Wizard101

Wizard101 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of students of witchcraft and wizardry to save the Spiral, the fictional universe

OVERVIEW

A free to play MMORPG meets Card Collecting Game, Wizard101 is a traditional quest driven MMORPG where players take on the role of the protagonist of the story, acquiring XP and levelling up as they learn new spells to battle even stronger enemies. The combat element focuses on a CCG style mechanic with turn based combat and players will earn more spells to build out their decks as they level up. The game is very family friendly and appropriate for younger audiences, with chat and word filters and pre-generated name options to make a safe atmosphere for young players.

KEY FEATURES

- 7 Schools of Magic
- Story-driven questing in a 3D third person world
- PVE solo or coop with other players
- PVP Arena
- Acquire, win and craft spells for a combat deck
- Mana replenishing mini-games
- Free to play

LORE

As a new student to the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, the last thing you expected on your first day is to do battle against Malistaire Drake the removed former teacher of Death magic that has returned to the school as part of his own sinister plan. Tasked by head teacher Merle Ambrose to practice your chosen magical arts, you must start preparing to face Malistaire and his undead minions as he raises them across the entire world of The Spiral.

GAMEPLAY

Overall the game is an MMORPG with players able to control their character and guide them through a third person perspective 3D environment, moving from place to place, fighting enemies and talking with NPCs. When combat is initiated it becomes a card based battle with players drawing spells from a deck of pre-built cards; the combat is not confined to an instance (as many CCG games are) and instead happens in the open world with other player not only able to see what is happening, but also jump into the battle themselves and assist the player without even needing to be in the same group as them.

SCHOOLS OF MAGIC

When a player initially creates their character they can perform a questionnaire to see which school of magic suits them best, or choose from the list of available ones. There are seven available magic schools to choose from: Storm, Fire, Ice, Myth, Balance, Death and Life, each one having various unique spell cards and adopting a different style of play that will suit different players. Those learning the Death magic school must focus on building up various spells that don’t take full effect until they combine over multiple turn and make it an advance school, whereas the Storm school focusing on dealing high amount of damage and early on low level Storm students will be very powerful and can greatly damage their opponent, but they also suffer by having the lowest health pool.

COMBAT SYSTEM

Like many card collecting games the combat in Wizard101 focuses on a turn based system where all combatants have a chance to draw one card each turn; cards are drawn from the players hand of known spells that they have unlocked through levelling up, winning spells, acquiring them as loot and even crafting them. The different spells available on the cards depends on the school of magic the player has chosen to learn, which essentially determines their class and play style, spells are selected which will spend some mana and then the player chooses who they wish to target; either targeting enemies with damage/hindering spells, or targeting themselves or an ally with healing/beneficial spells. When an opponent has been dealt enough damage they are knocked out of the battle, when the player and their allies are the only ones remaining then they have won the battle.

MANA MINI-GAMES

As players need mana in battle, and it is not instantly replenished with each fight, one of the key features is the mana replenishing mini-games available at the Fairground. Here players can take on various mini-games such as a flying shooter game, a Candy Crush style blocks game, and more; not only do players replenish their mana the better they do, but with a high score they earn additional prizes!

GENRE: Free to play MMORPG CCG
PLATFORM: Windows or Mac
DEVELOPER: Kingsisle Entertainment

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT

O/S: Windows 98 or above, Mac OSX
CPU: 1GHz Intel Processor
RAM: 512 MB
HDD: 5GB
Video: GeForce 2 or equivalent

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