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cover-Wizard With a Gun

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 11:05:25 PM

Wizard With a Gun Review (Cpt.Moottorimarkka ®)

TL;DR: Wizard with a Gun is a mediocre isometric shooter game that tries to channel Don't Starve and Magicka, extraction based games with a dash of crafting and partially succeeds. The content in the game is quite repetitive and bland, you don't get to really experience the "wizard" side of things at all, and the game is blatantly unfinished. You only get a handful of guns and a few types of bullets -- most of which you will ignore for the ones that actually do damage -- and basic stat boosting upgrades for your clothes. You have no abilities, there are only three kinds of consumable items, and your only movement option is a basic dodge roll. Instead of variety, the game offers an experience that is stretched painfully thin. That said, it is still enjoyable enough. Serviceable. 7/10.
The Early Hours
So, you've just bought Wizard with a Gun! You are probably expecting chaotic and fun gameplay with wild and crazy combinations of spells and a wacky world in the vein of Magicka, if you've played that! Well, at first it might seem that way while you are scrambling to get even the most basic of weapons and special ammo. The first few hours of the game will see you wandering around the world in the 5-minute extendable bursts of exploration, shooting and resource hoarding. Then you go back to your home base and build workbenches and research new bullets to increase your power. Wow-wee! Starry eyed and bushy tailed, you forge ahead and might even kill your first boss! Hooray! That's when the game will truly open up and show it's wild side! Right?
The Realization
After you have made it to the first couple of areas that the game has to offer, the realization will most likely dawn on you: what you saw in the first area of the game is representative of the entire game experience you can expect. Your arsenal hasn't changed from the four guns you were shown in the first area, sans them being slightly higher tier versions that offer an extra mod slot per level. You have gained no grenades, no mortars, no abilities of any kind. You don't have magical beams or polymorphs, you can't manifest mines or generate a storm of dark magic to rend your enemies. All you have is a couple of basic guns and even more generic elemental bullets. And a couple of utility things that might be neat to play around with. If you remember to, and want to put in the effort.
When you do research on your bullets, you will discover that the higher level bullets are nothing but numerical stat increases to cope with the steadily inflating armor and health of the enemies. Your fire bullets won't suddenly start generatic explosions or raging infernos of quickly stacking damage. Your destruction bullets won't cause anything other than a middling amount of basic damage without effects. Even adding oil to the fire might only slightly increase the damage it does for a few seconds before the effect fades. Yet, without your bullets being high enough level, you cannot damage the enemy, so grind you must.
The Disappointment
So, what's so bad about all of that? The problems is that the game is horrendously basic. The four weapons you see is what you get; no powers, no grenades, no wacky combinations that make your screen explode or beams shoot out of your revolver. You will unlock different kinds of bullets and some effects you can slot into the mod slots of the weapons, but you will never really affect how the guns themselves operate. The combinations you have available to you are extremely limited, and thus there is not much experimentation in the game. Your fire bullets will be the same fire bullets they were from hour 1 to hour 20. Same goes for your shock or cold bullets. Only the damage value changes between iterations. But you must research them nonetheless if you want to do damage.
The amount of resources required for the bullet upgrades is considerable, though not insurmountable. Most of the game will consist of you farming for specific rocks, trees or enemies to obtain these materials so you can increase your bullet's power by some vague margin. Beyond the loop to buff your bullets, you do some minibosses and hunt for gears so you can progress to the next boss.
The game is also incredibly easy for even a modestly seasoned gamer. Personally, I only died once and that was to a boss because of an environmental detail I did not factor in to the fight. It wasn't even the lass boss I died to, but the third to last one. All other bosses, including the final one, were more bullet spongy than actually difficult. The game did appeal to me enough that I do not consider it a wasted purchase. What mechanics there were along with the music and the art style helped me to power through to the endgame. I suppose I got my money's worth, but maybe wait a while to see what will change before you try this game.