The Wizards - Dark Times

Review

My name is Aurelius, your humble narrator. I am going to get straight to the point for you, young Wizard . . .the staff has hit the fan rather badly in the realm of Meliora. The witch Abigail has cast a grim spell over the realm, and I have chosen you to eliminate her for good. So, you do remember how to create spells, don’t you? Yes! That’s great, because you’ll need to master them to beat her. My dear apprentice, it’s time to write your story, in the Wizards – Dark Times!

The Wizards – Dark Times is a first-person VR/action-adventure game developed and self-published by Carbon Studio on the 5^th of June 2020 on the Steam platform. I played this game with the HTC Vive Cosmos headset.

As you launch the game for the first time, you’ll be prompted to choose the Story or the Adventure mode. In the Story Mode, you’ll be basically invisible, while in the Adventure mode, you’ll have a bit of a challenge throughout the game. There is also a hardcore mode, but I haven’t been able to unlock it at this stage.

It’s the first game that I’ve had the pleasure of playing where you have to cast spells, and I must say that I had a pretty good time learning and playing the game. It’s a pretty linear layout in terms of the levels, but you do have to use your spells to move forward. For example, you will need to use your Fireballs spell to burn tree roots, your Shield spell to cut ropes and your Frozen Arrow to freeze burning roots on a wall, and your Push Force to break down rocks. You’ll learn additional spells as you move forward in the game. I must say that I really like the electric spell and as I am a fan of Star Wars since I was a tadpole, and I always wanted to know and see what an electric spell would do to an enemy when activated. I used it as much as I could when it was at my disposal, and it is brilliant.

As you move through the levels, you’ll find chests as well as levitating symbols (they are not frequent and are your new spells). The chests contain collectable items when you open them. These chests are usually hidden in a room or cavity and the way to open them is to use specific spells on glowing symbols that are somewhere on the walls around the area. Regarding the levitating symbols, when you grab them, it will either give you an additional spell or upgrade a current spell. As soon as you pick one up, a short tutorial will appear to show you how to cast it and then you’ll be able to turn off the tutorial. Some of these symbols can be found within a level and others after a fight with a mini-boss at the end of a level.

There are not too many different types of enemy in this game, but some are quite fun. The poisonous walking mushroom is my favourite, but these buggers are quite fast and will explode near you if you don’t manage to kill them quickly; you’ll be poisoned, and your vision will be blurry for a short while, which is not ideal when you’re fighting many enemies at once.

I find it easy to cast a spell while fighting a couple of enemies at once, but it’s a lot more difficult when there are several enemies coming at you together; you have to cast spells in rapid succession, and you might want different spells on both of your hands, and it seems not to register properly every so often. Interestingly, that doesn’t occur if you cast a Super Spell (using both your hands to create one) such as the Fire Blast! It’s a bit annoying because these fights are fun but pretty challenging, to say the least, and I can imagine growing frustration for players who decide to play the game in the Adventure mode when each successful hit from an enemy will inflict damage on your Wizard. You can try to dodge the incoming projectiles or move backwards on melee units, but it is challenging already while playing the Story mode; you’ll be hit frequently.

The graphics and the atmosphere are just fabulous in this game! The narration between Aurelius and Abigail is well done. Aurelius is a bit witty while Abigail is really stern and creepy. I must say that I enjoy the game and casting spells. I do feel there is something not quite right when you fight a large number of enemies at once. I also think the teleportation is a bit short, but that is a personal preference.  Apart from that, it’s pretty good.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com!