Magicka: Big Name Fun at an Indie Label Price

I’m going through one of those jaded-gamer phases again. It’s cyclical. Major game publishers tend to keep shoving the same ideas into the meat grinder to churn out one money-making rehash after another. If it’s not a sequel in a long-running franchise, it’s a formulaic archetype that’s been done and redone many times before. “But we’ve got better graphics now! And ragdoll physics!”

I even went back to WoW for a while, lured by the new Worgen race. I really enjoyed it for about 35 levels, and then I found myself back in the same tedious grind that put me to sleep before.

It’s times like this when I am more receptive to indie titles, games that could easily fall off the big radar into bargain-bin oblivion. Thanks to Steam, these games can stand on nearly equal marketing footing with the big guys. And when the heavily hyped titles carry price tags as high as $59.99, the searchlights of the little guys seem to shine a bit brighter.

And that’s how I found Magicka. After playing Dragon Age II until I hit the proverbial wall in the form of a show-stopping bug, I threw up my arms and decided to give one of the little guys a chance. I’d had my eye on Magicka for some time. I’m always looking for fun co-op games for my son and I to enjoy together. It’s a lot more attractive to spend under $20 for some co-op fun instead of $100.

This is one game that delivers a fair share of enjoyment for the money spent. It is well worth the measly $9.99 investment.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the graphics and the gameplay. I had expected something that looked several years old, but Magicka is a beautiful game. What it lacks in story, it more than makes up for in humor and gameplay. My son and I enjoy co-op play, and this was just the kind of thing we were looking for.

Magicka includes a variety of gameplay modes, including a single-player adventure, online adventure co-op, where players can work together in completing the various chapters of the campaign, challenges, in which players fight waves of enemies—single player and online co-op, and, naturally, PvP.

In adventure mode, players are led through the game’s 13 chapters by a pale, dark-haired, cape-wearing character named Vlad who repeatedly insists he’s not a vampire, even after players stumble upon him in the act of munching on a peasant, whom he then summarily tosses over a cliff. The game is little more than a linear romp from one enemy to the next in increasingly more difficult battles. Mastering the many spells and all of the key combinations is, naturally, critical to one’s success.

And what a wide spell selection the hooded mage has at his or her disposal! The tutorial teaches you the basics, giving you the core elements and showing you how they can be combined to form completely different spells. One of the game’s biggest appeals is that instead of handing you a manual showing all of the hotkeys for a set list of spells, players are left to their own devices to find out what combining different elemental powers does.

For example, one of the first spells you learn is fire, which can be sprayed like a flamethrower to light torches or catch enemies on fire. When combined with earth, the shooting flames become a fireball that can be hurled long distances to do area effect damage on enemies farther away. You can amplify the power of spells by queuing them up multiple times before unleashing them on your foes.

Combining the elements in different ways can provide a variety of advantages. For example, if you soak a monster with water before using lightning on it, your lightning will do more damage. And never, never cast lightning if your character has just stepped out of a lake. Bad things will happen.

The spells in Magicka can be very powerful and have dramatic effects. This is both an advantage and a liability. If you’re playing co-op, it’s easy to damage your friend as well as the bad guys. In fact, you almost certainly will be a victim—and perpetrator—of friendly fire at some point when you’re playing with friends. My son and I both earned the achievement “Killing Your Friends You’re Doing It Wrong.” Yes, that is in fact an actual achievement in the game. At one point our co-op adventure temporarily devolved into a contest of retaliatory friendly fire incidents.

The friendly fire achievement is just one of many present in the game. You earn them for defeating the level bosses, for finding hidden treasures and for performing different feats with your spells. My son and I also earned an achievement for crossing our spell beams, pooling our attacks into a super-powered combo.

In addition to this fun and mayhem, geeks will also enjoy the many references in the game. I laughed aloud at many that my young son didn’t understand. “Only goblins are so precise.” There are Dungeons & Dragons references—the first “boss” you defeat is one of the most recognizable icons of D&D—as well as Star Trek, Star Wars, and others. And, yes, one of the enemies you face is named Khan. ‘Nuff said. One of the “swords” you can get in the game is a lightsaber.

If I have a complaint about Magicka, it’s that the game becomes frustratingly difficult at times. It takes multiple attempts to get past some bosses, and on some levels my son and I found ourselves overwhelmed too quickly to react. It’s a game definitely aimed at the quick-twitch younger generation of gamers. My son can hold his own, but us old farts are used to the more cerebral RPGs. Heck, even Diablo and Diablo II, the veritable lynchpins of the action RPG genre, were easily manageable compared to Magicka.

My son even resorted sacrificing me, his dear old dad, to get past some bosses. He did this by firing off in rapid succession area-effect spells that would decimate the surrounding enemies as well as my character. I learned very quickly that shield is my friend. If I accomplish nothing else in this game, I will become a master of the shield. And then, yes then, my son will pay for his insolence and disrespect.

Magicka is definitely worth the $9.99 purchase price from the Steam store. Easily one of the best gaming bargains I’ve had in a while. The Vietnam and Marshlands expansions are also tempting. But I’m just going to practice up on my shield work first.

The Killing

Tonight I found myself wondering, what if all television was like AMC's "The Killing"?

Compared to "The Killing" other television seems like shrill, birdlike cries, cries that seem empty, meaningless.

At this point in the mystery, I'm not sure where "The Killing" is going. We've been served up many possible suspects--two politicians engaged in a bitter competition, at least two drug-addled youths and one high school faculty member who may have an unhealthy attraction to the younger student body.

In a typical mystery, "The Killing" doesn't really offer much that is new to its audience. What it gives us is a gritty depiction of a murder investigation from multiple, parallel perspectives. One perspective is that of the detectives investigating the case; another is that of the family members experiencing the loss, a third is that of the political candidates engaged in a no-holds-barred battle to win the upcoming election.

To the family members, this is the case of the loss of a loved one--a loss that comes under the most frightening circumstances. Not only do the parents learn that their daughter was murdered, but they also find that their daughter likely suffered terribly before she died.

To the political candidates whose campaigns are linked to the investigation, the death of the girl is either a political asset or a liability--depending on the campaign with which you are aligned. The girl was found in the trunk of a car used by the Richmond campaign. Perhaps this was a campaign tactic by the current Mayor Lesley Adams to smear the name of challenger Darren Richmond. At this point, the viewer has no idea.

What makes this series really work is its gritty realism. None of the key characters can trust their comrades in this mystery. Even the lead detective Sarah Linden (played by Mirelle Enos) looks into her partner Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnamen). Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell) has a leak in his campaign, but he has no idea who that leak is. And the audience has no idea whether Richmond himself could be the killer.

Each episode follows Linden and Holders' leads as to the identity--or possible identity--of Rosie Larsen's killer. Each episode eliminates--or seemingly eliminates--one or more of the suspects. The viewers cannot help but conclude that her death is somehow linked to the ongoing political battle between Richmond and the current Mayor Adams.

Occam's razor would have the viewers cleave to the simplest premise, but the events depicted move the audience's thoughts to the political backdrop as well as the social realities depicted in the series.

AMC's "The Killing" is compelling as much for the mystery with which it confounds its viewers as for its realism and the detailed character analysis. The viewers come to realize that all of the characters depicted in the story are complex and detailed. Each individual is drawn with an attentive brush. It's up to the viewer to see where the descriptions lead.

I can't say with any certainty who the killer is at this point. All I know is that I'm hooked and I can't stop watching.

Amazon.com: The Girl in the Window eBook: G. Ross Key: Kindle Store

My new ebook is now live in the Kindle store! This is a short story in the horror genre.

Amazon.com: The Girl in the Window eBook: G. Ross Key: Kindle Store

New ebook on its way

A new ebook will soon appear on my Amazon author page. It is currently in the process of being reviewed prior to publication, but I expect it to become available sometime today.

The new ebook is a horror short story in a conventional suburban setting.

Live Bait

I recently published my story Live Bait and Doughnuts: A Kakanoe Mystery as a Kindle ebook on Amazon. It's actually been ten years since I first wrote this story, but back then ebooks didn't really exist yet. It's been sitting around gathering dust ever since, waiting for me to do something with it. I decided to just throw it out there and see what happens.

Interestingly enough, the story is actually a joke aimed squarely at the writer's group of which I was a founding member.

It all started like this: One day we were talking about doing some collaborative storytelling, and somebody--pretty sure it was Herb--mentioned some writers who had worked together to develop characters and settings and that each then wrote their own stories using those characters and settings. Each person in our group came up with a setting and then the group voted on which we would use (two were chosen) for our stories. Once the settings were in place we each created characters that would go into the grab bag of sorts from which we could all choose when creating our adventures.

Since I was really excited about the setting I'd created, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't one of the two chosen. That was fine. I created a couple of somewhat outlandish characters around which to build stories in the chosen settings--one of which, I was determined, would be far different from any other character in play.

Meanwhile, a little idea had taken root in my mind. One of the chosen settings had opened the door for it, and since the opportunity was there, I was going to use it.

I was going to cheat.

I would write my story in the chosen setting, but I'd found a loophole that allowed me to sort of pull my setting into the mix and to introduce one of my original characters to the pool.

And thus, Live Bait and Doughnuts: A Kakanoe Mystery was born. I'm not sure, but I think only one other group member knew that I'd cheated.