Mageseeker Review (For Those Who Never Played League of Legends)
The Mageseeker Review
The Mageseeker is one of the best games that I have played so far this year. Period. it does so many things near perfectly and has minimal flaws.
It seems important to disclose that I have never played a second of League of Legends as that ship has sailed. What I love about what Riot Games is doing is that they are branching out into different genres, but instead of trying to do it alone with much higher risk, they are partnering with smaller indie studios and allowing them to focus on their strengths.
In 2019, there was The Ruined King which was developed by Airship Syndicate, who is most well known for Darksiders: Genesis and now we have The Mageseeker developed by Digital Sun Games who made one of the indie highlights of 2019, The Moonlighter.
Chains of Chaos
The Mageseeker is exactly what you would expect as a follow up to Moonlighter. An expertly crafted top down ARPG that doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of League of Legends, it would probably reward you more if you did but it’s not necessary. You play as Sylas, an anti hero, who rises up and starts a revolution against his oppressors. The chains that have been fused to Sylas, are similar of Kratos and his blades of chaos, except from a top down perspective. There are a lot of parallels to draw between these two characters, including their selfish nature driven by revenge and bloodlust.
With the help of some great writing that is witty at times, and strong character development there are plenty of heavy plot points throughout that feel earned. The excellent characters and the fantastic score thoughout, courtesy of yet another great composition by Gareth Coker, culminate in some Avengers Endgame level moments.
Hyper Link Grifter
The combat and movement feels reminiscent of Hyper Light Drifter with dash, close melee attacks and magic spells which you can change and upgrade throughout with the help of the settlement that you expand by going on missions which are the perfect length and either end in an epic boss fight or a rewarding story revelation. The combat is near perfect as it requires you to control your chains with the right stick, similar to a twin stick shooter.
During hectic battles it can be a little too much to manage everything including attacks, casting spells, swapping spells, stealing powers, grappling, aiming, dashing, healing and anything else I might be forgetting. Occasionally this can lead to some frustrating moments as you might grab the wrong thing and requiring use of all the sticks, buttons and triggers, you can sometimes waste all your healing potions at full health. Obviously it goes without saying that just like most games, flying enemies are still very tedious.
The bosses were a definite highlight of The Mageseeker with originality, multiple phases on some and the difficulty being dialed in perfectly. You will die plenty but it always feels fair and there is usually always lesson learned. One of the few downsides is that when replaying these epic battles, you can’t skip the cutscenes leading up, you can only speed them up. Depending on how long it takes you to take down some of these challenging bosses, this could become tedious.
It’s worth mentioning that some people are going to have an issue with the price as indie games are typically on the cheaper end, but with the level of quality across the board and around 14 hours, the value is here, especially considering its only around 30 bucks in most regions. The 14 hours is also playing on the suggested difficulty and not doing any sidequests, which there were plenty opportunities that would easily add another 8-10 hours.
Seek The Mage
The Mageseeker is a massive success when looking at the game from three different angles. It succeeds as an amazing follow up to Moonlighter from Digital Sun. It succeeds as yet another great indie riot mashup and it’s yet another successful League of Legends IP that is helping to grow the universe across different mediums and genres. No wonder Riot is trying to expand the League of Legends IP into different genres and mediums. The universe is rich and compelling with depth and relateabilty. The gripes are small with The Mageseeker, as it is one of the best games that I have played this year and will easily be in my top ten.