Wizard with a Gun Review (PC)

The billycorn might have the horn of a unicorn but it has received a massive dose of corruption during The Shatter, powerful to turn the noble creature into a fearsome and slightly gross enemy. Especially when you happen to antagonize a herd at once. They launch powerful melee attacks and it’s hard to dodge them all. My wizard needs to pop a healing potion and I try to retreat to a more defensible area, with obstacles that can stop the chaos unicorns from killing me.

I consider using the Worldbuilder or the Groundlayer to alter the battlefield. But as I move, I attract the attention of a robot opponent. I switch to my machine-gun-like wand and start shooting burning bullets, which I have put some research into to make more effective. It quickly eliminates the mech enemy and starts to thin the incoming animal herd.

I take some hits before dealing with them all but it’s worth it, given how many resources I pick up. With the Chaos timer nearing zero, I make for the nearest portal, avoiding or running away from all the enemies I see. When the end of the world begins, I plan to spend some time attacking Chaos creatures to get extra arcana, which will power some solid research efforts once I get to my base.

Wizard with a Gun was developed by Galvanic Games and published by Devolver Digital. I played using Steam on the PC. The game is also offered on the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series X and S. The title mixes action and rogue ideas, with a unique take on exploration and world modification.

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The fantasy world players will explore is under assault by Chaos, a force powerful enough to destroy it in just a few minutes. The only way to stop this process is to explore an ancient space that sits outside time while rewinding time to explore the world that was.

It’s a decent premise and allows the game to introduce a ton of weird characters to interact with. The problem is that there are not that many of them and that each time the five minutes to the end of the world restarts, they forget all their interaction with the player. They repeat dialogue and, literally, waste precious time.

Wizard with a Gun is an action game with some significant twists. The protagonist will start an expedition by going through a portal, battling enemies, gathering resources, trying to achieve his objectives, and paying attention to a timer. Once that reaches zero, Chaos will start to destroy the world, and it's time to get out quick or risk being overwhelmed by the constantly spawning creatures of disorder.

Combat is quick and often deadly, especially when multiple opponents are involved at once. Our wizard has a solid dodge that should be used as often as possible and it is possible to get enemies to attack each other, especially when they use area-of-effect strikes. Chaos portals pop up from time to time. Prioritize eliminating them, because they spawn slithering enemies that can pose problems.

Combat is not the only way to interact with the world. Players quickly get access to a Worldbuilder, which takes resources that can be gathered from the world to create crafting and research stations, as well as walls and cosmetics. The wizard also has a Groundlayer, which will create new terrain, a requirement to access areas both in the doomed world and the tower.

To add new items for both, players can scan objects. It can be hard but also make an effort to do the same to enemies to get more details. Basically, when I was able to safely scan an opponent, it was also almost guaranteed that I could deal with it without losing any health.

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It’s here that players will place workbenches and research stations. This will initially open options to replenish ammo and add special effects to guns. Via research, new stations open up, offering access to a variety of upgrades for bullets and charms for the wizard’s clothing. A furnace will turn scrap into ingots, while a composter turns organic material into vitae and an annihilator breaks down anything that’s not useful into arcana.

Wizard with a Gun has a lot of resource sinks, but the focus is always on the runs. Open up and experiment with bullet types, modifying them to suit the playstyle. Then secure the resources required to produce them and improve them. Then start an expedition that can achieve a bigger aim, like opening up another type of research.

The world is procedurally generated but the action can become somewhat repetitive, especially when players face one of the bosses and get killed run after run. Playing cooperatively opens up more combos and opportunities for surprises and can eliminate much of the frustration linked to the gameplay loop.

Wizard with a Gun draws inspiration from the wider world of action rogue-lite titles. There are plenty of customization options for the very cute but deadly protagonist. There’s a clear charm to this fallen world that players constantly ransack while trying to save it from Chaos. I also like the weapon effects and how the game clearly shows how enemies will behave, giving players the chance to adapt their tactics.

The sound design isn’t as interesting but comes close. There’s no voice acting, and the battle sound effects are fairly standard. But the soundtrack is very good, a sort of twangy Western with a layer of fantasy and melancholia on top. It enhances immersion and really makes the fictional universe, despite its repetitive gameplay elements, feel alive.

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The Good

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