Preview by: William Abner

On its face, Magicka, the action-rpg from Paradox that hits streets tomorrow, looks pretty generic. It’s set in the fantasy world of Midgard (no relation) where goblins and trolls and other evil baddies wander the landscape doing all sorts of evil things. Another generic fantasy themed Diablo clone?

But wait, there’s more.

As you begin to peel away the layers of the design you see that Paradox and developer Arrowhead Games are both in on the joke – nearly everything in the game is done with a wink and a nod; its sarcastic tone is a welcome change from the usual gloomy, dark, serious, no laughter at all games that usually populate this genre.

You play a wizard (actually you look more like a spell casting Jawa without the drab color scheme) who sets off on a quest to help the King. This quest leads you through a 13 level campaign. The tools of your wizard trade revolve around the eight elements of magic, and this is where the game earns its stripes.

Magicka is all about combining elements to cast the proper spell in order to annihilate the bad guys that come your way—and hoo boy does this game throw a lot of bad guys at you. The eight elements: fire, water, steam, lightning, earth, etc. are used together to create different spell effects; you can even stack elements to create more powerful spells if you wish. Various elements perform how you would imagine. Do you want to damage a wet target? Try a lighting spell – or a cold spell. Want to knock a foe down? Earth magic is your ticket. Or combine earth and fire to create an all together different (in this case hot) earth effect.