Lichdom
Lichdom: Battlemage is a first-person caster that gives the Mage the spotlight in a way never before seen in games. With limitless magical power at your disposal and brutal enemies around every corner, victory hinges on a combination of skill and strategy. You must carefully craft a vast array of spells and learn to cast them in the heat of combat. You are your spells! The Lichdom: Battlemage spell crafting system offers an enormous range of customization. Every Mage is the product of crafted magic that reflects the individual's play style. Whether you prefer to target your foes from a safe distance, wade into combat and unleash your power at point-blank range, or pit your enemies against each other, endless spell customization lets you become the Mage you want to be.
Steam User 7
It's not perfect, but a lot better compared to the impression the overall reviews have given. I spent 20 hours in the Campaign and pros easily overwhelm the cons. For starters the fighting is entertaining - you swiftly gather few spells which is just enough to get over the frustrating part of the game where you might be bit confused what to do when you gather numerous objects and there are various ways to combine spells and sometimes a new spell or the combination with others might not be as good as the previous one ore combination.
Allow me to enlighten the things a bit. Firstly there are 8 different magic schools/styles and you start with 2 of them Fire and Ice - the rest are collected when you proceed. At once you can carry 3 of these styles at once but you are able to change these styles between checkpoints which are quite many. When you find a functioning combo go with that - sometimes though changes might work better. However each style is divided in three diffrent spells which are direct strike hitting one unit, area of effect spell and finally nova block, but there is more. All these 9 spells have also different modifications for example direct fire spell can be a ball which goes directly forward, but it can also act a bit like mortar hitting enemies from above or it can be a flamethrower giving a constant hit on close targets. These spells have also so many levels and bonus effects that there really is thousands of different ways to win the battles. 10th spell is the shield which affects critically how you play the game when some shields let you use nova spells as your block and counter attack others will give you ability to blink or teleport making you more vulnerable in close combat but more agile to avoid the blows from close and far. Note that if you pick the Agile type shield which I did the Nova block spell becomes quite useless because the blocking time window is negligible but quick blink compensates that. Moreover you can always switch using Strategic or Tactical Shield to make blocking possible again but sacrificing blinking.
You find these different spells by gathering magical essence from enemies, random corpses, visions from the past and various monuments which are like optional challenges giving you rewards if you defeat their guards. Some can be very difficult. You don't only collect spells but also spell parts and they both have different rarity levels and rank levels. Rarity levels go from normal to legendary and combining 3 legendary spells you can form unique spell which allows you to gain access to very very devastating magics like dropping a tiny meteorite, summoning a bone golem or causing a mini black hole.
So I have been babbling about magic system a while now and there would be still things to say but I rather let it be for I still didn't understand everything there was. All I say that the gameplay is fun and you really feel a badass battlemage if you concentrate on the spellcrafting and use brains and intuition when trying different approaches.
Outside of spellcasting the graphics are nice achieved with Cryengine and there was moderate amount of enemy types to keep me on my toes when needed. The game is heavily linear but few times there is some alternative paths and all levels have a kit of tiny caves, coves or crypts hiding treasures.
Worse thing in the game is the story. I have barely never felt such indifference what is going on and this is mischievous because game tries to fountain something nice in the beginning but it turns ashes in the first few hours because your best pal and around 90 percently the only person you ever talk to is a guy who scouts a bit ahead and does not have anything interesting to say, there is no backstory, no chemistry between protagonist, nothing. Just some mutual goal to waste a bad guy Shax who has kidnapped the sister of the main hero and plans to conquer the world. There is also some good wizard guy who appears just few times and then withdraws appealing only in documents which you keep finding through the game and I never liked to read those out carefully. The game could have used deeper encounters with side characters, more meaningful dialogues and more fruitful character development outside of turning from jewelry blacksmith to ultimate warlock.
In conclusion Lichdom: Battlemage is quite forgotten gem from the past. Its unique character development is its trump card and no other game is known to me to be close to this. It may get repetitive in the end but lasted long enough not to waste it. If you can forgive the poor storyline and see this one in sale I do recommend to give it a try.
Steam User 3
This is a tough one. It *IS* a good game but it very much overstays its welcome.
It's quite a lot of fun and you can definitely feel like a badass mage for most of the game.
But the game almost feels like a chore when you get to the later parts.
I'd still recommend it, at least on sale, but don't expect to finish it in one go without getting bored.
Steam User 1
I bounced pretty hard off this game the first time, but I'm glad I went back and finished it. This game is flawed, to be sure. The loot and crafting systems are atrocious, and the story is forgettable. But it still has some redeeming qualities. The environments are very nice to look at, and the spell-casting, while repetitive, has its fun moments.
Steam User 1
The best and most beautiful game about the Battle Mage. No mana, no cool-downs. Developers, if you would add a network mode, it would be ideal. Developers thank you for this game, for making this game.
Steam User 1
Aside from the near gacha level of RNG when it comes to getting great loot, sometimes glitchy controls and the tendency for a player to discover than only use a single meta for combat... it has my two favourite voice actors in the industry in one game.
Wished it was a bigger hit and gotten sequels, expansions/etc.