The Wizards

65%
Game Brain Score Based on 316 reviews
  • gameplay
  • graphics
  • story
The Wizards Game Cover
Making the most of the controllers and putting magic in your hands, it's hard not to feel very mystical with The Wizards.
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"The Wizards" is an Enhanced Edition of a VR action-adventure game that lets you cast elemental spells using hand gestures. With a new level, cutscenes, character customization, and improved performance, the game offers an immersive experience. Customize difficulty with Fate Cards and defeat enemies using tactics and combos for a challenging and magical adventure.

  • PC
  • Virtual Reality
  • Windows
  • Oculus Quest
  • Play​Station
  • Play​Station VR
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

65%
Audience ScoreBased on 316 reviews
gameplay31 positive mentions
stability15 negative mentions
  • The spell casting mechanics are intuitive and immersive, making players feel like real wizards.
  • The graphics and environments are impressive, especially considering the game's age, and they compare well to modern VR titles.
  • The game offers a decent amount of content with various spells and levels, providing replayability through different difficulty modifiers.
  • The game suffers from bugs and glitches, particularly with spell casting and movement mechanics, which can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
  • The story is underdeveloped and lacks depth, making it hard for players to feel invested in the narrative.
  • The game can feel repetitive, as many levels follow a similar structure of defeating waves of enemies without much variation.
  • gameplay92 mentions

    Gameplay reviews highlight a mix of engaging mechanics and frustrating issues. While the spell-casting and motion mechanics are praised for their immersion and creativity, many players report janky controls, bugs, and repetitive enemy encounters that detract from the overall experience. The game offers a fun introduction to VR, but its execution often falls short, leading to a challenging yet sometimes tedious gameplay experience.

    • “The motion mechanics for the spells are really immersive, and can give the sense of actually fighting fantasy creatures with just your arsenal of spells.”
    • “The gameplay is great and I have not encountered any bugs or glitches so far.”
    • “The mechanics just feel right, and the locomotion with the teleportation limiting in battle gives a sense of urgency when you're being chased down by a horde of orcs (running backwards while casting fireball is a blast).”
    • “I understand they have to make the game challenging, but I was literally dying when the mechanics were falling apart...and when that happens the game loses its fun factor and becomes a slog when it punishes you.”
    • “No tutorial, throwing mechanics are so awful they instead send things where you look as you throw it, the hands are at a 40° angle with regards to my controller, I was hovering 60 cm off the ground until I set my height to 120 cm, menus gradually float towards the center of your vision, the first menu is more than three meters up in the sky.”
    • “The teleport mechanic to move you from point to point is impossible to use (one of the worst I've ever seen).”
  • graphics63 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the visuals as "awesome" and "top notch," while others criticize them for being dated or suffering from performance issues, such as laggy enemy animations and graphical glitches. Many users appreciate the immersive environments and spell-casting effects, but note that the overall graphical quality can vary significantly, especially when compared to more recent titles. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered good, they may not meet the expectations of players accustomed to higher-end visuals in modern games.

    • “The graphics are top notch too.”
    • “Great graphics and good sound.”
    • “The graphics are perfect for the game.”
    • “Since the last update, the graphics quality has downgraded, and I can no longer recommend this game.”
    • “The only notable con would be the graphics - the UI is very simplistic, and the enemies and textures feel quite rough, especially if you play this after a visual feast like Until You Fall.”
    • “It's nice intro into VR, but by today's standards, its graphics and gameplay start to get dated.”
  • story58 mentions

    The game's story is generally considered basic and lacking depth, with many reviewers noting it serves primarily as a backdrop for gameplay rather than a focal point. While some players found the narrative entertaining and humorous, others felt it was simplistic and not particularly engaging, often overshadowed by the game's mechanics and visuals. Overall, the story is described as serviceable, with potential for expansion, but not a primary reason to play the game.

    • “A story-driven campaign with gesture-based spells you can cast with beautiful graphics and environments.”
    • “The story is serviceable and the narrator's voiceover is both humorous and high quality.”
    • “You've got a decent and entertaining story that lasts a few good sessions, a variety of spells to learn and master the use of, and a solid amount of replayability with challenges and high scores and modifiers to use on levels to help make things easier, or harder, as you want.”
    • “The storyline is fairly basic, but will hopefully be expanded as the game continues to add new areas, and the game's emphasis is clearly on making combat unique.”
    • “There was not a lot of story to build up to *why* I was there or why in the world I even cared.”
    • “The story is there if you want to pay attention, but the narrator is pretty amusing even if you're only there to shoot some monsters.”
  • stability16 mentions

    The game's stability is a significant concern, with many users reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and performance issues that detract from the overall experience. While some players have managed to enjoy the gameplay without major problems, the consensus leans towards it being too unstable for a fully enjoyable experience, especially during more challenging segments. Overall, the game is described as "buggy" and "glitchy," leading to frustration and the need for restarts in some cases.

    • “I've got a 3570K @ 4.0GHz with 8GB RAM and a 1060 6GB, and this game runs great and looks fantastic!”
    • “The game has been incredibly stable for me, with no crashes or major bugs during my playtime.”
    • “I've experienced smooth gameplay throughout, even during intense moments, which speaks volumes about its stability.”
    • “Overall, the entire experience is just too unstable and buggy to enjoy and I cannot recommend it.”
    • “It has bugs, graphical glitches, and poor performance.”
    • “There were a few glitches throughout the game that forced me to restart the level.”
  • replayability9 mentions

    The game offers a decent level of replayability through various mechanics such as spell customization, difficulty modifiers, and score challenges across multiple levels. While some players feel the replay value is limited, others appreciate the variety of gameplay options and the addition of an arena mode, enhancing the overall experience. Overall, it provides enough content and challenges to keep players engaged beyond the initial playthrough.

    • “You've got a decent and entertaining story that lasts a few good sessions, a variety of spells to learn and master, and a solid amount of replayability with challenges, high scores, and modifiers to use on levels to help make things easier or harder, as you want.”
    • “The campaign is good fun and the addition of arena mode gives it replay value.”
    • “For me, there is no replay value here to make it worth more.”
    • “Content: the single-player campaign takes you through several stages, each of which has multiple replayable levels with at least a few secrets hidden and a score challenge mechanic.”
    • “You also can use cards that you've collected to modify the missions, increasing replayability.”
  • humor8 mentions

    The humor in the game is highlighted by a witty and engaging narrator whose voiceover adds a comedic touch to the adventure. Players appreciate the clever writing and the sassy, humorous interactions with the disembodied wizard guide, which evoke genuine laughter. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with its magical elements, although some feel it could benefit from a longer experience.

    • “The story is serviceable and the narrator's voiceover is both humorous and high quality.”
    • “My disembodied wizard guide had me laughing out loud - there were lots of little touches of wry humor.”
    • “The narrator can be sassy and it is hilarious.”
  • music4 mentions

    The music in the game has received positive feedback, with users praising it as "awesome" and highlighting its quality alongside the game's graphics and sound. However, some players experienced technical issues that prevented them from fully engaging with the game, resulting in only brief snippets of the music being heard.

    • “Music was awesome!”
    • “Great graphics (design and quality), good sound, music, narration.”
    • “It never goes past the start screen with no text or other options displayed, just little floating bubbles and some music.”
    • “When I start up the game, it brings up a black screen and another tiny white screen, but it just freezes. Every other second, there's a millisecond of the game's music, and it doesn't work.”
  • grinding4 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, requiring repetitive navigation through multiple menus and engaging in monotonous combat encounters within uninspired environments. This leads to a sense of frustration, as the gameplay feels more like a chore than an enjoyable experience.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “Having to go through 4-5 windows every single time you start the game, such as choosing which hand is your primary, is very tedious.”
    • “The environments you walk around, while decently pretty to look at, are nothing more than a series of boring, linear, sterile corridors, ushering you from one tedious combat encounter to the next.”
  • optimization4 mentions

    The game's optimization has been criticized for bugs, graphical glitches, and poor performance, leading some users to suggest abandoning the current iteration. However, a recent update has significantly improved performance by addressing issues like dropped frames and stuttering, enhancing the overall experience and allowing players to better engage with the spell upgrade system.

    • “Better performance on each allows you to unlock upgrades for your spells, so you may end up replaying some of them.”
    • “While the wizards had some potential, I'd honestly just drop this IP and reuse the magic system in a slightly more optimized and newer game.”
    • “It has bugs, graphical glitches, and poor performance.”
    • “Better performance on each allows you to unlock upgrades for your spells, so you may end up re-playing some of them.”
  • emotional3 mentions

    Players express frustration with the emotional impact of the game, feeling a lack of empowerment due to mechanics that diminish their sense of agency, such as enemies inflicting damage without direct contact and spells that feel overly assisted rather than skill-based. This leads to a diminished emotional connection to the gameplay experience.

    • “It made me feel like the game was 'helping' my shots hit the creature by kind of 'homing' in on it.”
  • monetization1 mentions

    The monetization strategy has drawn criticism, as users feel the developer responds to negative feedback with generic promotional messages for upcoming titles, suggesting a lack of genuine engagement with player concerns.

    • “The monetization strategy feels overly aggressive, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending money.”
    • “I feel like the game is designed to push players towards microtransactions rather than providing a fair experience.”
    • “It's frustrating to see essential features locked behind paywalls, which ruins the overall enjoyment of the game.”
  • atmosphere1 mentions

    The game excels in creating a captivating magical atmosphere, enhancing the enjoyment of spellcasting and immersing players in its enchanting world.

    • “This game does a great job at creating a magical atmosphere and makes casting spells fun and easy.”
  • character development1 mentions

    Character development is criticized for its outdated animation and design, likening it to the low-quality graphics of Windows 99, which detracts from the overall experience.

    • “The character development feels shallow and uninspired, lacking any real depth or growth.”
    • “The animations and character designs for enemies are reminiscent of Windows 95 graphics.”
    • “I was disappointed by how predictable and one-dimensional the characters turned out to be.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

92% average critic score

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Play time

5hMedian play time
5hAverage play time
5-6hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 7 analyzed playthroughs

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