Hey guys it’s Lee Neuschwander with another week of the Geek Wish-List. For this week I wanted to write something of a eulogy for Magicka : Wizard Wars. For those who have never heard of the game before, Magicka: Wizard Wars was a spin-off title of Magicka from Paradox. In this game they took the crazy combat from the Magicka games and put into a PvP format. The game itself had great gameplay and the insanity of mixing and matching magic for different spells was very unique and well designed. However, sadly the game didn’t stand the test of time and will not be with us much longer.

First off I want to state that I bought this game during the summer sales on steam this year. So all of my opinions about this game are based off 3 hours of gameplay. However, despite my lack of time spent in game I’m completely serious when I say that I love this game. With that said I’m especially downtrodden to inform you all that the game will be terminated as of July 21st of this year. The game was released on May 27th of 2014 and was  enjoyable while the game was functional. Sadly, the games population has plummeted to the point were the wait time for a simple 1v1 duel has become akin to the loading screen for Skyrim and Bloodborne.  In addition attempting to gather players for the full 4v4 game modes has become practically impossible.

When I first learned that this game was terminally ill I felt like a part of me had died. Even though I didn’t play the game back in its prime I really enjoyed it. Within the first 30 minutes of playing this game I could see why it was so enjoyable. With its crazy gameplay and witty humor I was addicted to the game almost immediately. Yet, what really got me hooked on this game was the references to other geek media. My favorite of these references were The Spear of Longinus, Mulnier, and the Grey Wizard’s Staff. Other references included The Sword of Masters(Master Sword), Blightgrief(Frostmorne), and Fire Longsword +1(take your pick).

Another great feature of the game that I can’t praise enough was its sense of humor. This shown particularly well in its descriptions of weapons and spells. Such as the descriptions on the the “Ember Staff” that read ” The old fire mages thought that if you burned your skin for long enough the flames would cease to hurt you. After years of rigorous training they all died.” or “Gungnir” that said “A spear imbued with magical properties, enabling it to fly without ever stopping. After the first weapon test it was forever lost. The next model got upgraded with a fetching system.” Such witty takes on old legends and fantasy concepts made the game really shine.

In the end the part that really got to me was a  description of the game that I read on Steam that talked about how great the game was, but warned people not to download it because you would just be falling in love with a terminally ill game. To me this was the saddest thing that happened to the game. The fact that despite the game to be getting great reviews like that yet, still be marked for death was a tragedy as far as I’m concerned as a gamer.

With that my eulogy slash rant is over. I hope to see you all next week, until then Geek Out and R.I.P Magicka: Wizard Wars its been a short, but equally amazing ride.