The Wizard review - "A moderately entertaining RPG with creative spells"

• Follow Zeus's command and stop Hades from taking over
• The game world feels a bit bland
• Unlock cool spells to summon fiery tornadoes or minigun

Between the family feuds, rampant infidelity, and utter mischief of Greek mythos, we continue to be captivated by its many monsters, heroes, and deities thousands of years after its fall. Therefore, it's unsurprising that multiple games have centred around Greek mythology.

The Wizard is a new mobile adventure RPG that places you in the titular role who, on Zeus's command, must stop Hades (No, not that one) from taking over both Olympus and the mortal world. To stop him, you’ll need to master powerful spells and defeat hordes of monstrous creatures.

No Handholding in The Wizard

While the gameplay is simple, the lack of a tutorial may leave you struggling at first. Essentially, you progress along a linear path, encountering monstrous enemies along the way. It doesn't take long to go from battling one foe to an entire army of them, as they’ll continue to spawn throughout each fight. Typically, a barrier of hellfire prevents you from leaving an arena until you’ve defeated the majority of your enemies.

To survive, you'll need to continuously move about the arena, dodging enemy attacks while blasting your foes with spells. If an enemy touches you, you'll start to lose health, and with so many of them swarmed together, one little mistake can quickly cost you your life. Your current health is represented as a number at the top of the screen. Unlike most RPGs, The Wizard doesn’t have health potions. However, you’ll quickly regain health after breaking away from enemies for a few seconds. 

The Wizard: Tools of the Trade

Your adorable little wizard is equipped with four types of spells: basic, beam, summon, and legendary. Hold down the beam spell button to shoot enemies with a continuous stream of magic until the spell’s meter runs out. Summon offers a powerful attack that damages multiple monsters at once, while legendary spells deal excessive damage to a wide range of foes.

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As you'd expect, summon and legendary spells have much longer cooldown periods than your basic and beam spells, so be careful how you use them. Of course, you can also complete challenges that reduce your cooldown times by visiting the Challenges menu. By completing all of them, you will remove your cooldown times altogether.

Upgrade Your Spells

Gaining enough experience will allow you to unlock higher-tier spells. For instance, you’ll begin with Darkness Ball equipped as your basic spell but can unlock new basic spells like Poison Ball and Dark Arrow throughout the game. 

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There are some really cool legendary spells to unlock, like Inferno, which summons fiery tornadoes, or Minigun Parade, which summons a minigun for mowing down monsters. Upgrading your equipped spells is definitely one of the game’s highlights. You’ll enjoy testing out new, rather creative spells as you battle horrifying beasts.

The Wizard Boss Battles

As you progress through the game, you’ll encounter several bosses you'll need to take out. While boss battles rely primarily on the same tactics as battles with typical enemies, they still serve as a nice change of pace, which is especially nice considering how redundant things feel at times.

The Wizard's world feels a bit flat and has little variation. Some foliage, crates, or other decorations would go a long way in sprucing it up. When in combat, you'll be too busy to notice your dull surroundings. Rather, it's the between arenas where the repetitiveness of your surroundings really stands out.

Is the Wizard Worth It?

The Wizard is a fun little RPG that manages to offer a real challenge despite its simplicity. However, considering how difficult it can be to take down growing hordes of enemies while maintaining a safe distance, this title certainly isn’t for everyone.

If you prefer your RPGs to offer complex game mechanics and rich, immersive stories, then you may want to look elsewhere. However, if you enjoy testing your mettle against droves of nefarious enemies, then The Wizard may just cast its spell over you.