Tedious Despite Strong Artwork
I love this game's art style. It looks a lot like a classic game from this era, and everything is colorful, bright, and distinct. The ability to view multiple levels (despite being restricted to one) is interesting and clever. I loved the demo and eagerly bought the full game, but now I regret it a little bit.
Where the game falls flat for me is story and gameplay. The story is essentially non-existent despite some meager attempts at "lore" (usually hastily scrawled notes that add almost nothing). After finishing episode 1, I don't really know why I am fighting or who I am fighting against. The gameplay had a strong start but after a while feels rather empty and repetitive, most levels can be cleared just by shooting everything that moves and picking up keys when you run into them. The interesting gameplay is found primarily by hunting for secrets, but that becomes very frustrating, as it is very difficult to get every secret.
I played the whole first episode to give Wizordum a chance to make things more interesting, but it never did. I thought surely the boss would show a lot of detail and care. But, the first boss was a huge letdown, the boss design and battle was not interesting at all. We were told how important this boss character was only after he was dead, and he just literally appears out of thin air with virtually no buildup.
This game plays like the team was told "we've implemented basic mechanics, now go and make as many levels as you can", instead of creating a focused experience where every moment and area was carefully thought out. Of course, Wizordum is not the first or last game to do this, but it's a real shame. My time these days is more limited and unfortunately, I don't have time to slog through many hours of repetitive content in the hopes of eventually getting to something interesting.
As a side note, I loved the Catacomb Abyss Trilogy, which this game claims to be inspired from. But Catacomb Abyss did story and gameplay much better than this game, even with the primitive tools of the time. For story, you were constantly reminded that the battle was against Nemesis and his minions, giving you a strong reason to push through. Additionally, attention to detail was evident - developers gave every region of the level a special name that appeared on screen to show the thought and care put into every moment of gameplay. Levels usually had many custom textures etc. to give detail and a sense of place. I only wish the developers of Wizordum had paid attention to these small textures that make the difference between a truly great retro FPS and one that is just ok.
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