Disclaimer: I played through the campaign on Bananas which does influence difficulty somewhat. Anyways...
The mechanics of this game's difficulty is something that I think was originally gotten horrifically wrong in this game at release and it has definitely improved but it still doesn't live up to the epicness of the original.
The difficulty in the original Magicka wasn't very high for most content, you had a number of crazy OP spells and it was mostly just a matter of discovering them. Once you did discover them, the danger you posed to yourself in casting them was what killed you most of the time.
The difficulty in Magicka 2(at release and to a much lesser extent now thanks to the introduction of spells that do more than tickle) has been very different. Enemy HP and immunity mechanics made your spells weak while the enemies still hit hard. This is the standard difficulty model that just about every RPG on the market uses, try to balance the player so they have to use tactics to survive and defeat the monsters.
It should have been done like the original. Rather than balancing so that the players have to use tactics to survive and defeat the monsters, it should be balanced so that players have to use tactics and good character control to survive the crazy spells they cast to defeat the monsters. The fun in these games is that you are so fucking OP that you are a danger to yourself and to others. This is not to say that enemies shouldn't hit hard. Enemies should be a threat that force you to react, but your reaction should be what poses the greatest risk to yourself.
Why is that more fun to play? Two reasons:
P.S. Arcane wall explosions like what RQRASE used to have would be a good start.
The mechanics of this game's difficulty is something that I think was originally gotten horrifically wrong in this game at release and it has definitely improved but it still doesn't live up to the epicness of the original.
The difficulty in the original Magicka wasn't very high for most content, you had a number of crazy OP spells and it was mostly just a matter of discovering them. Once you did discover them, the danger you posed to yourself in casting them was what killed you most of the time.
The difficulty in Magicka 2(at release and to a much lesser extent now thanks to the introduction of spells that do more than tickle) has been very different. Enemy HP and immunity mechanics made your spells weak while the enemies still hit hard. This is the standard difficulty model that just about every RPG on the market uses, try to balance the player so they have to use tactics to survive and defeat the monsters.
It should have been done like the original. Rather than balancing so that the players have to use tactics to survive and defeat the monsters, it should be balanced so that players have to use tactics and good character control to survive the crazy spells they cast to defeat the monsters. The fun in these games is that you are so fucking OP that you are a danger to yourself and to others. This is not to say that enemies shouldn't hit hard. Enemies should be a threat that force you to react, but your reaction should be what poses the greatest risk to yourself.
Why is that more fun to play? Two reasons:
- It makes your deaths comical rather than frustrating. The buffs to damage since release has made this stuff much better than it used to be in Magicka 2. Yesterday I was charging a rock at what looked like a potentially breakable prop. When I let the rock loose, it bounced off the prop and insta-gibbed me. That was absolutely awesome and happens with enemies sometimes too.
- It fits in with the OP wizard fantasy. The wizard who died because he was surrounded by sword wielding goblins who stabbed him to death has shamed all wizardkind but the wizard who died because he blew himself and all of his "friends" up in the process of defeating those sword wielding goblins because he wasn't qualified the wield the awesome powers that he possessed is carrying on with the glorious wizard tradition.
- Rock bounces.
- Meteor(rock + element) explosions since it's easy to hit yourself with them.
- Beam explosions when you get a kill with a high damage beam like FQASAA at close range. You've got a pretty good chance of gibbing yourself in the area explosion.
- Area casts since if you miss the shift key you cast a self damaging spell.
P.S. Arcane wall explosions like what RQRASE used to have would be a good start.
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