies sport elemental weaknesses and resistances and there are various puzzles throughout the main campaign, a quick mastery of these combinations is key in combat and pensive thought is required for the various puzzle sections.

image.png

hive divider.png

Look and Feel: Light Hearted Wizardry

The art, aesthetic, lore, and feel of this game is very lighthearted despite the excess of murderous carnage. There are various silly jokes and references peppered throughout the campaign are jovial and carefree. Despite this the lore story is still multi-faceted and interesting. No spoilers here, but there are a few twists.

image.png
hive divider.png

TLDR: Just tell me how many stars dammit!

I would give this game 4 stars as a multiplayer title, half of the fun is accidentally killing your teammate and the tension of "will they revive me?". As a singleplayer title it runs rather short, and PVP hasn't been experiment with so I cannot attest to the singleplayer aspects of this game, but as a local multiplayer game it is top notch fun. Plus there are lethal crustaceans, how can you go wrong? Definitely recommended for anyone looking for a fun local co-op game that includes tactical combat and puzzle elements and worth the 15 dollar price tag for the base game. I will be purchasing the DLC to go through 2 additional campaigns and review if those DLC are worthy, but the base game is certainly worth the price tag for the hours and hours of fun it provides.


▶️ 3Speak



0
0
0.000
1 comments