Magicka

A game that glorifies the use of fireballs and land mines. #WIN.

People have complained that Magicka is too complex or confusing, but they're missing the point. It's a game about wielding immense power, but having to be clever to use it properly.

Anyone who has any interest in cooperative games or action-adventure would do well to pick it up, especially for the almost ridiculous price of $10.

Fresh and fun isometric story-driven monster bash where you can actually improvise and cast spells by combining raw elements instead of mashing numeric keys for canned results. Fun even alone and hilarious chaos in up to four player co-op.

The fact that, at the time of writing, Magicka had surpassed 150,000 sales, is just a testament to how fun and addictive the core game really is. Now that most of the major hiccups out of the way, this is definitely a must-buy game, but it really needs to be experienced to get how much fun it is.

Magicka's clever, inspired twists on the straight action-RPG are sure to result in hours of freeform chaotic fun.

Magicka might not be a perfect game concerning technical standards but is a total must have for every geek out there. The game is best played together with up to three friends, which is suported in all of the three gamemodes adventure, survival and versus.

Magicka is a game that works especially well in cooperation. Single player experience is a good one but this game shows its true potential only when you play with friends, allowing for some great fun. A patched-up Magicka is most certainly worth getting to know. Even more, because it is a solid candidate for 2011's best game in its category.

A myriad of bugs is not capable of breaking the spell of Magicka's incredibly magical system.

It's long, it's tough, it's huge fun, and it's cheap. But it will never be perfect.

Magicka is an amazingly addictive and playful twist to relax to from all of the deadly, serious RPGs. It has its limits and bugs but until you learn all the spells you will not leave it alone. [Issue#201]

Magicka is both unique and very funny, but it's sadly not really finished yet. Still, it's an enjoyable experience, especially in co-op, and the steady stream of patches is making it better with each fix.

Thanks to a plethora of patches, Magicka is now stable so you can have fun without the frustration. Just one chapter with some of your friends is well worth the $10 cost.

Magicka is a perfect palliative for those waiting for Diablo III; thanks to a shining gameplay and a genuine freedom, the last title from Arrowhead is as funny as only indie titles are. Magic.

Magicka is simply genious, ironic and very funny. Too bad for the impressive bugs: sometimes they double the fun, sometimes they just spoil it. Patches on the way, fingers crossed for one of the best independent games out there.

Magicka is a kind of innovative beat'em all where you combine different types of magic to annihilate your enemies. In order to master your powers, you will need to be both able to multitask and finger-agile, since the keyboard/mouse controls are quite complex! And the resulting challenge is high. With a little work and force of habits, one will discover an extra-fun gameplay and a hilarious adventure, solo or in coop for 2 to 4 players. All this for less than 10 dollars ? Go get it!

Forget everything you knew about role playing, Magicka takes you beyond that.

Magicka is best played in coop-mode – otherwise it might feel too monotonous. Also, be prepared to download some patches. [Mar 2011, p.108]

Despite some imbalances in the game's spells, and certain aspects of the game's difficulty being exploitable, there's still a lot to like about Magicka.

Ultimately though, I can only recommend you Magicka. At 10 euro it's a good offer and the closest thing to PC Mortal Kombat; sporting spells, monsters and Scandinavian heroes, but with that drive to learn combos and experiment.

Magicka may have its problems such as certain areas being overlooked, but it does undoubtedly provide an enjoyable experience. Mainly due to its interesting spell system, just proving that not all good games are hyped up months before they arrive.

Arrowhead Studios came up with a marvelous game, but the company's excitement in rushing it to the market often creates more problems than they're worth.

Though it has some hurdles to overcome, some bugs to exterminate, and a fairly inconvenient control scheme, Magicka is a thoroughly charming and entertaining tongue in cheek adventure.

All of that level design stupidity can't stop Magicka's brilliant core gameplay from shining through, though.

Magicka is a good action-RPG title, with sense of humor and a great gameplay, but due to some technical issues, it can't be considered as a must have.

Magicka is good-looking, enjoyable and stirring. Is a game that blows videogame controls as we know them to create a funny and glowing world full of gameplay peaks, especially in its multiplayer side.

Exciting to play with friends, utilising a clever, magic system that makes you think. [Apr 2011, p.54]

Magicka delivers splashy nonsense of a gleeful kind, and somehow its delight in chaos and willful stupidity buoys it some way above its faults. [Mar 2011, p.95]

Even with its flaws, Magicka is fun and fresh, and offers a new experience for RPG fans.

According to Magicka, being a wizard is chaotic fun, as long as you're playing with others, and the game isn't crashing. The game infuses the tempo from fighting-games, with an extremely variable magic-system, where results depend on which of the nine elements you combine.

Aside from a few bugs, this game is worth getting. The game is daring and will make you laugh more often than the average sitcom. Magicka shines the brightest when playing it online with a few decent players though, throwing out some amazing combo's together during one of the game's many cartoon-like battles.

Magicka is a solid action adventure title with a clever spellcasting mechanic that will provide hours of entertainment for gamers, especially if they play co-operatively.

Quotation forthcoming.

Despite a lot of bugs and some off-putting quirks, Magicka is still a good action role-playing game.

With a level-headed team of four, Magicka's cooperative action is entrancing chaos. It's rare for a game to feel this mechanically satisfying.

Confused and buggy, but very entertaining under the right circumstances. Bring friends.

The single-player campaign is poorly balanced and very short, but, since Castle Crashers never materialized on PC, Magicka is the next best alternative. It is fun enough to last a couple of evenings, but doesn't have a lasting appeal.

To be fair, Paradox and Arrowhead are doing a lot of work to fix the game's issues and it is, as of this writing, in a far better state than when it shipped, but the fact remains that my group has suffered crashes at the end of three separate chapters, which forces a complete chapter redo, and as cute as Magicka is, that's not funny.

Overall, I was not a fan of Magicka, even at its modest price. The game looks and sounds good enough, and it even has some funny scenes (including a vampire who keeps insisting he's not a vampire, and lots of fake-ish Swedish dialogue), but the actual gameplay was just too punishing for me.

If you like to try out different things and new concepts, it's more than worth a look. The co-op play, the battles and experiments with new spells are fun, but there are many balance problems and bugs the developers need to fix.

In spite of its drawbacks, Magicka is a nice and entertaining game that pays a tribute to classic action-RPGs of old. There are some clever ideas here and there that will keep you going, but definitely nothing that will be remembered after the end credits.

Some clever ideas wrapped in a lighthearted romp, Magicka partially collapses under its own weight of the innovative but overly-complex magic system.