Magicka 2 dumbed down?

[enjee]

Coming from Magicka 1 it took a while to get used to the new controls and mechanics, and my first impression was that everything was slower and made worse immediately. But after I got used to the controls and changes in the mechanics, it was an enjoyable run. Some immediate changes that make the game more difficult are:

Frozen enemies deflect beams, making it impossible to permanently freeze a guy with a slightly colder than normal death ray.
Resistances out the wazoo, forcing you to change up your spells instead of spamming your uber beam on everything in your path.
Boulders take FOREVER to charge compared to the original, so instant-death bolts are hard to prepare before something's attacking you.
Steam and Ice no longer combine into 1 element. This breaks all the original insta-kill combos.

These simple tweaks are huge in adding depth to the combat, which I think is a great step in the right direction. Fights are harder and require thought now.

Magicka 2 is more puzzler, less arcade button spam fest.
While it's undoubtedly more challenging & tactical, I do miss the sense of empowerment that you got from playing Magicka 1.

I agree with this 100%, there are numerous encounters where I died over and over on until I figured out something that worked. In the original if I died it was because I got tired of my imba-beam and tried to be fancy and everything backfired in my face, which was all good fun in and of itself. I think I found the original to be great because it was a novel concept that put you in the shoes of a chaos-wreaking super powered sorcerer in a comical narrative. I hopped into the sequel expecting more of the same, and was disappointed at first, but found the battles to be a bit more enjoyable because of their difficulty.

I can say that I'm much happier now that it's a lot more stable, I've played both games with my sister and brothers and the disconnects really were infuriating in the original. We've had some minor bugs in the sequel, but nothing game-breaking so far so that's a huge win in my book.

TLDR: They made the game harder, but did so by making the player weaker. This is good and bad, IMO.

 

[Van Silke]

Had Magicka 2 been released first nd original Magicka released nov, people vould complain about lack of spell creativity and too easy insta-kills, so...

Ve had a choice to get either Magicka 1 in different package, or different game (thus different experience) in Magicka package. I'd personally go vith the latter.

 

[StaggerSprite]

This is good, structured feedback! The more we know what you think (and the more we can get in bullet points the better for us and the future!

 

[TheArkayn]

TheArkayn's wishlist for Magicka 2

• Let our own spells be part of the challenge. Powerful spells should have powerful effects. Dying from enemies is almost never fun, but dying from your mines launching you into a mountain is hilarious
  
• A halt key, or some sort of toggle for movement would be great. I'm sure I'd get used to it if the system stayed as-is, but right now I walk off the cliff far too often.
• I don't like the quickcast thing. This may just be me knee-jerking at change, but I much preferred it when all your magicks had to be built from elements. Having no cooldown encouraged you to type faster, which encouraged more mistakes, which made for more humor. Maybe, at least, hitting the quickcast automatically queues up your elements, so being wet still ruins using electricity.
• Stronger shields. One of my fondest memories from Magicka one was being surrounded with a friend, he desperately raising and healing our other two friends while I frantically charged the shield while a horde of demons were trying to break in. That frenetic, seat-of-our-pants action was the best.
  
• Artifacts are really fun. That's all.
  
  I'll probably think of more. Thanks to you devs for being active on the forums!

 

[Zupanicarr]

I don't like the quickcast thing. This may just be me knee-jerking at change, but I much preferred it when all your magicks had to be built from elements. Having no cooldown encouraged you to type faster, which encouraged more mistakes, which made for more humor. Maybe, at least, hitting the quickcast automatically queues up your elements, so being wet still ruins using electricity.

I think it would be great if they had a toggle for quick cast, or maybe on higher difficulties it was off. It's pretty essential in singleplayer, especially with how much more movement is involved in this compared to the original, but I do miss having to do these complicated spells in a tight spot, screwing up, and brutally murdering my friend into a thick red mist, then having to retry the spell...