Over the last few weeks I’ve been flitting between a lot of different games. I’ve been struggling to stay focused and engage with deep and complex systems, so it took a while for Rift Wizard 2 to really sink its claws in. Once it clicked, however, it quickly became one of my highlights of the year so far.
Let’s dig into why…
What is Rift Wizard 2?
Despite the good things that I had heard about it, I never got around to playing the original Rift Wizard. This was not a mistake I intended to make with the follow-up. Rift Wizard 2 left Early Access a couple of months ago and so, armed with a code provided to me by solo developer Dylan White, I dove in to see what was what.
Rift Wizard 2 is, much like its elder sibling, a turn-based roguelike with an emphasis on building powerful characters, then using a growing spell book to destory hordes of enemies as they storm your position. You control this cute little amnesiac wizard dude, decide where to place him on a map/battlefield, and then hit play.
During each turn-based mission, your wizard can cast spells with mana drawn from a limited pool. Armed with whatever you have unlocked and equipped, you must proceed through a series of guarded portals, battling whatever you encounter until either you are dead or your enemies are. It really is that simple, but at the same time, it’s incredibly deep, and full of interesting decision making.
A spell for this and a spell for that
At the heart of the experience is your character sheet, which is wiped clean for each new run. You start able to buy one spell, but then you must move about each new stage picking up any XP that you can, then use it to level up your character further. So far, so simple.
Things get complicated quickly. There are a huge number of spells to choose from, each with specialist sub-classes that can also be unlocked with more XP, and honestly, for the first few hours I found it tough going. It’s not at all clear how each of the different spells is going to interact with the others at your disposal, and there is a lot of information for you to digest at any time.
And, yet. I would argue that this sheer wall of complexity is the game in Rift Wizard 2, and unpicking its nuances and rearranging that knowledge into a semi-workable build is where I found my truest enjoyment.
You can grow your spell book in so many different ways, with a dizzying array of potential synergies to unlock. It’s a systemic dream, where you must assess the weight of a spell against how it might co-exist with the abilities that you’ve already unlocked on your travels.
Maybe you’ll have a pack of beasts at your beck and call, acting as a barrier while you fire lightning bolts from the back of the pack. Or perhaps you will freeze your enemies in place before bombarding them with attacks until they perish… and rise to become your undead minions.
And those two examples really are just scratching the surface of the possibilities inherent in this elegant yet challenging turn-based roguelike.
Trying on different hats
On top of daily seeded runs and all that fun stuff, there are pre-made classes for you to mess around with. These presets give you access to a narrower potential pool of spells, while at the same time giving you a more clearly focused direction for your character build. I actually found them quite helpful early on when trying to work out what spells might synergise well.
Even if you spend most of your time in the main game, you’ll find incredible depth at every turn, with walls of text to read and process. This depth means a stern challenge and that in turn means that your digital death is always lurking. However, each attempt is a new opportunity to finesse what you’ve learned and take another run at this punishing fantasy adventure.
Functional it may be, it’s not be the prettiest wizard at the magic ball, and it’s certainly not the easiest to get along with at first, however, Rift Wizard 2 is, in my opinion, one of the finest contemporary turn-based roguelikes out there.
I’d also add, for what it’s worth, that it’s the most fun I have had with a roguish magic system since I discovered the joy of Noita.
With Rift Wizard 2, developer Dylan White has concocted a punchy and tactical roguelike experience where your decisions are deep and impactful, your successes mighty but fleeting, and your mistakes final, swift, but always an invitation to learn something new.
I really like it, if you couldn’t tell…
As mentioned up top, we were provided a review copy of the game for the purposes of our coverage. Rift Wizard 2 is out now on PC (Win).
