Recently I wanted to play a magical combat game and Hogwarts legacy seemed to be mostly what I was looking for so I ethically acquired a copy. Unfortunately even with DRM removed it runs very poorly on my laptop.
Looking through steam games tagged magic, I didn’t manage to find something similar. Most of the games I saw were either top-down/side-scroll (I’m looking for FPS/TPS) or had magic systems simpler than in Skyrim (I want magical combat to be the main focus).
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Edit: Specs Ryzen5 3550H (2019) 8gb RAM Radeon RX 560x 4gb VRAM
Apart from being a sidescroller, it sounds like you might really like Noita.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 also has incredible magic co.bat, but that’s top-down, turnbased tactics.
Or maybe Psychonauts? Not a wizard, but an assortment of ESP powers gained at a summer camp like boy scout badges as you go through the game. 3d platformer. But the powers and their variety are really fun.
And there’s Witcher 3, which is 3rd person. But it’s close 3rd person at least? Might not run on your machine though. Maybe the 1st game might? Though it has its flaws.
For first person… Hmm. A surprisingly tough call. Most of the 1st person games I know have really straightforward battle magic, the wizard game included. Which is kinda weird now I think about it.
The Dishonored games? If you’re okay with steampunk setting (very well done steampunk though!) 1st person immersive sims. Stealth or kill everyone however you like with a nice assortment of magic powers. I’d put this on top of the list honestly. It’s old and stylized enough it might run alright.
Prey, like dishonored, also allows you to learn (optional) magic powers and use them in a variety of situations, but it’s also set in space, if that’s a dealbreaker. 1st person though!
Or the Persona games? It’s not strictly speaking classic wizardry, but it’s definitely magic of a sort, and I think it should run on most anything, especially Persona 4 Golden. But the fights are turn-based strategy. And 3rd person. Goddamn.
Legend of Grimrock? It’s an odd duck, and you learn magic slowly, but maybe it’s the right odd duck for you? First person, real time but you and enemies only move along a grid, old-style dungeon crawler.
I’ve played Noita. It’s fun but not exactly what I’m looking for.
Divinity isn’t a magic game I’m looking for, but it is an RPG I want to play at some point, I’ve only heard good things about it.
With Psychonauts, I’ve heard of it as a cult classic that every True Gamer™ has to play, but I’m not really into platformers.
AFAIK Witcher’s combat isn’t really about magic, it’s an RPG with some magical abilities that help you win swordfights, which is not what I want to play at the moment. It’s a maybe, but I think there are better fits.
Legend of Grimrock 2 looks very interesting, it looks like the RPGs that were made before I was born and I wanted to play one for a while. A game in that style that can run on modern PC? Sign me up!
I have conflicted feelings about Persona. I’ve never played one, I haven’t even seen the gameplay. From what I know of the gameplay it’s unique and interesting to me. Visual style looks cool. But I also know that some of the story and character decisions made by the devs are really weird even by Japan weirdness standards, and very weird to me personally. Considering that the story and characters are the main part of that game, I would rather wait for the next one, and hopefully they’ll stop doing that weird stuff and fix it.
I’m playing both Prey and Dishonored 2 right now. I really like them both, which makes me think that the game I want is an immersive sim with extensive magic system. Given that an immersive sim is a rare genre, I don’t think a game like that exists. Still, thank you for all your suggestions.
Can confirm, Grimrock 1 and 2 are super tight. Extremely true to their inspiration while modernizing basically everything. Slower, Not a slog. Tough, Not cruel.
Others have brought up Dark Messiah which I think is a very decent rec.
Dragon Age Origins has some pretty powerful mages, but it might lack the physicality you’re after.
For Bethesda games I think magic is much better in Morrowind and Oblivion than Skyrim
Also, this is a little niche but Dragons Dogma has some awesome mages. It’d a little punchier and more action oriented than most western RPGs.
Lastly, Guild Wars 2 has surprisingly fun combat for a decade old MMO and it’s free.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic? Lol it’s and oldie but a goodie, that one will run for sure.
Looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!
- The Bioshock series supports a spellcasting-based play style with a decent skill tree.
- CONTROL also involves a lot of eldritch force powers in its combat sequences
- I know you didn’t really want sidescrollers or top-downs but Noita and Magicka are pretty great at delivering on the creativity of mage combat and scratch this itch for me.
This YouTube creator has published several quality videos what’s going on in Wizard Games lately, which is a quick way to catch up on the genre: https://youtu.be/quPKQIVEX5A
I’ve played Bioshock 3 a long time ago and while fun, it isn’t what I’m looking for in terms of magic. I’ve heard 1 and 2 are a bit more deep in this regard but afaik it’s still mainly a shooter. I’m currently playing Dishonored 2 and Bioshock seems more similar to that than to Hogwarts.
Control was something I’ve wanted to play for a while, mostly because of SCP-inspired story, I didn’t know anything about it’s gameplay. Will 100% check it out.
Currently Noita is my magic game and Hogwarts was in part attempt for variety. I’ve seen Magicka on steam and I dunno why, but it didn’t click for me.
Anyway, thank you very much for the recommendations!
Have you considered Enderal? It’s a total conversion mod for Skyrim on steam, so the bones of it are the simpler Skyrim systems- but it overhauls everything and has excellent world building and quests to boot. A full mage playthrough/build is very fun/rewarding. Just understand that it is NOT Skyrim. It looks like it sometimes, and there’s definitely still that Bethesda jank, but it’s its own beast.
I wanted to avoid mods for now especially with skyrim since last time I’ve tried I’ve spent like 3 hours straight on nexusmods, only to run into conflicts and be too tired to even attempt to fix them. Although with a total conversion I assume it’s all-in-one which should help avoid that problem. Thank you, will check it out!
Yes, the total conversion package makes it self-contained in the steam library/store. It just checks that you own a legit copy of Skyrim to run it. It has its own steam page even, couldn’t be easier. Plus it’s free (assuming you own any edition of Skyrim) so it’s hard to pass up with so little risk aside from your time.
If you have the steam version of Skyrim it’s very simple to get running.
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/SureAI/#browse has both versions (depending on if you have the launch version or special/anniversary edition). Also found here is Nehrim, their total conversion mod for OblivionI think part of the problem last time was that some of my mods were nexus and some were steam 😃 I guess I’m reinstalling Skyrim then. Thank you for the link!
Wabbajack is a mod organizer / installer that lets you load mod orders that have been configured by people who borderline make Mod Orders for a living. I cannot stress enough how much they took the thinking out of modding Bethesda games.
Pay for a 1 month sub to nexus mods and set the installer to run overnight.
Lichdom: Battlemage?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/261760/Lichdom_Battlemage/
That looks very interesting! Thank you!
If your laptop is having issues running Hogwarts Legacy, it might be relevant to include your laptop specs as well as some more specifics on what you’re looking for in a magic game.
Do you just want the magic system to be simple, or do you also want a simple, casual game? For example, Little Witch Nobeta has a simple magic system with a focus on magic combat, but it’s a Souls-like, so it could be on the difficult side.
Thanks for reminding me about specs, I’ll add them to the post. Though I assume that it’s mostly on Hogwarts being unoptimised, because my laptop can play Cyberpunk2077 and X-4 foundations well enough. It’s 8gb ram; Ryzen5 3550h so the processor is only 3 years old. I guess 4g VRAM isn’t enough for the physics sim of MC’s clothes (seriously why is it enabled even on lowest settings).
In a game I want decent magical combat. I want to have magical attacks that have varied effects and counters. Something that makes you think which spell to use and when. I guess the most important part for me is counters. So for example, if the enemy has a magical shield, you have to somehow deal with it first, you can’t just spam click your best spell.
Two Worlds 2 had a very interesting idea for a magic system where you find cards and slot them to create and modify spells. It’s pretty jank but maybe worth a look. The game also had one of the most interesting multiplayer setups for open world rpgs I’ve ever seen.
From a cursory glance the spell system looks like close to what I’m looking for. Thank you for the suggestion!
Isles of Etherion? It’s probably even more demanding though.
Check out Magicka. Simple (-ish), unusual and really fun with friends (combos!) but also totally doable as a single player.
I’ve seen it on steam, and while it’s combat is kinda what I’m looking for, the top-down perspective and more arcade-like gameplay aren’t what I want to play right now. Still, thank you!
How could anything be simpler than skyrims magic?
Witcher magic, you literally have access to exactly five “spells”.
