Rogue Wizards Reviews

This is a fun game. I like it more on PC rather than my iPad. It feels inspired by games like Bastion (map design & the way it draws on the screen), Fate by Wildtangent (the atmosphere & loot), with a very fast & simple turn based combat. Plays very well with Mouse & Keyboard such as Fate, or if you're not familiar with that, think of Torchlight--point, click, pickup loot & go. I really like this game, and will play it more often than others that cost way more than this title. I rate it 10/10: Highly Recommended!

Great roguelike. I've been playing story mode and the difficulty is balanced nicely. It's good for both shorter as well as longer game play sessions as you can save anywhere. Perfect for when you are in the mood for a casual turn based dungeon crawler.

ROGUE WIZARDS am loving it. Very exciting immersion drenched atmosphere with alot of monster and loot variety along with plenty of character customization similar to TORCHLIGHT and DIABLO. Audio and music are top notch. Dungeon level design makes me feel like am looking at a boardgame map of HEROE'S QUEST yet totally its own unique character. Weapons and armor are all over the place while feeling balanced in the way they appear in the world with plenty of stats and a easy to make equipped/unequipped loot comparison ui when moving the mouse over items. Graphics have that just right feel of creepy fun with a Dungeons And Dragon heroic shine. It all adds up to one amazing maxed out tabletop turn based rich experience. One of the best dungeon crawlers out there perfect for relaxing. ROGUE WIZARDS BUY IT! PLAY IT! Feel the mesmerizing magic and clash of steel against forces natural and VERY UNNATURAL! YA HA! HA! HA!

After 4h of playtime as of writing this, I'd say this is a pretty fun game, but maybe more of a "pick up on sale" game then a must have for roguelike/dungeon crawling fans. The story mode is your tipical linear progression, go-to-that-dungeon-for-that-quest type, with a central hub of merchants to sell your loot and restock on potions. I personally don't really care for the story, but if you dig evil wizards doing evil shit with evil magic, this is the title for you. Then it has the actual roguelike game mode, called Gauntlet. You start on a dungeon at level 1, with only a sword and potions, and you keep going through the floors until you die, collecting loot and leveling up as you go. Every X amount of floors there's a boss who is higher level than you character and can screw you if you are bad like me, but drops some good loot when killed. The actual mechanincs and balance of the diferent types of weapons and spells seems good from what I've played so far. The combat is a fast paced style of turn-based, where you either attack, move, use a potion, or switch weapon/spell. But for example, a Lance allows you to move and attack on the same turn, and in some situations (with the right mob placement) kill multiple enemys in one turn; however, it's a two-handed weapon, meaning you can't use a shield with it, like you can with sword or an axe, meaning you can't block attacks. Also, if you play Hearthstone, think of your potions as Reno Jackson - they always heal you to full. You also have the system of when you level up puting points into your stats and into your spells, and a pretty cool system for your gear where every piece will have a rank, wich goes up by using that piece - for example a weapon rank goes up by killing things with it, and every time you go up a rank it rolls a new affix on that weapon, wich can be the damage or another random property (think Diablo 3 loot). So your common drop can actually be better then a rare drop if you have used it more. You get bonus XP if you kill every enemy and open every chest on a floor (it tells you when you do), and you can use the map to teleport to various waypoints spread across the floors (the entrance and exit, when you find it, act as waypoints to). You need keys to open the chests, the keys drop from enemys, so if you find a chest and don't have a key, you can always go to it later easily. And from my experience, you always get enough keys for all the chests. All in all, it's a fun time killer, with some good ideas from games you problably played before, and an interesting art style. My only gripe so far is that the tiles out your character's vision just disapear and pop in when you move constantly, and since you move relatively fast out of combat it can be a bit anoying, but I eventually got used to navigating that way. EDIT: After recent updates, most of my issues have been solved. Definite recomendation.

The movement is pretty clunky and requiring mats for casting spells kind of ruins the game if you like playing dungeon crawlers as a caster, it's melee or...melee...as you will never find enough mats to cast spells even 1/100th of the combat. Which is a real shame. Yes teh spells do a LOT of damage, but so does my staff. And the spells would give it variety over the fairly cookie cutter combat.

Very polished and charming rogue-like with lots of character and a beautiful art style. I've picked up nearly every rogue-like on Steam hoping to find "the one." I do believe this may be it. At first it will come across as simplified but it's actually very deep. Monsters have elemental weaknesses and immunities (Pokemon style). There are some tile modifiers not often seen in rogue-likes such as ice that can cause involuntary movement (slipping). There are many quality of life improvements over traditional rogue-likes such as companions, teleportation and being able to see your equipped weapons. There is a story mode that gives you an otherworldly Harry Potter meets Pokemon feel. The Gauntlet mode is where you'll find your traditional rogue-like if you're not interested in the story. UPDATE: 24 hours after the game's release the developer released a patch addressing gameplay changes based on feedback from the few negative reviews.

Hi guys, let's discuss Rogue Wizards for a bit here shall we.. First of all, this game reminds me greatly of the 'Braveland Trilogy' and that being said you can already create a pretty good idea about, ''if you're actually going to like it or not'' because i know such games might be a bit too boring for some.. I'm a bit of a geek so i guess i couldn't go wrong with owning a copy of this nice looking and fun to play game. But again, it's just like i said before, you'll either going to love or hate it but that doesn't make this a bad game if you don't like it. And that's precisely why i'm letting you guys know, why i personally like this game a lot. Let's talk about the graphics: The game looks pretty nice and cartooney (like Braveland and such) and the animations are nicely done although don't expect blitzes all over the screen or bright flashes because this game is by all means not a AAA graphical masterpiece! But all in all, it looks pretty nice, it doesn't glitch and it works well with everything else.. So what's not good about that, right? Let's talk about the music/sound: The music for this game is pretty much kept simple although the tunes are catchy and the animation/effects etc all sound just as one would expect from such a game. It works pretty well together impo. Now let's talk about the gameplay: The gameplay is set up in turnbased mode as soon as you encounter enemies or obstacles such as hidden traps etc. The grid/map is also devided in tiles, so each step you make will be on one of those tiles each turn. While in battle (outside battle those limitations are absent) you'll need to do some planning as to whether to move, change weapons, cast spells or heal yourself during the turn/time you're given. Everything is done in steps so make note of that when you're used to playing a dungeon crawler and you like to rush in like Rambo because this is not such a game.. You will be whimpy at first, but soon enough you'll be wearing nice armor, wielding massive weapons and using destructive spells (you can explore, craft/sell stuff) all at the same time which i personally think is a really nice way to let you as a player experiment freely. Also you'll earn a ton of experience along the many main and sub quests, so each time you earn a level up you can invest those points into 3 separate skills such as Power, Finesse, and Stamina. (and you'll unlock more buildings along the way too that upgrade/sell you all kinds of neat stuff..) There are 3 primary character based skills, namely: 'Power, Finesse and Stamina'.. Power: Speaks for itself as it will allow the player to boost the strength of the character, including increasing the damage output for all his attacks. Finesse: Is your basic dodge, shield, luck counter that will affect pretty much everything you do so don't ignore that skill! Stamina: Works hand in hand with Power, because both make sure you can remain longer in tough battles while making it possible to dish out a world of hurt to those that seek to end you (it's a Roguelike right).. However, you're always accompanied by 1 or two minions etc that can usually hold their own pretty well, unless cornered by bosses or packs of poisonous blobs etc. After completing missions you will be rewarded by gaining additional magic points that you can freely spend in the magic skills department which is always helpful when you would or better said will be encountering tougher enemies and bosses. Note that each enemy has resistances and weaknesses so make sure to spend those points at the earliest sign you're encountering foes that are immune to your current skill/weapon sets etc. Don't worry though, because you can freely adjust your character within any level so just keep your eyes open when you're facing an enemy because it will be made clearly visible as to what his/her strengths and weaknesses are. I can say much more about this fun game, but it is probably best that i don't spoil you guys too much and so all that's really left for me to say is, get the game at a sales and play it just like i did and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as i do too.

I rate this game a 5/10. You may wonder why such a low score? Let me say that this is not a bad score. I'm not scoring it like a movie review where anything below a 7 is AWFUL GARBAGE. This game is not awful garbage. It's actually pretty okay. This is a dead average game, with many games that are better, and many that are worse. Luckily, it can be fixed if the devs decide to do so. The good: -The game feels polished. Sometimes when you play a game, you get that nagging feeling not all the features are implemented or something, but not in this game. It feels like a complete game. That doesn't mean I think it's a good game, but I digress. -The artwork is really great! Wish I had a bit more playable character variety other than white guy/black woman, but indie games usually don't have the budget to expend on stuff like that, especially when the existing characters look so good. -The music is pretty good, probably a 7/10. I've heard some bad indie game music before, so having something passable is nice. Would I ever buy the OST? No. The bad: -While being isometric is not a negative, I'm personally not a fan of games that do "tile fade in/out" when you walk forwards. I understand why it was chosen, but for me this makes movement very clunky. At least the minimap allows you to move around without getting lost, and you can click and hold to move in various directions. -I encountered one major bug, it will probably be fixed at some point when I'll update this review. The bug was that when a very common enemy mudslinger type throws their mud at you, it 'mucks' up the screen (Intentional), which is fine, but if you load a menu or open your inventory the screen goes black and you have to exit the inventory to return to normal view, except now your hotbar disappears. This is a big problem because I don't see how a bug this bad could slip through Q&A. It happens every time with a very common enemy type. For me, this soured my image of a polished game. UPDATE: After one and a half years, the devs FINALLY fixed this bug. FINALLY. The really bad: -Expectations are key. This game creates an image in the steam store that isn't fulfilled ingame. For a game titled "Rogue Wizards" you'd expect to have quite the spell variety, eh? No. Jump to 0:28 on the steam store trailer. See that image of the spells? Count them. Each one is a single spell, for a total of 18. In a game about Wizardry, I expected a very diverse array of spells, and instead you only get access to 6 spells to start, then you unlock more as you play after pumping points into some of the crappy early spells you probably didn't like. -18 Spells isn't necessarily limited. The problem is that spells are not fun to use. There are two types of spell: The type where you press the spell button and they activate instantly (Fun to use) and the kind where you press the spell, it wastes a turn switching to that spell, and then you can cast the spell. Switching back to your normal weapon wastes another turn, meaning if you want to cast a spell just once, you'll waste two turns switching to and from it. The game makes NO distinction between those two types of spells, you just have to try them and remember them. -Hey you're a smart person, so whatever if the spells are limited and half of them are basically unusable in combat! But the spells are also very finite. The only way to cast a spell is via limited gems that drop from enemies. For example, to cast a Fire type spell, you might need 2 of the red gems. You cannot start earning red gems until you unlock fire magic, and once you do, they will randomly drop up to one at a time from each enemy. Notice that I said "Up to", not that every enemy drops one gem. Many enemies don't drop any. In my experience, it's about 50/50. The enemies on each level are finite, and if you have all 6 magics unlocked, that means you will get one of each gem, on average, for every 12 enemies defeated. Let's say there are about 50 enemies per level (It varies based on size), that means that you will possibly receive 4 of every color by the level's end with a couple extra left over. The base spells might cost only 2 gems, but some don't, and the upper spells usually cost a lot more. That means if you are in the midgame and you clear an entire level, you might have enough for one or two casts of a magic spell, but that's usually only the base tier spells. Green magic's base spell, for example, costs 15 green gems! Wow! Finally, there is a finite limit on how many gems you can hold in your inventory of each color. 100. You may have 100 red gems, and 100 blue, and 100 yellow, etc. So you don't even have the option of stockpiling these gems up for a serious battle. Don't get me wrong, 100 red gems is enough to cast Fireball 50 times, but not the more advanced magics. This is all fixable, thankfully. The problem is, I'm guessing the game's devs are locked into this system and have balanced around it heavily. A shame. Were I to recommend any changes, it would be these: 1. Remove the limit of 100 gems per color. It's dumb. 2. Make all of the spells instant casts. This is the most important. I can live with all the other issues if I'm not wasting a turn switching to a magic. 3. If you can't even do number 2, the LEAST you could do is differentiate which spells are instant and which ones are not in their descriptions. Edit: Turns out the game does make a distinction. I specifically looked for this yet never saw it, weird. 4. Also, minor quibble, when you unlock a spell, it becomes your equip if it's an equippable spell. This means I will often unlock fireball, return to the game, attack an enemy, and cast a fireball instead of attacking with my previously equipped weapon. I don't know if this is a bug or intended behavior, but I personally don't like it. TL:DR The game is really not bad. The enemies are balanced decently enough and the variety is okay (I think there's only like 20 enemies in the entire game excluding bosses though), but the magic system, which this game named itself for, is just abysmal. This is the biggest killer for me. Also, I thought the story was kind of boring, but the game has zero unskippable cutscenes, so that's a net positive for me. Other thought: Companions and pets suck. You can't alter their inventories or see their stats or anything, and they can even be a detriment, specifically against replicating slimes. If you deal enough damage to kill a slime in one hit, it won't replicate, but your idiot companion and pet always hit them with weak damage, causing them to replicate. You can't kill them fast enough! The companions also charge forwards like idiots into whatever tile hazard is sitting on the ground. "OOOOH ACID, LET'S CHARGE TO OUR DEATHS!" I really genuinely dislike them. Giving me some form of control over them would make them a lot more interesting.

REVIEW I finally had to tear myself away from this game to give this game a review. [b]I LOVE IT.[/b] It is a colourful, animated rogue playing game which oozes with charm, amusing characteristics and a joy to play. Graphics Lets get the main part over. Its flat 2D (not 3D or even full 3D) and may look old hat to some of todays modern players who are use to fancy graphics etc. But, WHO CARES! The graphics are big, bold, sharp, colourful, cartoon like and detailed with some lovely animations and on a resolution of 1360 x 768 that graphics are sharp and very clear. The isometric view reminds of an old ZX spectrum game called Knightlore which was very popular at its time. I love the design of the characters that I have met so far as well as the detailed dungeon walls, floors etc. The animation is extremely good with humans eyes blinking, or the way the hero switches between weapons to the different creatures movement to the way they die. When I first saw the size of the graphics it was BIG on my screen which was good because it makes the game much more claustrophobic as you only see a small section of the dungeon and you don't know what is in front of you. As your hero moves sections of the dungeon falls away behind you as a new section rises up to meet you. When playing the game you forget it is 2d because you are so engrossed with look and style of the game play especially when the manic battles occur. Also because of the 2d aspect it mean it less strain of the computer system requirements and allows you to have battles with lots of monsters and animations flying back and forth with a fast, manic and smooth look. The death animation of the creatures ranges from cute to funny to surprising. Also the special ability that each creature has so far (Only seen a few) again ranges from very funny to amusing or even frustrating when your in battle, but that is part of the charm. The town is nicely set out with a some nice animations. But it is the dungeon where the action takes place and thrill seeing a new creature with special abilities. Score (9/10) Sound/Music The sounds effects are nice with some nice touches. I like the sound of the shadowlord dying, or when splodges hit your monitor before sliding down with a squeakily sound effect. The music is nice and I have a favourite track which takes place in the dungeon. This track has a pulsating heartbeat sound accompanied by an eerie music track which give the game more atmosphere especially when going into deeper and more challenging dungeons. The other tracks for the dungeon and town are nice and enhance the game further. Its the music for main menu that is maybe the weakest as you are more interesting in getting into the game that you bypass it quickly. Score (7/10) Gameplay The game is turn based however due to the fast response, the smoothness and quickness of the movement/battles etc it is very easy to be fooled into thinking that it is real-time. The number times I have moved my hero too quickly only to end up smack bang into a horde of monsters is my fault. This of course ended my turn only for the enemy to start hurls weapons, spells etc at me doing more damage before I could damage them. One particular battle was the battle with gryphons in which they made a large section of the tiled floor all ice and because of my quickness my hero and NPC were sliding about in opposite directions. This was both laughable at the start and then frustrating later due to being so eager to fight them that I forgot it was turn based. So going turn based may make the game feel slower but it cranks up the tension and atmosphere in the dungeons. Battles required tactical thought when dealing with different monsters at the same time. Boss battles require even more thought because before you know you it, your surrounded by their minions etc. There are lots of weapons in the dungeons and comparing them to your own weapons reveals each of them have their own good and bad traits. You have to decide which one might be good for you. With so much choice, I spent about 5 minutes deciding whether to replace the sword I have with a new spear which has some bigger bonus hits but with less abilities. Gold is in abundance but that is quickly spent on upgrading the armoury and blacksmith in your town to get better stronger weapons and armour. Magic is a crucial factor and with 6 schools of magic totalling 18 spells each with levels to go up in make the game more interesting which gives way to deciding which spell you feel it better for you. You have 8 slots to hold weapons, magic and other items to use in battle etc but which ones to go into which slots. Gameplay (10/10) From what I have seen there are 2 aspects to this game: Story and Gauntlet. The Gauntlet: I first went into this by mistake right as the start with no clue as to how the game work and died very quickly. I tried again thinking I made a mistake somewhere only to die again. It was then I discovered the story aspect and realised that the gauntlet is a straight into dungeon rogue game to last as long as possible. Will try that once I complete the story aspect The Story: This the main part of the game which introduces you to the game mechanics as well as the object of the game. Build up your hero male/female with weapons bought or found, fight monsters, gain gold and acquire other items scattered about the dungeon to help you . There is a town which you have to build to acquire more weapons and allow you access to your magic spells etc. In your quests in the dungeons you will encounter NPC characters/creatures who will give aid in battle with their own style of weapons. As to what the story is about well I will leave that up to you to find as I am finding out now. Criticisms: I only have one. When you hover you arrow mouse over the buildings it would be nice to see the name of the building. I sometimes select the blacksmith when I want the armoury or select the vault thinking it is the armoury. but that is the only quibble. Bottom Line This is a game is fantastic with its old style look that should appeals to gamers old and young. It has sharp, colourful animated graphics, with good game play, nice sounds/music etc and once you learn the game mechanics it is very easy to control. A big thank you Spellbind Studios for creating a beautiful looking rogue style game. Score (9/10)

It's a good game for its price. It's not a great game though. It's just a treadmill for the sake of being one. Everything scales to you, so there's never a sense of progression or that your character is getting better. It's very much a resource management game as well; you can only have 5 potions, you have limited spell components, and it takes a turn to switch between items and most spells. It has things that seem neat, but once you realize that it's pointless, they lose their fun. There are shrines and enchanters you can use, but there's no real point to do so because the next dungeon you go in all the loot that drops will just have scaled up numbers so they'll be better. Sure you might have a piece of gear for a few levels, but when you replace it, you won't seem like you've received a great upgrade. It's still going to take you the same number of hits to kill everything because they scale up along with you. You have three stats, but it's not like you can decie how you want to build the character. They don't seem to do anything, and are just there to make you spend them to equip the scaled up thing that just dropped. Putting stats in never actually feels like it helps you out. It's just a resource for you to spend. Speaking of spending, all you do is spend your gold to upgrade your shops to the next scaled up level of gear. So that you can spend your stat points. So that you can kill things in the same number of hits as you were before you leveled up. It's a fun few hours, until you realise how pointless it all is. Play it through once for the story, if you like stories, but it won't ever feel like your character is getting better as you go.