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One of the reasons Magicka works so well, and remains so popular, is its complete subversion of all those wizardly tropes that high fantasy has so firmly established. In lieu of pensive scholars with wise words of reflection, we have faceless idiots setting huge tracts of land alight, giggling at the cooked corpses. Instead of stuffy, bearded old codgers locked in cold stone towers, there are psychotic mages hurling lighting and firing machine guns. In Vietnam. While you can argue that it's hardly subtle, to its credit, it's certainly not staid.Similarly, Magicka went against type for Paradox Interactive. Traditionally associated with complex, slow-moving games of sombre strategy, management and economics, it stood out in their catalogue like an enchanted thumb and yet it brought the publisher tremendous success, becoming one of their defining titles. The game's robed and faceless wizards are now a central part of the Paradox brand, turning up in some form at every other event.
So it's fitting that the first Paradox game I play on a console is Magicka 2. It's the unexpected game on the unexpected platform: the PlayStation 4 (Paradox were announced as a partner two years ago, to the surprise of some). Yet the experience is exactly what I'd anticipate. The body counts are high, the spellcasting is slapstick and my fellow wizards are as contrary as they are co-operative.
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