As science has proven time and again, choice tends to have a paralyzing effect on the human decision-making process. We all think we want the luxury of choice... but in reality, it makes everything just that much trickier.
Such is the case in Magicka: Wizard Wars, the follow-up to 2011's chaotic multiplayer action-role-playing game Magicka. Wizard Wars retains its predecessor's basic gameplay template; namely, your cartoony, cloaked sorcerer enjoys the ability to fuse an octet of elements into a ridiculous number of different magical spells. If you want to heal some damage, you might, say, shoot a healing beam, drop some healing mines, or throw out a large radius heal, depending on the combo -- whether it's to lay down some damage or just cover yourself from harm. A handful of universal, cooldown-dependent spells (such as a radius meteor strike and a summoned avatar of death) supplement the elemental mix-'n'-match.
The big difference here is that you aren't adventuring along the countryside with three friends, out to vanquish some great evil. Instead, Wizard Wars takes its cues from games like Dota 2 and League of Legends, dropping two teams of four into an open arena, and pitting them against one another for dominance over three control nodes. Each player death (and corresponding resurrection) deducts one point from a team's shared respawn pool; get wiped out once these points are all used up (or when you don't control any nodes -- which double as respawn points), and your team is toast.
Every character is effectively equal.
If you League of Legends players out there are thinking "That sounds kinda like LoL's Dominion mode" right about now, it's a semi-apt comparison. Wizard Wars undoubtedly shares a lot of DNA with these types of games, though its mechanics err away from the lane-based conquer-the-enemy-HQ routine. The other important difference: every character is effectively equal, with access to all the same offensive and defensive options right from the get-go. While you can equip a few token items in the setup screen (which lend slightly more weight toward certain types of spells), you're essentially playing the same character as the other seven players.
It all results in a rather chaotic and fast-paced battlefield, where teams race from point to point, laying down all manner of destructive spells and trying their hardest to stay alive. And while Wizard Wars has a more shallow learning curve than those other games I mentioned, the sheer number of options available at any given moment tends to be overwhelming when you have a couple of enemies bearing down on you. During my brief hands-on time, I erred toward defensive and healing spells (as I tend to do in team-based games) -- with the occasional hail Mary spell when things got rough. I came away feeling like Wizard Wars won't wind up in quite the same long-term competitive league as, well, League of Legends... but it's definitely a fun afternoon with some friends who really just want to beat each other down. Checkers and chess, my friends.
Oh, and one pro tip before I go: Watch out when you're summoning those grim reapers; friendly fire is a definite thing in this game, and it's a little tough to guard a node when you're sending sickle-toting specters after your friends. Just sayin'.
Ryan Scott is a contributing editor to IGN who used to run GameSpy. Keep up with him on Twitter or his website, Geekbox.
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