Whether it’s played online or locally, MageQuit is a bewitching party game with compelling combat, a brilliant progression system, and lots of charm.
This decade has seen an indie boom of variably clever and wacky party games like Overcooked 2 and Gang Beasts that take a niche core concept and push it to the limit, and MageQuit has thrown its pointy hat into the ring to be among the most entertaining, online or off. Pitting up to ten warlocks with ever-changing powers against one another in free-for-all combat, MageQuit is a laser-focused multiplayer experience that walks the line between chaos and high-level play with relative ease. There will be cheap deaths at times and the controls on keyboard and mouse need a major overhaul, but those blemishes can’t overshadow how smart and wildly enjoyable of a party game newcomer Bowlcut Studios has conjured with this one.
Matches in MageQuit consist of nine short rounds of battle royale-like combat, and the wizard or witch with the most kills is crowned the victor. This solitary mode is simple on its face, but there’s a magical twist that makes extended play so compelling: before each round, players choose new powers from a random list, building out their mage’s abilities one-at-a-time. This means that every set of rounds in MageQuit plays out like a multiplayer roguelike in which it’s the players, themselves, that provide every run its sense of steadily increasing challenge and frenzy, and it’s no overstatement to call this progression system ingenious. Anticipating the potential for more experienced players to easily assemble over-powered builds every match, the developers also smartly sorted who gets what by ascending kill count, ensuring that novice players get a fighting chance to claim powers they feel might better suit them.
As for how combat actually plays out, it’s surprisingly tactical, but it leaves a lot of room for unfairness. To survive, players must defend against an assortment of attack types (including traditional fireballs, toxic potion flasks, and even massive, earthen hands that fling players off the map), but they also have to predict how adversaries will cast their spells, which can be fired straight ahead or in curved trajectories a la Wanted. A couple of abilities, though, are more hindrance than help and need rebalancing.
Additionally, the game doesn’t reward the last wizard standing with so much as an extra point, which feels slightly awkward seeing as though the camera triumphantly zooms in on them. Overall, the complexity of combat would be wholly welcome were it not for the fact that gamepad users are at a clear advantage, as MageQuit’s keyboard and mouse controls are bafflingly arcane. Any PC player without a gamepad will effectively be forfeiting potential victories, and the inequity between these two sets of players is painfully visible during gameplay
Dry gameplay analysis aside, MageQuit is chock-full of party game charm. There are a handful more stages than there are rounds in a match, and each one plays with space and various hazards in ways that make them all feel unique. A few are straightforward arenas that allow for distraction-free combat, but the majority utilize dangers like sea monster-infested waters, lakes of lava and poison that deal damage, and even an active volcano that spews molten rocks at unsuspecting mages. These hazards sometimes cheapen the outcome of rounds, but it’s hard not to laugh at misadventures even when you’re the victim. There’s enchantment aplenty in the overall user experience, as well. Its Astroneer-reminiscent, low-detail art style helps keep the action in focus, while customization unlockables can be attained through reasonable amounts of play without a microtransaction in sight. Best of all, mages’ beards hilariously grow along with their score in the pre-round lobby! What’s not to love?
At launch, matches were fairly quick and easy to come by, and the game’s convenient matchmaking time estimator has proven accurate (often even a bit conservative) for how long or short wait times will be. During development, MageQuit was a darling indie at conventions, and Bowlcut Studios seems keen to keep a strong sense of community at the game’s heart in order to keep player counts up, and they’re using a few novels tools in their attempt.
A streaming option has been baked right in via the Spectate Mode, and, similarly, the game’s popularity at organized and personal gatherings will continued to be fostered through its Convention Mode. However, Spectate Mode unfortunately only works for private lobbies, and it’s hard to tell if a thriving MageQuit community can emerge when it completely lacks in-game chat and is already matching players into ongoing matches with spells they didn’t choose themselves.
Even in the face of an uncertain online future, MageQuit still emerges as a stellar party experience worthy of time and attention from players of all levels of skill. It’s got a few issues to sort out post-launch (most notably its keyboard and mouse control scheme), but it offers up combat that’s as methodical as it is unabashedly fun, a progression system that’s nothing short of brilliant, and an opportunity for players to essentially live out Wizard Battle from Adventure Time. Whether players gather round under one roof for couch-bound chaos, stream with distant friends in a private lobby, or matchmake with robed strangers online, it’s hard to not have a great time with MageQuit.
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MageQuit is available for Xbox One and PC. Screen Rant was provided a PC code for the purpose of this review.
