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Argotha

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1. Arrows interrupt rock charging, EVEN with a MAXED earth ward,. (seriously WTF!?)

2. Earth wards do not absorb nearly enough damage.

3. Earth wards don't prevent knockback. At all.

4. !EX does not prevent it's respective status effect. For instance, a single fire ward will not prevent burn.

5. Weapon animation doesn't have a backhand swing.

6. Storm collision does not match the model

7. Keybindings aren't customizable

8. No halt key. (this is fine with a controller, but sucks with a mouse/keyboard setup)

9. The S in EDSXX is invisible for nearly its full duration, as well as the W in EDWXX.

10. DQXXX does not push. AT ALL.

11. In online play, it would be nice if each player had his own, personal camera, instead of sharing one camera that fits everyone in. This works fine for several people on one console, but it would be a nice addition for online.

12. "Teleport on Kill" triggers when you destroy your own wall or storm by overwriting it.

13. Forward-cast lightning has way too little arc radius. Self-cast lightning is awesome; bring forward-cast in line.

14. Wards need twice as power as they currently have. A single ward should grant protection from a status effect and 50% damage reduction MINIMUM. With five element slots, full immunity from a single ward is preferable.

15. There is no indication of how charged a rock is, and the indication when it is fully charged is too subtle, imo.

16. Mines don't damage you from the range at which you cast them.

17. Goblins are way too durable.

18. Summoning magicks vs casting via number keys isn't consistent. If I cast push by QE+space, there is a before I can QE+space again. However, I can follow QE+space with simply using the hotkey to bypass said cooldown. However, however, I can't do the reverse - I cannot hit 1, and then cast via QE+space before the cooldown. Basically, ACTUALLY remove the cooldown when casting magicks via elements.

19. All storms are exactly the same. EF = EFFFF, EAS = EAASS = EASSS = EAAAS.
 
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Kaduseon

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If the Magicka 2's spell system was more-or-less just Magicka 1 but with the mobility of Wizard Wars and a couple of tweaks to make wards a little more 'combinatorial' (Wizard Wars made a step in the right direction, then this took several times that many steps back), and a few tweaks to pull overpowered spells back (e.g. QRASER, QFASA) and maybe some underpowered spells forward (can't really think of any in Magicka that were outright useless other than obvious ones, like QFAWA), then the game would've been pretty awesome.

I didn't discover/find these things (thanks FractalRevive and Solanales), but I can kind-of let go of QR and QF being condensed when combined, but there's some weird idiosyncrasies in the casting system like QRDRX (for X being R, S, or W) seeming unrelated to QRDXY. You can cast quakes faster than you can cast novas (e.g. you can area-cast a few DSF or QRS in the same time you can area-cast a few SFS or FFF).

One of my main gripes with Magicka 2, from what I've seen, is that the game feels balanced from the opposite perspective of Magicka 1. Magicka 1 felt like it gave players all the tools they could want, and then induced difficulty and enforced balance through the environment and through the various mobs you encountered, whereas Magicka 2 felt like it was balanced by taking as many tools away from the player as possible and then making them clunky to use.

I must admit that I don't like change in general, but there's not much about these most changes that look like they tried to say "change for the better" instead of "change for the sake of change".

This is probably going to be the last title I purchase (at least for myself) from Paradox. I had a great time in Magicka and I definitely feel that I got great value out of that and I didn't regret buying large portions of it out of sale, but then Wizards of the Square Tablet happened, then I got burned by Wizard Wars, and now I'm pretty disappointed by this. I might get the DLC for completion, but that would mean giving more money to this project.

I'll review my opinion on full release and again once I finish the game on normal (maybe I'll consider higher difficulties for another review of my opinion), but it's not looking too hopeful.
 
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Ferrinus

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It's definitely true that Magicka 2 just does not feel as polished as Wizard Wars. I'll prune your list down to the specific criticisms I agree with:

1. Arrows interrupt rock charging, EVEN with a MAXED earth ward,. (seriously WTF!?)
3. Earth wards don't prevent knockback. At all.
5. Weapon animation doesn't have a backhand swing.
6. Storm collision does not match the model
7. Keybindings aren't customizable
8. No halt key. (this is fine with a controller, but sucks with a mouse/keyboard setup)
9. The S in EDSXX is invisible for nearly its full duration, as well as the W in EDWXX.
10. DQXXX does not push. AT ALL.
11. In online play, it would be nice if each player had his own, personal camera, instead of sharing one camera that fits everyone in. This works fine for several people on one console, but it would be a nice addition for online.
12. "Teleport on Kill" triggers when you destroy your own wall or storm by overwriting it.
15. There is no indication of how charged a rock is, and the indication when it is fully charged is too subtle, imo.
18. Summoning magicks vs casting via number keys isn't consistent. If I cast push by QE+space, there is a before I can QE+space again. However, I can follow QE+space with simply using the hotkey to bypass said cooldown. However, however, I can't do the reverse - I cannot hit 1, and then cast via QE+space before the cooldown. Basically, ACTUALLY remove the cooldown when casting magicks via elements.
19. All storms are exactly the same. EF = EFFFF, EAS = EAASS = EASSS = EAAAS.

In general, the game feels a bit dinkier and jankier. Part of it's probably just a matter of it being more zoomed out, but I'd swear that even things like the "cast by weapon swing" animation looked smoother and more on point back in Magicka 1.

Also, here's something on the order of storms totally failing to scale that you missed: try casting !EQF or !EQQFF - you get a single or double "steam ward"! At the very least, !EQF should load you down with a double steam ward, and !EQQFF should load you down with a quad (e.g. damage absorbing) steam ward sinnce a single instance of steam or ice is the "size" of two elements in your queue.
 
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Ferrinus

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To add a thought: if I could only make one change to Magicka 2 before release, it would be rebindable hotkeys. The other stuff's a bit annoying but for god's sake, a game without customizable controls?
 
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Argotha

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To add a thought: if I could only make one change to Magicka 2 before release, it would be rebindable hotkeys. The other stuff's a bit annoying but for god's sake, a game without customizable controls?

I agree that customizeable controls is a necessity. However, I'd rather !ED prevent rock charge interruption. Actually, everything wrong with the spell system, I'd take over customizeable controls.

I say do it all, delay release, and let us keep testing it to make sure they don't screw it up again.
 
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FlashHD

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I like the game so far, but the only thing that is KILLING me right now is that I have no clue how to play "offline", just played the challenge mode by my self, and I got to 170k points and then I lost connection to the server..
 

Analysis

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I like the game so far, but the only thing that is KILLING me right now is that I have no clue how to play "offline", just played the challenge mode by my self, and I got to 170k points and then I lost connection to the server..

You can go offline before entering the game. Go to the steam menu and at the top left there is an option called steam (next to view) and has the offline option. Just played the challenge map for the first time and this game feels like a cheap free to play flash game. I hope the game is less terrible at the release, but we all know nothing significant will change unfortunately.

I'm not even sure if there is anything good about Magicka 2. So far casting spells and movement feel off. I guess one pro for the game based on videos I've seen is increased variety of enemies. The game just seems uninspired.
 

FlashHD

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You can go offline before entering the game. Go to the steam menu and at the top left there is an option called steam (next to view) and has the offline option. Just played the challenge map for the first time and this game feels like a cheap free to play flash game. I hope the game is less terrible at the release, but we all know nothing significant will change unfortunately.

I'm not even sure if there is anything good about Magicka 2. So far casting spells and movement feel off. I guess one pro for the game based on videos I've seen is increased variety of enemies. The game just seems uninspired.
Should be able to adjust that in the game though. It will come i'm sure of it. You can't expect too much on a preview, there is probably alot of updates and stuff like that to come.
 

Argotha

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Another couple things:

D does not affect the size of a quake. !DF is exactly that same as !DDDDF.

In DSF/R/Q, neither S nor F/R/Q affect the area effect of the projectile. The damage seems to increase, though. So, DSF has the same aoe range as DSSSF and DSFFF.
 

Peco

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Some interesting thoughts and questions.
I'll keep an eye on this once the full game is live. Some things will make more sense deeper in the game.
Regardless, your constructive input is always interesting.
 

purple wizard

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Argotha

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I do not know how any of the things in my OP could make sense later in the game.

Like stoms all being the same and not scaling with more elements. Or arrows interrupting rock charges when wearing an earth ward.

Also, "interesting"? That distinctly sounds like NOT necessarily useful. I know what I'm talking about, please don't insult me.
 
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Argotha

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I believe these are the major issues from the OP:

1. Arrows interrupt rock charging, EVEN with a MAXED earth ward,. (seriously WTF!?)
3. Earth wards don't prevent knockback. At all.
4. !EX does not prevent it's respective status effect. For instance, a single fire ward will not prevent burn.
7. Keybindings aren't customizable
8. No halt key. (this is fine with a controller, but sucks with a mouse/keyboard setup)
10. DQXXX does not push. AT ALL.
14. Wards need twice as much power as they currently have. A single ward should grant protection from a status effect and 50% damage reduction MINIMUM. With five element slots, full immunity from a single ward is preferable.
18. tl;dr Remove the global cooldown on casting magicks via element queueing. Summoning magicks vs casting via number keys isn't consistent. If I cast push by QE+space, there is a before I can QE+space again. However, I can follow QE+space with simply using the hotkey to bypass said cooldown. However, however, I can't do the reverse - I cannot hit 1, and then cast via QE+space before the cooldown. Basically, ACTUALLY remove the cooldown when casting magicks via elements.
19. All storms are exactly the same. EF = EFFFF, EAS = EAASS = EASSS = EAAAS.

Also, there are times at which a player cannot queue elements. This is particularly frustrating when dealing with knockups from monsters that you cannot prevent. (earth wards preventing knock-up/back/down would alleviate this)
 
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reapy

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I think a big problem was that going to three elements was smart and increasing back up to 5 feels clunky now that we've felt how smooth a ride 3 is. For all the reasons wizard wars went to 3 elements is exactly why magicka 2 should have done the same, then let you force cast your weapon and self/aoe cast. I can see losing the idea of the absorption ward but maybe you could have just made you cast a full ward on yourself twice for the same effect.

Eh. I think i'll have an ok time with it, but this sneak peek really lacked the 'punch' I was looking for. It doesn't feel good to kill enemies, and that is a pretty hard thing to nail down exactly why it doesnt, but it just doesnt.

Though I look at this sneak peak and I think, damn, you guys don't have enough time before release and weren't given enough manpower or development time. Sorry for the crunch I know you guys are probably doing right now.
 
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Cold Star

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I think a big problem was that going to three elements was smart and increasing back up to 5 feels clunky now that we've felt how smooth a ride 3 is. For all the reasons wizard wars went to 3 elements is exactly why magicka 2 should have done the same, then let you force cast your weapon and self/aoe cast. I can see losing the idea of the absorption ward but maybe you could have just made you cast a full ward on yourself twice for the same effect.

Eh. I think i'll have an ok time with it, but this sneak peek really lacked the 'punch' I was looking for. It doesn't feel good to kill enemies, and that is a pretty hard thing to nail down exactly why it doesnt, but it just doesnt.

Though I look at this sneak peak and I think, damn, you guys don't have enough time before release and weren't given enough manpower or development time. Sorry for the crunch I know you guys are probably doing right now.

Yeah, who needs things like QFDS, QRRDS, QFESD, EASFQ, QRQS, EQRS and many others anyway. Lets also forbid changing magicks and casting magicks with queueing elemnts - It is not smooth enough.
Magicka 2 should take good points from M1 and M:WW games, not just be single player M:WW.