School of Wizardry may sound a bit familiar to those that are acquainted with a certain boy wizard from England, but there are enough twists and turns to make it worth playing.
School of Wizardry may sound a bit familiar to those that are acquainted with a certain boy wizard from England, but there are enough twists and turns to make it worth playing.
You are a student in a wizarding school and must complete quests and duels to grow as a wizard. You are given a set amount of energy to complete and master lessons and your stamina will let you compete in wizarding duels against other players.
As you earn money through dueling and questing, you have the opportunity to purchase property, such as candy shops, that will get provide you with regular income. Certain quests require items that can only be purchased at the store such as robes and wands or awarded in other quests. Every time you master a quest or level up you are given a hall pass that can be traded in for energy refills or special items such as a hydra.
School of Wizardry has an excellent flow when it comes to the lessons, especially in the beginning. You can almost beat the entire first tier of quests without stopping for a break which keeps your interest while also helping learn the ins and outs of the game. The quests themselves are interesting as well and do an excellent job of immersing the player into the wizarding world. Friend building is also easy to do. The game automatically takes into account your friends already playing School of Wizardry, adding them to your order. If you are a new player, then you can go into the game with a ready made army if you have a large number of friends already playing the game.
It almost seems like the dueling was almost an afterthought with no real point in School of Wizardry. I dueled several dozen people and other than gathering a few extra experience points and gold, there was little real reward. The game lacks a trophy system than has become almost standard in games today. You have no real incentive to keep up with the dueling. I was also initially impressed with how freely the game gave away hall passes as most other games give out such things infrequently so players will purchase them online. It wasn’t until I tried to trade my hall passes in that I became disappointed. It takes 200 hall passes for a simple energy refill. You can purchase 500 hall passes for $5, but it takes forever to earn enough through game play.
School of Wizardry will be a big hit for anyone that is a Harry Potter fan and would like to follow in the spectacled wizard’s footstep. It also carries its own weight as a stand alone game if you don’t mind it being a Potter clone.
