Magicka - Reviews @ GameTrailers, YouGamers, Out of Eight

People are sending in Magicka articles, so I guess we'll pick up coverage even though its not an RPG.  First, Melvil noticed a video review at GameTrailers with a score of 8.5/10. 

I thought I'd add a couple more via Blue's. YouGamers awards 87%:

Different elements can be combined into multi-element spells or you can apply multiple copies of the same element to increase the strength of that element in a spell. Up to five components per spell, ten different elements and four possible target modifiers equals thousands of theoretical combinations. While most of these are just slightly modified or strengthened versions of base spells, there are still hundreds of functionally different spells you can cast. For example...

Elements also work logically - some are polar opposites that cancel each other out (or merge into another element) and some are hazardous to mix together. Spells are also equally hazardous to everything they hit so that nice combo of freezing wet targets is very effective, but it also applies to you - cue hilarity and "accidents" in up to 4-player co-op mode. Yes, Magicka can be played alone just fine but the spellcasting system truly blooms in co-op, especially as friendly fire is not an option you can disable and as multiple spells can be combined even more effectively with multiple wizards working together.

...and Out of Eight says 6/8:

Magicka takes a really neat idea, making your own spells in real time, and runs with it, almost to the top. It is quite fun banging out spells on your keyboard, using up to five elements from a list of ten, and then using them on enemies, yourself, your weapons, or the adjacent area. The results are some nice, somewhat open-ended combinations, producing sprays, beams, projectiles, shields, and other assorted chaos. While destroying an enemy with a beam rather than a projectile essentially accomplishes the same task, making the spell creation options a bit extraneous (not to mention tedious), there are some enemies that are more susceptible to certain elements so there can be the occasional tactical decision on which element to use. There are some advanced spell combinations that are either learned by accident or spelled out in books you discover during the campaign, but there are relatively few of these to choose from. You aren’t restricted by mana and don’t need to level up to cast better spells: everything is available from the beginning and you can throw out bolts and healing buffs as often as you’d like. This, of course, can lead to a lot of spell spam, just throwing out the same combination over and over again, which takes some of the fun out of it. It also takes a lot of time and energy simply casting spells, since you must tap out the correct combination every time; sometimes I yearned for the more restricted but less tedious method of simply pressing one button to cast a spell. The game is fantastic in cooperative multiplayer, where you and up to three of your friends cast spells together; since friendly fire is always on, you need to be careful about where you aim and when you use area spells. This is how the game is supposed to be played: there are too many enemies to deal with by yourself, and the game fails to adjust the difficulty based on how many human players there are. You must also complete an entire level in one sitting and can’t save your progress wherever you’d like; this wouldn’t be as significant of a limitation if Magicka gave you more frequent checkpoints, placed after every battle. The adventure mode lasts long enough, and finding players is easier now that the initial multiplayer issues have been sorted out. Despite some limitations, for $10, fans of action role-playing games can’t go wrong.