"This game has been dumbed down" EXPLAINED

[[Lemons] w!z@rD]

So, I've read a lot of threads and reviews and have come to the conclusion that I need to elaborate the infamous arguments like "Magicka 2 is just a dumbed down Magicka 1" and "the balance is so fked up".
Before I start, let me say that I've played the original Magicka for over 1700 hours, Magicka: Wizard Wars for over 450 hours and Magicka 2 for 15 hours (this includes the sneak peek), so I know what I'm talking about.


Many people complained that there were, like, 3 spells in Magicka which were super op and made anything else useless. Well, they're wrong.
There were actually about 30 spells in the original Magicka which were very useful, most people just didn't bother experimenting.
During my long play time I have met countless of people and only very few actually experimented with the spells. For example, people (even with +20 hours) often used single element spells, which I found very lame usually so I just casted a large protection aura against that element, which made their spell useless.
What did they do? Did they try to use different spells, made of other elements? Nope, they just kept casting that one spell until they died helplessly.

In Magicka 2 it's the other way around, all spells (except for maybe explosive rocks and mines and earthquakes) are equally ineffective which forces you to use multiple spells at the same time (like EAR storm mixed with SSSSS beam).

Why is it a bad thing to let people chose how to play the game?

If they wanted to use only 3 spells (QRQREAS, QFQFASA and ASRE for example) and had immense fun with it, where's the problem?
I think this is one of the major reasons Magicka 2 is getting so many bad reviews, especially from people who have played the original Magicka. They can't play the game the way they want to anymore. They are forced to accept the developers' design choices.
If you chose to be a boring wizard in M1 and only cast fire sprays and arcane beams, then that was your choice, but you could also be a powerful wizard and cast all sorts of other spells which were much better than simple ones (and more satisfying).

At this point let me say that I think it makes sense, that 'complex' spells like QFQFASS are much more effective than for example FFFFF.
M1 rewarded players for muscle memory and for being able to remember element combinations.
M2 doesn't do that, at least not as much. There are cooldowns on magicks, mines take time to charge up damage, walls take longer to explode. All these things make the game easier for beginners, but lowers the skill cap immensely.
Actually, do you know what one of the best combos currently is? Selfcast EFFFF (F/S/R) and then selfcast spam DFFFF (F/S/R). That's 2 elements and 5 key presses per spell in total, while in Magicka the most powerful spells were probably QFQFASA and QRQREAS (5 elements, 7 key presses per spell).

Now, the next point I want to address is the deal with Sony and how it obviously affected the spell system:

Playing with controllers is much easier now, not just because they reworked and improved the keybinds, but also because the game has been balanced much in favor of controllers. And they also majorly decreased the advantage k&m has over controllers.
The cooldowns on magicks
Sure, it's not a bad thing to have cooldowns on spells like Thunderbolt to prevent people from spamming it over and over again on bosses, but it limits k&m a lot. Actually there's, like, a global cooldown when using the element combos to cast magicks, which prevents you from casting magicks completely (via element combos, but not via hotkeys) for a few seconds.
As I mentioned above, the way mines, explosive walls (EDSX, WEDX) and rocks work are a further indicator that they tried to prevent the quick casting of spells, which decreases the k&m advantage.
Furthermore, many spell animations take much longer now than in the original Magicka and even Magicka Wizard Wars.

The next issue are wards and the overall balance.

Magicka had the problem that the monsters
- didn't use mixed damage types,
- were generally too weak
- and that armors (!EDX) were too powerful.
This made the game really easy once you got accustomed to casting armors and auras and knew all the good spells.

In Magicka 2 they slipped into the other extreme by
- nerfinmaking wards extremely weak
- AND making monsters cause different damage types and tougher overall.
Also the damage of all spells have been nerfed (as previously said).

They either should have nerfed wards and kept the monsters as they were or buffed all the monsters but kept wards as they were.
That all spells should be equally useful was a good idea, really! But unfortunately they are equally useless, instead of equally useful.

It is very hard to defend incoming damage and it's equally hard to kill monsters before they kill you. Getting killed because you simply can't avoid the damage in any way, does not make for a nice challenge, it makes for "OMGWTFIMGONNATHROWMYCOMPUTEROUTTHEWINDOWAAAARGH" moments.

Ice and Steam (and further arguments about the overall balance)

In the original Magicka steam and ice were individual elements and could be combined with lightning. Some people loved QREAS and QFAS and some hated those spells and said that they basically ruined the game (even though they weren't forced to use them).

I personally think that Magicka 1 was balanced quite well, but did have some flaws. Flaws which could have been fixed easily without making all spells equally bad and removing ice and steam as independent elements.

Lets assume they had kept ice and steam the way they worked in M1:
To fix the "op" spells they would simply have to:

• decrease the damage of QREASX to a degree where it's still much more useful than for example FFF sprays or pure lightning, but low enough so that people don't spam it anymore.
  
• decrease the damage of spells containing steam and lightning, and keep the lightning damage multiplier on wet units.
  OR
  Keep the damage of QFAX spells, but remove the ability to wet from pure Steam. That way you would first have to cast SQ and then QFQFASS

Other goofs, which are mentioned in reviews and forum posts

• can't queue elements while in mid-air.
  Have fun fighting goblin bombers or any other units that throw you into the air.
  
  
• It's not possible to rebind the key binds. Though the developers are already working on it, so it won't be an issue for much longer.
  
  
• Hitting with weapons doesn't always work.
  
  
• The range of lightning is way too huge. If you use an Area Prism imbued with lightning, it'll likely kill you and your friends rather than the enemies.
  
  
• Apparently single player is too hard for many players. (I personally didn't have any issues so far, even on Bananas mode)
  
  
• Some people (including me) have graphic and sound problems.

Writing this took me way too long, I hope my effort wasn't for nothing

[OrkDork]

I agree with you, I think people are taking things way out of proportion. I mean I haven't played it but it DEFINITELY doesn't deserve these types of reviews.

[[Lemons] w!z@rD]

Originally posted by -{RED}- Ser Tristan:

I agree with you, I think people are taking things way out of proportion. I mean I haven't played it but it DEFINITELY doesn't deserve these types of reviews.

I didn't say that and I don't think Magicka 2 doesn't deserve the bad reviews. In fact I gave it a negative review myself, because I find it absolutely horrible what they did to the spell system. Still, it's not a bad game and people who haven't played the original Magicka will probably like Magicka 2, because they wouldn't be able to spot any of those differences or issues I listed above anyway.

[Tako]

I completely agree with you, Many very good points. I need to try that spam later in the Chapter 3 caves on Banana haha. Although my issue with SP is that enemies either spawn too quickly and overwhelm you [IE Chapter 3 end fight] or some are Spell sponges [Beastkin] The game does get easier in MP since your damage output is higher than the regen.

[oguzcan2]

The game being fun should have came before balance.

Also with all the restrictions , it feels unresponsive with k&m compared to magicka :(

[ChexGuy]

yo real talk what's the point of emergency teleport if you can't use it to save yourself from a ledge?

[Matirion Maeronta]

You say that the spells were useful, but thats just it, compared to the few OP combos they are useless. What point does a spell have when something else is basically a quick kill for anything it hits? The system was broken beyond recovery for Magicka 1, that has been fixed now. Most spell combinations are now equally viable, they just aren't overpowered anymore...

The problem was never that people wanted to use a broken system, the problem was that the system was broken. If the system is broken, it needs to be fixed whenever possible... Even if people want it to remain broken (many people always do), a broken system is always bad. The "design choice" was to remove something that was broken and flawed and balance it out so you can't waltz through everything without thinking for a second.

You also mention the shields being weak and that there is no good method to defend yourself. If you need the shields that much, you are making too many mistakes while playing. So far, I have yet to use them outside of boss fights. It's not hard, you only need to use spells to crowd control the enemies... Even when you do need to use it, the only nerf is that you don't have the ability to make yourself immune to up to 4 elements... Again, if you really need more than that you need to improve your ability to estimate what damage will be used against you the most...

You only lost the ability to turn on a nearly invulnerable shield at a whim... If they did as you suggested, it would still let you run around like an immortal god with your shield; protecting yourself against the one thing they use or everything they use depending on the chosen option... What CAN you do with shields now? Make yourself immune to physical damage or one of the elements. How do you properly use this now that you can't run around immune to everything you can encounter? Look at what the enemies use the most, defend against that.

Then that so called "best" combo... It's highly ineffective and unless you are at close range it wont have any effect... However, going close range to spam that often endangers you unless every enemy is melee, especially on higher difficulties (including custom higher difficulties). Inventive use of other combos is a lot more effective against pretty much anything. I have only found a few situation where there wasn't something else that was far more effective...

The cooldowns are a must have, especially with what happened in Magicka 1. There were quite a few people in pvp that used macros for incredibly fast magick spam. You say K&M has lost a part of it's advantage over controller, and that is true. But the main advantage is that the macro spam is no longer viable either. And don't forget that K&M is still more effective than a controller, even with the change. Just not as much.

Are you really suggesting that every combination is balanced on a case to case basis? You should be able to see the problem with that...

[Solinarius☕]

My review will probably contain several points that W!zard has mentioned in the OP. Even on normal difficulty, I feel overall spell power is only just tolerable. So far, I feel like I can't play around nor get the satisfaction of phenomenal cosmic power like I could in Magicka 1. This is what difficulty settings are for! On normal difficulty, wizards should be GODLY.

Originally posted by Matirion Maeronta:

You say that the spells were useful, but thats just it, compared to the few OP combos they are useless. What point does a spell have when something else is basically a quick kill for anything it hits? The system was broken beyond recovery for Magicka 1, that has been fixed now. Most spell combinations are now equally viable, they just aren't overpowered anymore...

Magicka 2 is much worse in that the most powerful spells are the only powerful spells and most of those spells are stupidly easy combinations. The rest truly are weaksauce. I can't use Earth or Ice barriers to attack (because they last only briefly and do poor damage), storms have good utility but only modest damage, boulders have very odd physics, burn effects are not nearly as interesting nor as useful, blast radius cannot be increased by any means, lightning doesn't have a pulsing stun. The magic lacks character. It does not give players the ability to discover and play out their own style. While the "weaker" spells in Magicka 1 (burn DoT, barrage, earth barriers, electrified sprays, arc lightning, etc.) were no match for thunder magics and ice barriers of doom, they are still considerably more powerful than the underdogs of Magicka 2.

Originally posted by Matirion Maeronta:

The problem was never that people wanted to use a broken system, the problem was that the system was broken. If the system is broken, it needs to be fixed whenever possible... Even if people want it to remain broken (many people always do), a broken system is always bad. The "design choice" was to remove something that was broken and flawed and balance it out so you can't waltz through everything without thinking for a second.

I agree that the magic had broken features and some wild balance. Specifically, arcane's frozen multiplier, and to a lesser degree, lightning's multiplier. But, like W!zard said, Magicka 2 went the other direction and perhaps too far.

[Olrek YT/Kick]

I really appreciate this. I am glad you have pointed out the trade offs Magicka 2 made in comparison to Magicka. I would say that a lot of the "unavoidable" damage is avoidable, but only by playing out situations very carefully and knowing exactly what to look out for. This can be quite a frustrating thing to deal with.

I somewhat expect some patches to bridge a road to the middle-ground between where Magicka 1 and 2's balance currently sit. That would be the ideal.

[CrazyAvitus]

I agree with Lemons Wiz.

Originally posted by Lemons w!z@rD:

• Apparently single player is too hard for many players. (I personally didn't have any issues so far, even on Bananas mode)

IMO, About Single player mode. It's still too hard for new player who aren't familiar with Magicka series.

[Cold Star]

Originally posted by Grant - Aimboots:

I really appreciate this. I am glad you have pointed out the trade offs Magicka 2 made in comparison to Magicka. I would say that a lot of the "unavoidable" damage is avoidable, but only by playing out situations very carefully and knowing exactly what to look out for. This can be quite a frustrating thing to deal with.

I somewhat expect some patches to bridge a road to the middle-ground between where Magicka 1 and 2's balance currently sit. That would be the ideal.

I personally think that M1 had more unavaoidable damage. Really. Trolls, ctulhu, mini ctulhu, priests, beholders, freeze swords could oneshot you in full armor.
D armor abscorbs all overhit damage now. Even a hit with a demon's mace just destroys the armor.

[4yNga4aNga]

I agree with the OP. I love magica 2 because it rewards players for diversifying and adapting to each situation.

[JackBaldy]

Honestly, I'm not surprised Magicka 2 is a flop. It's not made by Arrowhead (Original creators of Magicka) and one only need to take a look at the direction Wizard Wars went to know that it was just going to be downhill from there. Magicka is just another IP that Paradox chooses to ♥♥♥♥ all over because they published the original Magicka. I mean it happened with Mount and Blade also (War of the Roses/War of the Vikings).

It's hilarious that you can't even rebind your keys. It's no wonder WASD was never going to be an option. The simplest thing in a PC game that should be *the* standard is not available. And that's rebinding keys.

Honestly, I'd say that a lot of people that enjoy Magicka 2 are probably the same people that can't appreciate the true beauty of a game like Magicka 1. The same people that think "omgawd I can beatz teh campaigns with a single spell yo so this game s4ckz." The same people that never bothered doing any of the challenge maps (Solo or otherwise), never bothered completing any of the DLCs, and never bothered completing any of the hard mode DLCs.

This is a game I'll be avoiding. Cheers. :Waves:

[ɃƵ Crazy Cat Lady]

Have you played super hard mode? pwn in super hard mode first, then complain about it being too easy.

[Cold Star]

I think he didn't even play the game since he is avoiding it. I don't think his "feedback"
has any value.

I have completed some challenges and dlcs solo, one on hard mode. I still love Magicka 1 but think it is unbalanced.

[JackBaldy]

Originally posted by Cold Star:

I think he didn't even play the game since he is avoiding it. I don't think his "feedback"
has any value.

I have completed some challenges and dlcs solo, one on hard mode. I still love Magicka 1 but think it is unbalanced.

You probably place me at fault too for not throwing my money at a Valhalla Edition of War of the Vikings. Why should I join the masses of already clearly dissatisfied customers when there's clear warning and information for one not to take a parachuting dive face first into "Stupid Hills"?