Ages of Mages: The last keeper

So many flaws. Upgrades make you weaker. Mana management becomes worse, even after buying every upgrade for it and using a +charge staff. The world map is a pain to navigate, especially having to navigate backwards 20 levels to buy a staff after death, just to have to navigate 20 levels forward to get back to where you were. The difficulty levels are poorly implemented. I started on the hardest possible difficulty and breezed through the game, then hit a brick wall where I couldn't get past the first few waves of enemies. Made a new game at the default difficulty, and the exact same thing happened except at a later point in the game. After you die it gives you a "game over" screen and sets you back to how you were prior to entering that stage, except it removes any staff you had. Which would make sense if it kept your exp gained. Since you can't keep any experience playing the leve you are on I was pushed into grinding low level stages for a couple hours instead of allowing me to grind at the stage I was failing. The staffs abilities are without any description at all. The staffs have no description. There were stages with bosses, except they were after a long gauntlet of enemies which meant retrying those stages were a horrific chore. The skill aiming was AWFUL, probably one of the worst and most frustrating parts of the game. It was the thing that caused me to stop slogging through the chore of a game and quit and write this review. It would only cast in the direction you were facing, when it really should have cast in the direction you were pressing to move. Which was a minor annoyance most of the game until it came to the ice levels where it took forever to just turn the character around. Which meant you can't run away and cast any skills at the same time. I kept trying to push through but I was just constantly met with a never ending barrage of bad game design.

Ages of Mages is a mixed bag of pros and cons. Though to the game’s credit, it does indeed manage to get more right than it gets wrong. The gameplay remains fun, fluid, and responsive, with just enough depth present across its enemy variation and its skill tree systems to keep it from repetition. The drawback, however, is that it’s bogged down by poor presentation, minor framerate issues, and unbalanced difficulty.

Fun but SUPER buggy and not enough content. Surprised it left Early Access in the shape that it's in.

I just started playing this game and I truly hoped that it would be as good as it was cute. And it is...kind of. The art style is cute and the concept is good. But the execution needs work. I was disappointed to find what I consider errors in the game, considering that it is new and should be as smooth and as easy to play as possible. After all, it does cost money. But here are a few problems that I've found so far... - you can't hit an enemy that is at a higher elevation than you. That is beyond annoying. You are playing a mage, you know, and a spell shouldn't be negated by elevation, in my opinion. Not a bug, just maddening. They, of course, can hit you. A design choice, I suppose. Ah well. - archers and enemy casters can hit you anywhere on the playing field, even if they are not in sight. What is up with that? Meanwhile, your character has to be almost on top of an enemy to hit them with your basic spells. - the game chooses your first spell for you, when you earn a point and are taken to your spellbook. Come on, guys. How about letting the player make the choice, even if it's the wrong one? - my biggest pet peeve so far, and I don't know if this is a bug or a 'feature', is that when using a controller you can't use any button to shoot your spells. None. At all. (and no, holding down the right stick to shoot isn't a button, thanks) I have to use the controller with one hand and shoot with the mouse. Really, developers? Can't you at least give us the option of remapping the controller so that we can assign buttons as we see fit? In such a fast-paced game, this additional distraction was just too much for me. I was going to do a Let's Play of the game, because I thought that the style and concept were cute, but I've decided to hold off until the developers respond to the inevitable feedback. Understand, I'm not slagging the devs. Far from it. What I am doing is, I hope, giving my opinion in the hopes that they will make some improvements to help enhance the gaming experience. All in all, a decent game with a lot of potential. We'll see where it goes from here.

Pretty good game, challenging enough to get killed left and right, probably could use a bit more balancing within the skill trees and between mages, but it's fun and feels rewarding.

Good Fun Co-op Games. AoM is still in the early stage of development. Anyhow, you still can enjoy it with friends. Some bugs here and there but nothing major to annoy your gaming experience. Lightning mage is still weak even after last upgrade on 15 May but it's way better than the first settings. I hope This games continues to develop further and maybe add skill 5 in all the mages' arsenal.

I've already had a lot of fun with the co-op mode. Looking forward to online co-op. Simple but fun. I like the controls. Glad I got this in early access.

Pros: -Great visuals -fun gameplay -Difficulty scales well per level Cons: -Losing the stage is very punishable because you lose your staff -Can be a bit grindy NEED MORE SPELLS!

I love this game! My girlfirend and I play lot's of coop and local coop games and Ages of Mages quickly become one of our favorites. The game is in early access as I am writing this but the developer updates frequently and seems to really care for the game. We ran into a bug early on that had us uncertain but the developer fixed it almost right after we reported it. I highly reccomend the game if you like local coop.

2 Game Early Access Gameplay Footage - 15 min of Early Level for an Ice Mage (will post more videos soon as my characters get further into the game) Awesome game so far. Kinda of feels like Castle Crashers but for just mages! Thats my kind of game! Just need Online gameplay asap so I can play with friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzFVBDe1ZZk&t=1071s

Great game for couch/local co-op with full xbox controller support. Fun to play with the kids, it has a light grind which isn't tedious and keeps the game interesting. Recommended for the local multiplayer :)

Good game, nice to play with friends. (the graphics could be better)

Great fun with family and friends. Easy to grasp mechanics with an interesting and challenging learning curve.

I just bought this for me and my girlfriend so we'd have something simple to play together. We are long distance, so we look for online coop games. The only way to play this online is remote play, and it runs terribly and isn't even playable. This needs to be made to play online.

Buggy game that gets stuck often because mobs span off screen. Controls kinda suck with both controller or mouse/keyboard.

I recently purchased this game to do a Lets Play & Review on YouTube & I have to say i was very impressed it was alittle annoying on a controller and some of the enemies seem alittle harder than they should be that early in the game but it really is well put together! Its a lot like Castle Crashers so it gets my vote! Looking forward to beating it.

Awful game that tricks you into thinking there are deeper elements that there actually are presently. The game starts out fairly with a good pace but in the later stages youll be a glass cannon without any pardon only to beg for healing items throughout the stage when a mistake is made unless you are the earth mage with healing abilities. But that doesnt have any saving grace or excuse this game from poor design choices considering the same abilities will stick with you albeit with power upgrades and some variability combat levels up too slow for your character for the combat to be dynamic, active, and interesting. The only think that increases is numbers and some deviation with a certain skill but cooldown times are way to long and very situational to be of any use making them left out to the side when the 1st level primary attack with an increase of power being used 90% of the entire game. Which in itself is terrible. Later stages screw people who chose to play this game single player by swarming the entire screen with enemies with nowhere to retreat only to rely on your main attack power to power through to clear out the hordes if your attack power is not enough then the player dies. When the game throws many into a kitchen sink making artificial difficulty with nothing you can do unless you level up more to upgrade attack power they are increasing the length of the game artificially than it actually is. If the combat was more dynamic and you can avoid damage in certain situations it would have flow. But the combat starts slow and still is slow and only to kill you with a swarm of enemies with nowhere to run as that is always the case with boss battles then its a mark of a bad game where deaths not come from challenges but numbers only matter. Plus the lack of a online co op ruins the game too. Its not like you can play with four copies at home and then have fun. The story if there is one which is generic is very boring it feels like 4 gunners with different attacks with no co op mechanics shooting anything that moves on screen. The only co op element is where the earth mage has the healing ability but then that just makes the earth mage just necessary and not a choice to have in the group instead of having equal combinations to experiment and have fun. It has to captivate gamers to make them think of a strategy to defeat certain enemies to make them think and not wander off into their own world or conversation shooting anything that they see making the game easy only to swarm the screen with enemies during the boss fights and kill them all not proving difficulty through level design but an unavoidable screen swarm tactic. The lack of support after the game was "finished" leaves a lot to be desired. Has anyone seen the dynamic combat in bastion, heroes of hammerwatch, or wizard of legend. Combat mechanics can be fast, dynamic, and fair with a level up system. That just tells me that the designers of the game are just lazy and only made initial impressions so that when people starts to see the cracks and flaws of this boring game its too late to call for a refund according to steam's policy. Do not waste your money on Ages of Mages as there is no love or passion put into something like this at all. Its a grade of a early 2000s flash game where the interest dies very quickly after repetition. Games like these are meant to get a quick buck and bypass return policy by having good initial impressions and gameplay videos. Pros Nice Animation Style Cons Pace of Combat Leveling Up Story Combat System Soundtracks Co op Mechanics Balancing Lack of Healing in ratio to Level Length Shop Variety Cheap Swarming Deaths Lackluster Bosses Generic Enemy Design

Well.... It's slow paced, grindy, short, boring and annoying. I had fun until i found out i had seen everything the game had to offer in the first 10 minutes. If you expect a game like 'Castle Crashers'. You will be sorry. The two have very little in common. Worth a few hours with friends. But a 5 euro game at best.

Great games, The developpers are pretty absent on the discussion forums as there are a few bugs that need fixings.

We've finished the game in 4 hours with 4 local players. !!! The game is still in EA. Pro : - Pretty cute - Pretty fun. - The difficulty and the progression is well-designed. - 4 different mages and archetype also well-designed with their own style of played. To be improved : - Some annoying bugs : you go to the next level without opening the loot-box and loose everything, Sometimes your mage is stuck, sometimes the fishes swim in the air, etc. - When you die other players can take all of you staff, even your wand. - When you all the mages die, you will loose your XP except if you have level-up (?). Also you will loose you wand and has to buy it again - One mage (the ice-one) is supposed to be a support char. By supporting other player he receive less XP. That's unfair. The XP should be shared. - The loot is first come, first serve - it should be shared. If you play now, I hope is with none greedy players. - Pretty short, but still in developpment. I am really waiting for the next leve. Overall, This game is really promising and I can already recommand it, especially if you are 4 local players. The character are well designed and the game is pretty fun, it's still in developpement so expect some bugs or things that is still in "work in progress"

A very fun Local COOP game for it's price.

Castle Crashers has better gameplay/story/replayability. I guess this has better graphics. Probably can get this game after you've exhausted all the other co-op games on Steam. Some of the maps are interesting. Don't bother picking it up if you're going to play solo though. Some issues: Going nature mage and maxing heal path will put you insanely far behind in levels so you need to go some damage; that being said, fire mage has the highest dps with just regular attacks...so you will have the highest level. Can't hit enemies on a different plane... Can abuse certain stages to max out your level... Only one save, so have to reset game to respec...

Update*** Some changes have occurred since my original post and the game has more little touches now that make it look a lot better. Prior Dislikes: I still need to log some more time into the game, but my first impression is that it feels like it should still be in early access. It's completed but there are a lot of details that leave it feeling like it needed some more love. The character picture art and the skill tree menu feels like it's unrelated to the rest of the game. The game play and controls seem decent as I suspected and I have yet more to discover as I play. Currently, I have two minor concerns that just make the game look like it's subpar. The first, the character pictures are similar to the avatars, but bosses art appears more animated and cartoon like. This style would fit the characters better as it seems more enjoyable and customized. I wouldn't argue this if they were the same, but having two different styles seems a bit mixed and makes it feel like it was done in a rush. Second, the skill tree menu looks like it was done in the 8-Bit days. I loved the Final Fantasy series, but some separation and more in depth design could really give a higher quality look. This is something that is just all shoved in a big red box and really feels like there was no time spent on development here. Some people might like to think that skill trees do matter. I will make further edits in the future. If there are continued updates and I see the basic overlay and skill tree improve, I will change my rating. If this is really due to launch for Nintendo Switch I'm quite surprised something so minor, to fix that is, has not been addressed.

This game i imagine would be very fun with multiplayer, but unless you are playing with at least one other person this game just isnt very fun. I saw this game and was hoping it was like Castle Crashers, fun when playing both single player and multiplayer. If you have someone you can play this game with i would recommend this game but otherwise its not worth it.

It's like Castle Crashers, almost a bit too much like Castle Crashers. It's like a reskinned 3-D Castle Crashers, but if you like Castle Crashers then you'll like this game.

best game to play with my kids. 8 to 13. if you know castle crashers you will love this too!

This game is so addictive. I played this one with my friend till we didn't realize it's already midnight..

The game is nice but ... wtf with the sound of the background ??? That shit blows my ears every fucking time there is fire, watter, or any other animation. This should be in the settings. Alongs with the controls for keyboard btw. And borderless windowed, because this is a game with a pause and you will probably want to alt+tab without having the game reduced (I do. A lot). I'd love to see online multiplayer too. But it's still fun to play in local with 4 controllers. XP gain should be reviewed in multiplayer though, and be equally split between all members. Else the healer will be 3-4 levels behind at the end of the current beta due to the lack of AOE damage (in our case, it was 13 and others were 16-16-17).

This game will have you and your friends up to the wee hours of the morning. It has a whimsical feel to it, the animation is very bright, colorful, and modern looking. There are extensive upgrades you can make to each mage class that keeps you coming back for more. Without teamwork, however, you will not survive, so gather your friends and let the spells fly! Just wish you could have multiple saves so I could play with different groups of friends, I dont want the original group to have their mage levels and trees messed up.

Fun arcade style game to multiplayer with friend you got over. Amazing!

Awesome game recommend for any couch coop fans!!

Fun and Co-op Games for hack and slash players

It's like a Final Year Project

Great game to play with friends, now we wait for more dungeons.

My girlfriend loves it 👍👍

How i can invate friend in game?

fun co op to play with fiance

Nice game.

Addictive!

Awesome game

hfdsewxcrc

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