Never Writes About:
Wizard with a Gun
(Mostly)
I’ve got to be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure I remember enough of this game to go into great detail about it or what it was like to Platinum it. I do recall enjoying it. I had a good time with it. That’s the most important part, I think. Funnily enough I did take notes while playing it. While I’ve only made this blog(It’s not a blog) public very recently, I have been working on it since before the new year, and conceptualizing it(HE means thinking about it) for far longer. please stop. The problem is I am having difficulty understanding my own notes.
Full disclosure I use marijuana. If this is shocking or upsetting news I can only apologize(He absolutely does not.) Umm yes I do. I use it everyday. Well, not every day but(Not the weed you idiot the apology. You don’t apologi-) ok fine. please stop you know i can’t delete this. Yes ok. So uh, my marijuana usage serves 2 purposes for me.
- I have pretty bad insomnia, so I use marijuana to help me fall asleep and stay asleep longer
- It also helps me get high, and stay high, which I very much enjoy!
I have decided to just try and make sense of my notes now as I go. There aren’t that many this should be very short. The first one says:
“no menu wrap”
I actually understand this one. It’s a UI pet peeve of mine. I dislike when you are scrolling down or across a list of items and the cursor or whatever does not wrap around back to the beginning of the list. I just find it annoying. So, not a strong start.(To the game or this article?) Uh, both.
“lots of character options”
I think this is about character creation and customization. I could just check. I think this may still be downloaded on my console. But then I would have to get up, walk a few feet behind me, turn on the TV, the PS5, boot the game. I’m currently comfortable and don’t want to give up my comforts to achieve what I want and improve my situation(This really sounds like some type of poorly veiled political commentary) How dare you I would never.
“only up&down tank like controls in not up and down 2.5d? Space is weird”
Hey kids! I would like to talk to you about the consequences of drug use. Oh wait I think I understand this, actually. It is a complaint about the movement. The controls aren’t tank like. But the diagonal movement is slower and clunkier feeling than moving up, down, left and right. Which is not horrible but the game camera is isometric and the ground is diamond shaped. Like Cult of the Lamb. So movement felt awkward. I feel like I’m doing a terrible job of explaining this. Please refer to the figures below for a visual representation of what I mean.
Hopefully that clears it up. The next note is:
“combat feels good and movement makes more sense now”
Fuck me I should’ve just read these beforehand. Or, I don’t know, tried to access my memory. So, if I recall correctly the main crux of the game is that evil is spreading, it’s the apocalypse and you can turn back time to before the end but only for 5 minutes. You are tasked with killing some other wizards I think. Maybe they’ve been corrupted. I don’t know. But to get their location you need to find gears to power or repair a clock device, the same device that turns back time that definitely has a specific name that I definitely remember but am choosing not to say now. I definitely haven’t forgotten. And that is the gameplay loop. Go out, gather resources and fight enemies for 5 minutes, return to your base (an old clock tower?) to use said resources to craft work stations that improve your skills and weapons, and then head out again. Eventually you will find gears for the clock, which will mark the boss, which I think gets you a big gear, and then repeat.
I know I’m not doing it justice but I found the gameplay loop to be quite fun. Every foray into the wilderness of the map feels quick and manageable. You can stay out longer, but after 5 minutes the world starts to literally fall apart. The map gets invaded by “chaos” enemies that spray a pink goop that dissolves the ground. It is possible to gain more time before the initial expiry by killing the “chaos” creatures that appear sparingly across the map. There is actually a trophy for staying out a longer amount of time.
So it is fun. I liked going out getting stuff. Coming back and crafting. There is A LOT of crafting but it never felt overwhelming. The loop is well balanced. There are nice quality of life features with the crafting as well, such as any chests you craft (you’ll need them) will automatically “feed” any crafting station in range, so there is no need to carry the ingredients in your very limited inventory. There are many trophies associated with the crafting, such as crafting level 10 and 20 poison or fear bullets.
The crafting factors heavily into the the combat. You will need to frequently craft better weapons, ammo and items in order to effectively repel the chaos. There are many types of ammo, and they act as your spells. You’re a wizard, remember? There are your standard elemental spells (ammo) and they have the standard elemental effects, such as freezing enemies and burning them. Freezing slows them, burning does damage over time. You’ve played games, you get it. There are some more exotic variants such as force ammo and charming bullets. The latter allowing you to turn almost any enemy to your side with enough hits. And if your new companion gets too injured, you can shoot them with healing bullets.(The American Dream)
I had a fun time with this game. I put about 40 hours into it but I don’t think the Platinum actually takes that long, if you’re interested. It is a good podcast game. You can just sort of chill with it, shoot some baddies, craft some junk. Oh! You can also craft floor tiles anywhere, which means if you have enough materials you can create shortcuts across the map. Or replace tiles destroyed by the chaos monsters. And the same gun that allows you to craft also lets you destroy structures in the world. There are many opportunities for unique gameplay experiences.(I’m not sure that sentence means anything) Ya me neither. Look, the game is fun if you like doing anything I said you do in the game. I’m hungry I have to go.