Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
Back in 2021, Emberheart Games revealed Wizordum to the world. Fast forward to October 2023, Apogee announced their partnership with Emberheart Games in bringing Wizordum to early access to November 2023. Y’all – the wait is just about over. You can get your hands on a pretty dang impressive preview of Wizordum…-checks watch-…tomorrow! Yep, tomorrow. I cannot wait to see y’all rave about it.
Wizordum’s main gameplay loop looks and feels similar to Catacombs-3D, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, and (most recently) Nightmare Reaper. Most of you won’t know what some of those titles are, and that’s ok. Wizardum is a high fantasy first-person shooter that looks straight out of the Doom Engine but miles more detailed. As a wizard, you’re tasked with exploring dungeons and slaying flat 2D enemies that rotate along with you. It’s delightfully nostalgic. The weapons and abilities I used felt quite nostalgic, too, such as casting fireballs from my hands, using an ice staff to freeze and shatter enemies, and a magical shotgun. It all felt simple yet fun to play without being a mindless slog.
I reviewed Wizordum using a DualSense controller. While the game is not best played on a controller at this time, future updates should add better controller/gamepad controls for players (like me) who prefer to use something other than a mouse and keyboard.
Wizordum looks and plays quite well. Its spritework is heavily detailed and colorful, looking like an elevated dark-fantasy title from Raven Software. Moving through the levels and seeing the 2D-sprites rotate along with me brought me back to some of my favorite gaming years. Despite being a child of the 90s, any time I can relive dark fantasy retro shooter gameplay is always welcome.
The weapons and spells I tested had a distinct feel while relying on “ammo” that prevented any possibility of me spamming any one of them. The default mace could be used as much as I like, the fireballs could be used in a rapid-fire fashion and released larger-than-expected projectiles. Despite being a FPS, Wizordum’s gunplay doesn’t currently require the player to precisely aim at enemies to kill them, making the game more forgiving than its predecessors of an earlier era of gaming.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Wizordum is its evolving levels. They’re not procedurally generated like other games that use the “evolving” term, but they change and reconstruct themselves as you go. One of the first things I noticed about the levels was that they seemed large but linear; that thought disappeared once I reached the third level which took me almost an hour to complete. Once I finished the first two introductory levels, the sewers surprised me with its depth, gigantic layouts, and shifting pathways that encouraged me to backtrack to reach spaces that I was unable to at the start of the level.
It was really cool to see the levels change as they did, especially in a straightforward dungeon crawler such as this. Beyond simply backtracking, the value of living levels that are reacting to my presence and in-game actions make it feel like I’m doing something in the game’s world. Wizordum made me feel like my actions had consequences and I was the harbinger of magic-fueled destruction. FEAR ME, HUMAN!
There are a handful of secrets in each level, but Wizordum avoids teaching players to be on the lookout for them or even poke and prod innocuous-looking elements in the levels. The secrets are literally secret. For instance, one level hid secrets behind a wall that could be attacked to move it out of the way, whereas another set of secrets were tied to skulls that were embedded within the walls’ designs. I completely understand that these methods of hiding goodies are reminiscent of the early 90s’ game design, but this may feel less rewarding for newer players who are less fortunate to have played Catacombs-3D or any of Apogee’s greatest hits.
My remaining two quibbles with Wizordum is that of its lore and balance. In its current form, Wizordum is quite light on lore. Not that I’m expecting a fully-fleshed narrative at this time, or even at all, but I’m curious to see how things may change between now and its eventual full release. My other, and final, critique is one that will most definitely be resolved in time – enemy balance. Some enemies like rats and zombie warriors literally stuck to me and repeatedly attacked me faster than I could kill them with a mace bonk or spell. It was frustrating to die to a hidden rat that jumped on me and gnawed away at my health until I died. But hey, it taught me to be a smidge more cautious as I moved around the world.
Because Wizordum is in Early Access at this time, I cannot give it a conclusive review score. I’m fully expecting Emberheart Games to continue adding retro dark fantasy content and refining its already excellent spellcaster gameplay to be ever-so-slightly more approachable for modern players. If it adds a cohesive story that’s evident from the start, that would be the icing on the cake and give the title character that more players will appreciate. As someone who was born into this golden age of gaming, I sure as hell love what I’m seeing so far. I just can’t wait to see how it evolves going forward.
Emberheart Games’ Wizordum enters Early Access tomorrow. If you’re the patient type, it’s most definitely worth waiting to see how the game evolves. But, if you have a hankering for a beautifully composed and nostalgia-filled first-person spellcaster game, Wizordum is the game you’ll want to try sooner rather than later. Heck, you’ll want to try it tomorrow!
