Intro
About 4 years ago I started playing a game on my phone called Ingress, made by Niantic. It's an Augmented reality game where players join one of two teams and capture portals to dominate the map.
This company later made Pokémon Go in collaboration with The Pokémon Company.
These two games were the ones that really made me enjoy AR games. Games where you use your phone to see things that isn't really there in the real world.
For a few months I had been watching a game on Google Play called "Maguss". It had been in an alpha stage where you had to buy a key in order to be able to play it.
Then, in February, it was finally released for everybody to play.
This is my review of it.
About Maguss
Maguss is an augmented reality game where you play a Wizard of one 4 different types, each with specific upsides and downsides. The appearance of your character is also influenced by your choice.
The point of the game is to level up (like in most MMORPG's) and gather equipment and items. This is done by battling monsters, gathering herbs, brewing potions and exploring dungeons.
So far, there isn't really a story element, which is a shame, because there are endless possibilities for such. It might be integrated later when the game has had more time to develop.
The main interface
The game has a slightly altered map of the area you are currently physically located in, like Pokémon Go.
On this screen you can see your name, picture, experience points, health and various creatures and items on the map. You need to physically move to reach what is out of reach of your interaction circle.
Monsters you can battle are circled with orange and ingredients with green. Chests are highlighted and can be seen from far away.
Equipment
Like so many other games, you can gather and equip items in Maguss.
You can equip a wand, a spell book different kinds of clothing and jewelry, all which boosts your stats. Nothing less would be expected by an MMORPG.
Battling
Before entering a battle you need to assign your spells to the different patterns. You start with two patterns and as you level up, more will be available. You can freely assign whatever spell you know to the patterns.
Drawing a pattern in battle will put the spell in queue.
Spells come in four different categories: Sorcery, Dark Arts, Invocations and Charms.
Brewing
Maguss features a fun minigame for brewing potions. Once you have gathered the necessary ingredients, you can open the crafting menu and select a cauldron and recipe.
After this, the minigame ensues, wherein you pop bubbles of the potions essence. The more bubbles you pop in 30 seconds, the better the quality of the potion.
Potions can be consumed later for their effect.
PvP
Maguss also has a PvP section, but I won't touch on that in this review. I haven't tried it more than once or twice, but it is much like battling monsters.
My opinion
Maguss is a fun game, but there is definitely room for improvement. Contrary to Pokémon Go and Ingress, the developers don't have a large company in the back, making it harder for them to develop the game at the same speed as those that do.
The brewing and herblore skills are a fun twist, as it means you can enjoy the game on the go without needing to concentrate on battling. The exploration skills also contributes to this.
The battle system, where you draw a sigil for a spell to cast it, is really fun and unique, although the game occasionally seems very sensitive to how correct you have to draw the sigil for it to be accepted.
The game features in-app purchases, and the ability to watch adds for tokens, as most games do these days.
All in all, the game has great potential and I will continue to play it for quite some time I imagine, to see how it develops.
Pictures are taken from maguss.org and as ingame screenshots.
~Decadence
