But seriously folks…

As someone who almost always picks the mage path I was excited to see a game all about mages. But the more I played this game the lonelier I felt. Mages are meant to be part of a team. It was uncomfortable to be on the frontline without any backup. My character didn't move fast enough. He couldn't jump. Even though there is no MP in this game spells still take time to charge up if you want them to have any real impact. More than once I thought to myself how I would gladly give up my mage shield and half my spells in exchange for one good warrior comrade to step in and give me some breathing room.

In my opinion this game failed because it did not take its own premise seriously enough. To make a game about battlemages fun to play one of the first things you need to do is give the players back what they lose by not having a warrior friend, but in creative ways. This is easiest done with spells. Spells that let you fly, magical armor, or some kind of knock-back spell are the sorts of things I'm talking about. But the spells in this game just weren't very interesting or versatile. There are only so many ways I can shoot a fireball before the whole thing just loses its appeal. You can't even jump or sprint in this game, so unless you are hiding behind a convenient pillar the game's terrain almost doesn't matter. Just spray and pray.

I also didn't feel very powerful in this game. Part of what makes being a mage appealing is when you charge up that spell, let it fly, and see it really do some damage. This game just lacked that visceral edge. Spells looked pretty but rarely had the power behind them I would have liked. Even if it just threw enemies around the battlefield without actually hurting them much, it would have been nice to have some real feedback when it came to the spells I was slinging. Instead enemies just soak up the damage and either fall over or keep coming like nothing is going on. This was especially frustrating when it came to bosses. They could literally take a hundred fireballs to the face. I'm not saying that the bosses should be easier, but boss battles could have been re-worked in such a way where the player still felt powerful even while struggling with a difficult enemy. This game avoided that sort of design work though, which would have made it a much more memorable experience.

I gave this game two stars because it was obvious they put some real work into the backgrounds. Even though I think it may have been wasted effort overall (since in action games most players are going to run right by without taking a proper look around) I still respect the work that went into it. And this game also had some of my favorite game voice actors in it. Troy Baker (who was Booker DeWitt from Bioshock Infinite and Joel from Last of Us) played the male lead and Jennifer Hale (fem-Shepherd from Mass Effect and Rosalind Lutece from Bioshock Infinite, to name a few characters) played the female lead. There was also Clancy Brown, one of my favorites for years, who has that recognizable gravelly voice and who has done a whole gamut of characters, from Lex Luther to Mr. Krabs.

With such recognizable voice actors it makes those bad design choices feel like even more of a waste of potential.