A Trial By Fire That Leaves You Burned Out
Wizards going through trials, tribulations, troubles, and traumas is nothing new, no matter the genre or medium. The concept is sound, and wizards are innately cool – unless they are hot, hard, moist, or tingly, of course. Blowing up hordes of enemies, combing through spellbooks, and then blowing up a different horde of enemies appeals to everyone on a deeply spiritual level. Which makes it all the more impressive that Wizard Of Legend 2 fumbles the (fire)ball and makes this power fantasy more of a tedious nightmare.
That’s not to say that Wizard Of Legend 2 is all bad, of course. Early on when the game still has its ‘new game lustre’ it’s quite enjoyable. As an action roguelike dungeon crawler, Wizard Of Legend 2 has you running around various themed biomes, fighting enemies, dodging attacks, visiting shops, and slaying bosses. All of this is functional enough, and whilst you are initially locked to a specific elemental loadout, you will quickly expand your repertoire of spells to encompass any and all elements.
Spelling-Slinging Action
Speaking of spells, unlike most games where spells are more of an off-hand affair – a side system at best – Wizard of Legend 2 has spells front and centre. Everything you do is some form of magic, with the system being split into four distinct categories. Basic spells are quick casting and spammable. These typically do low damage but don’t really have a cooldown. Signature spells are more bombastic and can be used on a short cooldown and can be powered up in combat to unleash an ‘ultimate’ variant. Dashing is also tied to spells, although you can dash even when your spells are on cooldown. Finally, you have standard spells and these are everything else. Less flashy than signature spells, but more powerful than basics.
Before each run you can pick one spell from each category to be your starting loadout, and you can acquire a couple extra as you battle through each floor. You will even have the opportunity to enhance and morph your spells to make them more powerful mid-run. Initially, this is where a lot of Wizard Of Legend 2’s strengths lie. There are about 70 spells to mix and match across five elements. Not only that, there is no restriction on which elements you can take. Want to mess around with electricity and ice? Go for it. Fire and wind? Knock yourself out.
All of these spells start locked, although they will slowly be drip fed to you as you do runs and ply the hub vendors with resources in typical post-run progression. You also have access to relics which apply a variety of passive effects to your wizard. These could be as simple as offering flat damage buffs to opening up new spell combinations. Like with spells, these are slowly unlocked as you progress through the game. You can start each run with any one relic that you’ve unlocked, giving you a fair amount of customisation before you set off on your trial.
The Grind Begins
Unfortunately as interesting as all of this sounds, and as interesting as it is in the early hours, it doesn’t do enough to stem the flow of tedium that infests Wizard Of Legend 2. Each run will take you through the same biomes with the same enemies in the same order. Not only that, the bosses at the end of every biome are equally as unchanging. Very little changes between runs, bar the placement of vendors.
Going through the same jungle every time you boot up a run in Wizard Of Legend 2, regardless of your spell and relic loadout, begins to feel like a chore within the first handful of runs, and it never shakes that feeling once it manifests.
It also highlights a core issue with how runs are formulated.
As cool as it may sound to have access to up-to 70 spells and a chest full of relics, in reality most relics are not that interesting or have effects so niche that you would never try to make them work, and spell variety didn’t feel that high. 70 spells sounds like a lot, but that’s split over five elements and four categories making it surprisingly restrictive.
Where’s The Crunch?
Digging a bit deeper, and Wizard Of Legend 2 also fails to relay any relevant information when you really need it. Sure you will get a brief description of what a spell or a relic will do and if you are lucky, maybe a percentage here or there. But more often than not, trying to find out what something does and how much of that something it does is not easy due to how vague the system is.
Then you have the fact that whilst stages are not random enough, the loot is entirely too random. There is no bias applied to shops or drops based on your current loadout, so it is very likely that a shop could be filled with gubbins you can’t use and will likely never be able to use. Fighting through an arena with your all-fire loadout only to receive a worthless buff to all the water spells you don’t have feels like a kick in the teeth.
Basic By Design
Graphically, Wizard Of Legend 2 looks fine. Unlike the pixel stylings of its predecessor, Wizard Of Legend 2 goes for more of a hand drawn style that is clean if a bit basic. This is a blessing in disguise however as it allows you to keep an eye on your character when things get a bit hectic – and hectic things will get. Spells flying everywhere, enemies attacking, and the environment exploding could all obfuscate your position and lead to cheap deaths, but it isn’t largely down to the presentation. It’s a shame the music also adopts this rather basic style as it’s entirely forgettable.
A potential redeeming feature of Wizard Of Legend 2 is the multiplayer aspect. You can play with up to four players online or locally. Like with anything, even the worst experiences are made better with company. The aforementioned graphical style works overtime when four wizards are running around blowing things up. A nice addition but it’s a little bit light on quality of life features. For example, there isn’t instanced loot, which is a baffling oversight.
Finally we get to the story, and frankly, there is nothing to talk about. Unlike its contemporaries – Hades springs to mind – Wizard Of Legend 2 fails to evoke any emotional response at all. Dialogue is bland and quippy with no weight or emotion, and the characters are entirely forgettable.
A Repetitive Spell That Fails to Enchant
Overall, Wizard Of Legend 2 starts strong but fails to deliver a compelling reason to continue playing once stagnation sets in. Unfortunately, that sets in sooner rather than later and mires the whole experience. A degree of repetition is expected in any roguelike, but Wizard Of Legend 2 takes that to a whole new level due to an unchanging level structure and bland progression.
Important Links
Master the Elements, Conquer the Gauntlet! Wizard of Legend 2 Arrives on Xbox Play Anywhere – https://www.thexboxhub.com/master-the-elements-conquer-the-gauntlet-wizard-of-legend-2-arrives-on-xbox-play-anywhere/
Buy Wizard of Legend 2 – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/wizard-of-legend-2/9P5KTTRZVS9W/0010
