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MAGI - Magical Strategy Game

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Developer: TeeGee
Publisher: TeeGee
Genre: Strategy > General
Released: Mar 20, 2007
Players: 1

Magi is a fusion of strategy and role-playing in which you play as a mage of a certain profession, and square off against other mages ad nauseam, until you eventually meet Death herself. Your character gets to live a set number of years before this final showdown, which passes slower if you win fights and zips by fast should you lose. The objective then, is to arrive at the final fight with as much preparation as possible, beat Death and obtain immortality.

Although this game is fronted by an extraordinarily generic name, the game play is anything but. It differs from the usual, run of the mill role-playing games as there is no game world to explore here and no itemization of any kind. The strategy aspect of the game is also unique, featuring its own brand of game mechanics.

However, all of these elements are held together by a rather uninspired game interface. This makes learning the game feel like a chore, and there is quite a bit of learning to do. It may feel easy as you dive into the first couple of fights without heed, even winning a streak of fights, but the illusion of grandeur will soon come crashing down when you start facing tougher opponents without proper character planning.

In fact, I�"m going to go out on a limb here and classify this game as a niche game which casual gamers will do well to pass on. The closest comparison I can draw is to the Magic card game which is uncannily similar in its short match-ups and deck building, except in this case, you build up your repertoire of spells and character stats.

The basics of the game are straightforward enough: pick from any one of ten different professions, each with three unique skills usable only once during each fight. You then get to allocate points to 5 character stats from a points pool, with a separate one for the 4 magic schools. The various professions do start with recommended stat allocations though, so newbie players will be able to dive straight in without spending a half hour fretting over a bunch of numbers.

Combat consists of queuing and casting spells from the 4 different magic schools in real time, and the rate at which you learn spells is tied to your intellect stat. There is a decent variety of spells, with 7 in each school making for a total of 28. However, all professions have access to these spells making the game play rather bland by the mid levels. The only differentiation at this point is the 3 unique skills of each profession, but since these can only be used once per fight, you will end up seeing the same kinds of spells and effects round after round. This will not have been so bad if not for the fact that the combat arenas utilize the same background and layout throughout the entire game, affording precious little sparkle to entice the casual gaming crowd.

One feature that is glaringly AWOL in this game is the lack of buffs/debuffs identification on your character. The only way to tell which buffs or debuffs are in effect on your character is to play the game long enough to be able to identify the visual cues, which for some spells involve curious swirls of colored particles and for others as simple as an icon on your staff. This makes the game unnecessarily tedious to play through and further distances it from the mass market.

Beyond the poorly designed façade though resides a fairly intricate strategy game. Apart from stat allocation during character creation, you also gain stat points whenever you level up, which again is dependent upon your intellect stat. Higher level spells also gradually get unlocked depending on the number of points you have invested into each magic school. Overall, this provides for immense versatility and variety in character development, without ever feeling that you�"re being pigeonholed into a particular route because of your chosen profession.

One thing of note is how the final boss, Death, differs from the preceding legions of mage wannabes that you fight. There is a steep, almost humongous, ramp up in difficulty when you fight Death herself. If your character development at this point is not up to scratch, no amount of �"l33t skillz�" is going to win you the immortality that you so crave, almost making it seem like a cheap way to encourage replaying the game over and over.

Graphics:
The fight animations and spell particle effects are actually pretty decent, but the overall visual presentation is sorely let down by the interface design, or rather the lack thereof. As you can see from the screenshots, the aesthetics of the game interface barely invokes any interest to play the game. Tooltips are also littered with glaring grammatical errors, although this is understandable considering that the indie author is not a native English speaker.

Sound:
The music in this game is composed by Rob Westwood, and is one of the highlights of the game. It could just be my personal preference though, but the scores, though limited and repetitive after a while, does a good job of immersing you in the role of an arcane practitioner.

Gameplay:
The game starts to feel insipid very fast, and apart from the final boss, you�"ll just be plowing through the same content over and over.

Concept:

The idea of dividing up game play into short digestible chunks, at the same time fusing role-playing and strategy elements into one package is laudable. Unfortunately, the eventual execution is found wanting.

Value:
Replayability in this game is limited to trying out the various professions or building the perfect character with all attributes maxed out and all spells obtained. Otherwise, the lack of multiplayer options limits the appeal of this game.

Overall:
This game is a mixed bag. The aesthetic presentation may turn off some gamers within the first half hour, but this book certainly cannot be judged by its cover. Strategy buffs may find much joy in this neat little package, but casual gamers looking for a fun enjoyable experience should scout elsewhere.

By: Freddy Lim
Posted: Wednesday August 08, 2007