Keep This Locked Away | Magus Review

So far, 2014 has started off relatively slowly for video game releases. Not to worry, because Magus might be the game for you. So if you’re looking for something else to play because you caught up on your backlog, a combination of things await for you in Magus, but is it worth playing? Get your dungeon crawling boots ready, its time for the review.

Pronounced with a soft G sound

Magus follows the story of a man (title character) trapped and tortured in a tower for years until a mysterious woman named Kinna rescues and frees him. Upon their escape, Magus is given power absorbed from green, blue, and (eventually) red stones. His origin is a mystery, but along the way with the help of his new companion, Magus will find out who he is and why he has such power. Player will traverse through 5 levels on their own accord, with the fifth and final level being unlocked after beating the other four. The actual gameplay doesn’t take up much time from start to finish (maybe about 6-8 hours with exploration).

Magus works as part dungeon-crawler and part RPG, and uses the third person over-the-shoulder perspective. Magus shoots magic beams out of his hand (similar to inFamous’ electricity), each with their own power and special attacks. The green power is a lighter attack but shoots out more frequently; the blue magic is less frequent but more powerful, and the red power shoots the most powerful attacks, but only one shot at a time. Not only does each magic set have its own special attack and they also have boosts to give Magus with the stored magic. These powers can range from faster movement to more powerful attacks and even can allow Magus to raise his fallen enemy to fight on his side; depending on how the player wants to play. Though the magic specials are nice, players will find that relying on green or blue magic while avoiding enemies is enough to breeze through the game.

Yeah! Take that unicorns!

Players can go from the winding corridors of mines, to the open sands of a desert, to an arctic tundra, to storming beaches filled with enemies. Speaking of enemies, every level is just teeming with them. While the environments won’t blow anyone away, it is good change of pace to go from one level to another. Unfortunately, the player will run into just about the same type of enemies throughout those levels. For example, giant titans in the desert, skeletons and undead warriors in the arctic, and unicorns in the mines. Yes, you fight unicorn men in the mines. Though it would seem nice to fight off hoards of unicorn men, the A.I. usually goes after your companion, Kinna, until she’s stunned, then go after the player. That’s another thing, with no real threat to your companion, the player can just sit back and let them fight, while you shoot at them from a safe distance. Even when the numerous enemies attack, the player can usually avoid attacks by backtracking around the area and holding down the trigger to shoot at the enemies, dwindling them down until the companion composes herself to get back in the fight. Also, if an enemy should get close, there’s only a trigger to knock the enemies back a little. One benefit to the combat system would be the inclusion of melee to take out a cluster of enemies when or if they ever do get close.

While gameplay is repetitive, the environments in the game are done quite nicely. Each level will take about an hour to clear (give or take, depending on exploration). I was a bit surprised to notice the game doesn’t slow down or freeze; even with a screen full of enemies. There were a few technical issues in the game, however those problems were minor enough to overlook, mostly because there are other issues with this game.

What time period is this supposed to be again?

The biggest issue of Magus is the overall lack of identity in the game. Sure a dungeon crawler game with an RPG-like skill tree and equipment perks, but the generic character models and dialog trees and repetitive gameplay take a lot away. Magus’ dialog reads like a present-day man with a slightly vulgar mouth and foul attitude. The other characters sound more like characters either generically explaining the situation or answering questions. It seems like it was lazy writing on the part of those that put the dialog together. So lazy in fact that when defeating a boss, he explains how the now allied unicorns will continue to attack you, because that is how you gain more power.

To sum it up, it isn’t to say Magus a bad game on a technical level, because the combat (and just about everything else) works well in the game. The biggest problem going for it is that it’s just far too repetitive. It almost feels like the first levels of a longer game. You learn new skills, but wait until you really need to use them. Unfortunately, that necessity never really arises, and the player can just sit back and hold one button for most of, if not the entire cycle of combat. Magus could have improved gameplay by making the player feel the need to use magic attacks, and different combinations of magic, or even a melee attack to take out more than one enemy at once when or if they do close in. So while there are nice aspects put together on paper, the game just falls flat due to those aspects not going anywhere in practice. It’s a shame too, because there could be so much more to this game. Unless you’re looking for a simple platinum trophy, Magus is a game to pass up, and not feel like you’re missing anything.

Final Verdict: Magus gets 4 combative unicorns out of 10

This review was based on a review copy of the Playstation 3 version of Magus provided by Black Tower distributed by Aksys Games.