Wizard 101

Players can then customize their character's hair, face, hat, robe, and boots. What sets Wizard101 apart from other fantasy MMORPGs is not its graphics but its combat. Combat is handled in a turn based fashion on circular dueling areas located in many locations around the game world. Whenever players come in contact with NPC monsters or challenge other players to duels, the action will be take place on these areas. Players take turns using spell cards against each other. There are many dozen different cards in Wizard101 and all players can mix and match cards from all schools of magic. I've never been a fan of card game based video games, but Wizard101 is my first exception. The combat is fluid enough to overcome the inherent slowness of card games while still maintaining the strategic aspect. Since everyone has access to the same pool of cards, duels are determined by who put together the best deck, not by who grinded the most. Questing is another major aspect of Wizard101. There are plenty of quests to do and they do a good job of providing players direction. Never in this game will someone log in, have nothing to do and be forced to go grind. Quests lead players slowly into new areas as they level and also provide some game lore. Wizard101 is obviously aimed at a young audience so the background story isn't awe inspiring, but its still nice to have. 

Like in any MMORPG, there are a fair share of walking quests. NPCs will order you to walk around talking to other NPCs, back and forth, for no reason. Not one but two early game quests ask you to talk to all 7 magic school trainers who are located in a circular area in town. I've praised Wizard101 so far but it has several flaws worth mentioning. The first and largest being the inability to chat with other players by default. In order to activation 'dictionary chat', players must go to the home page, log in, and edit your account options. By default Wizard101 only allows a hand full of stock messages such as 'lets go fight!' Another problem is the repetitive spell effects. New players are limited to a small selection of cards which means players will be forced to see the same spell animations hundreds of times. Players will find them selves in battle by accident if they stray too close to an NPC or a fight that's already in progress. Choosing the 'flee' option during a fight doesn't just take players out of a fight, it teleports them all the way back to town. As of July 2008, Wizard101 is still in beta and hopefully some of these flaws will be fixed before the final release. I've had a hard time categorizing Wizard101 and the best I can come up with is 'Magic the Gathering meats Harry Potter.' If you're a fan of casual fantasy MMORPGs, of Harry Potter, or of card game styled games, Wizard101 is the game for you.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

•