The Wizards creates a nice environment to explore and provides a short adventure to draw gamers into a magical land. Unfortunately, the unpredictable VR controls frustrate gameplay and are a distraction from totally enjoying an immersive wizard experience.
I won’t lie to you. I’ve always wanted to be a wizard. Ever since reading my first Dragonlance book featuring a very weak, yet powerful Raistlin Majere (who caused terrible destruction in that fantasy world), I’ve nearly always chosen a mage in fantasy games. I mean, who doesn’t want to cast spells with a flick of their wrists or heal people very far away from battle? It’s okay, I know you do.
Color me happy when Carbon Studio did their damndest to bring the idea of becoming a wizard to the PSVR with The Wizards. While the adventure is a short one, as it should be because VR longevity is a bit much on the brain, the ability to wave one’s hands to and fro to activate a spell is quite mesmerizing, to say the least. It’s empowering and fun. Perfecting that ability is the catch and caveat to bringing a perfect VR experience. Is this game perfect? Lord no, as most VR games aren’t in their infancy, but the idea was good enough to give it a go.
The gameplay is simple — you play a wizard trainee and are tasked with vanquishing evil from a broken kingdom. The story, which is decent at best, puts you in the boots of a wizard and gives you, with the help of your PlayStation Move controls, abilities to cast such as a shield, fireball, and/or ice bow with ice arrows. The game doesn’t request too much of you, as remembering the movements to cast the specific techniques is hard enough, but what it does deliver is engaging fun. The crux of said fun starts with the controls.
The controls go like this — your PlayStation Move controllers are your wizard hands, as the trigger acts as your firm grip. To cast a shield, it’s the flick of your left wrist with the trigger down. To summon a fireball you only need to turn a closed fist with your right hand (throwing it is a wholly other). The ice bow/arrow is that Doctor Strange movement that he does in the Avengers movies that give him those orange shields, which consists of the crossing of the wrists and push out with the hands — trigger has to be down on the left Move controller). Those are your three main spells for your adventure, as well as the trigger button on the right move controller to teleport to certain places on the board (makes it easier to move — it’s essentially the same movement you do in Valve’s The Lab). All in all, the intended motion of the controllers to cast spells or move isn’t that bad. Carbon Studio makes the process seamless and fun. The execution of the controls accurately in a time of crisis? Well, that’s a different story that is hit and miss.
While the adventure of the game is surely worthy of the VR medium that it was built on, trying to accurately activate the controls in time to take on an enemy can be a sticky situation, if your camera isn’t straight and if the game is working in your favor. For example, I found that the tutorial allowed me to activate my fireball spell about 75% of the time accurately. The other times felt like I was trying to light a lighter with only a spark to show for it. It was frustrating but manageable. When the actual adventure started in the game, the ability to light the fireball was 60%. I would blame this on body positioning and PS Camera positioning, but my shield and bow came up straightaway. It was odd that the fireball didn’t make a consistent appearance. I even went back and tried out the tutorial again, same results, and then back to the game with the, you guessed it, same results. Had the controls been tweaked a bit and tested a bit more, I think this game would have been one helluva an experience. It was built to be great and it deserved it. Carbon Studio seemed to have put their heart and soul into the idea that a player should be a wizard. Maybe an update can tighten the movements up a bit and allow for just a bit of forgiveness to the motion. I would rather have a game that says, “Yeah, that was close enough” than a game that demands near perfection with movement. This isn’t a Fromsoftware game, so demanding perfection shouldn’t be a requirement. Regardless, the game controls need tweaking with an update. Again, the game deserves it because the concept is actually quite fun. As it stands, the controls are the only thing really hurting this VR experience. They’re a bit hit/miss, which doesn’t bode well for a virtual reality game.
That aside, the game still brings a fair amount of presentation when the controls aren’t being a distraction. The land built for the player is multi-tier, fun as hell to navigate through, and very interesting/intriguing to stand inside. It’s a touch of Skyrim with limited depth, but you won’t care about the latter because it’s just neat to be in the environment. You’ll traverse through multi-tier levels that allow your senses to be engulfed with the surroundings. You will feel like you’re in a broken castle, looking at a land at siege or staring into the face of massive ogre ready to tear you apart. It’s right on the money in this department, which makes the experience worthwhile, especially at the $29.99 price point.
All of this said, it really does go back to those controls, which take away some of the beauty and simple fun that the game delivers. The controls aren’t a dealbreaker, mainly because they’re manageable, but having them be in the way at times makes all of this effort a tough sell. Again, the price point might be too tempting not to try it. You should, consider it.
Overall, The Wizards creates a nice environment to explore and provides a short adventure to draw gamers into a magical land. Unfortunately, the unpredictable VR controls frustrate gameplay and are a distraction from totally enjoying an immersive wizard experience.
The game is available now for $29.99 USD through retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target.
