After an uneven first episode, the battlemage boomer shooter Wizordum has successfully landed in its second wave of levels.

In their current Early Access iteration, both Wizordum episodes have a Goofus and Gallant feel to them: I was genuinely tired by the end of the first episode, a fun fight against a goblin warlord not making up for the hour-long death march of the final full level. But then its second act, released in June, drew me back into the medieval fantasy shooter. That’s certainly the trajectory you want to see with a third of the game left, but some of those early levels get in the way of the fun.

Wizordum’s art and music are hands down winners: the vibe is that of an old first-person fantasy RPG like Daggerfall or Ultima Underworld, or perhaps a brighter, happier version of Hexen and Heretic. It’s a kind of ’90s fantasy nostalgia for me, distinct from the other forms of ’90s nostalgia that define the subgenre, and the good vibes definitely helped me get through some of Wizordum’s more frustrating passages.

Picture 1 of 4

Ruined tower in a forest — (Image credit: Emberheart Games)

You’ll fight goblins, undead, and dark mages with a fittingly medieval arsenal: incendiary missiles as a pistol, a fireball spell as a rocket launcher, and a Palpatine electric beam as a Quake lightning gun. The aesthetics really help sell what is otherwise a fairly standard FPS arsenal, but there is one notable exception: the highlight is Wizordum’s “machine gun,” a frost staff that spits icicles that quickly freeze enemies, leaving them open for you to smash with your mace. The combo is very satisfying, and gives Wizordum a rhythm all its own.

Both episodes feature a good variety of enemies, but two lingering frustrations began to weigh on me by the end of my seven-hour playthrough. The first is having to deal with enemies at a distance or snipers perched high up, an element of verticality that can clash with Wizordum’s lack of jumping and mostly short-range arsenal. The high-up goblin shamans often dance behind cover before you can fire back, while Episode 2 introduces this acid-spitting cocoon-like enemy that blends into the environment and often seems deliberately placed to troll or trap players—something I usually enjoy, but here it irritated me. Add to that the game’s retro fog, while aesthetically fitting for the low-poly world, which often resulted in enemies painting me with fireballs long before I could see them.

The second combat issue I encountered was the unpleasant feeling of being surprised by enemies in melee range: when they get within range, they start auto-attacking at a rapid pace with very little feedback, and there aren’t really any options to stun or knock them back quickly when needed. Dancing around them was generally pretty fun, but I often found myself snagging scenery I hadn’t noticed, quickly surrounded by all these little guys munching away. The worst part was exploring a dead end to find level secrets only to realize I’d been trapped by enemies I hadn’t noticed. In addition to more options for systematically dealing with enemy swarms and distant opponents, Wizordum could benefit from more and better player feedback: pressing stop, screen shaking, and a more analyzable direction indicator when taking damage could go a long way here.

Long haul

The twelve main levels of Wizordum so far are massiveand there are common threads between the two games. They all have a particularly good sense of place, as if they could fit just as well into an RPG. The levels set in a medieval town, for example, have all sorts of optional interiors to enter: houses, inns, churches, the whole gamut of town quests. And while I haven’t always agreed with their scope, the scale of these locations is always impressive.

But that first episode, the last three levels were over 40 minutes long the first time I watched it, while E2M6 was a near hour death march that made me wonder “oh my god, is there more?” in a bad way. There just wasn’t enough. juice In these long missions, there aren’t enough fun surprises to make me want to turn the next page, just another fight or a puzzle like the one I just solved.

It doesn’t help that Wizordum can have a genuinely esoteric sensibility to its puzzles and exploration. A handy waypoint on your map screen pointing you in the right direction to use the key you’ve just picked up is an inspired addition – one I hope to see in more boomer shooters – but I found that it sometimes simply didn’t appear, or the outlines of the auto-map were so vague that I couldn’t tell where it was pointing me. The puzzles can be even worse, with a 90s adventure game level of “how the hell was I going to find this on my own” kind of thing. I appreciate that with the secrets of the FPS level, but the critical path often had me whipping out the good old Google Pixel to check out a walkthrough on YouTube.

But developer Emberheart Games has pulled off a huge turnaround in Episode 2. For one thing, these levels are shorter—still marathons compared to other boomer shooters, but a more manageable half-hour on average. More importantly, they simply do a better job of delivering on the promise of exploring a big shooter level, being generous and imaginative rather than overly long, and offering surprises at every turn.

Picture 1 of 4

Start of the War Barge level — (Image credit: Emberheart Games)

My favorites came early: E2M1 is a wilderness adventure that has you descending through a wooded valley, exploring an abandoned fort, and then turning around to break into a log cabin and steal a boat. There’s definitely more “real world” magic, and the way it all comes together really did something for me, flowing more logically with more intuitive backtracking as opposed to trial-and-error checking out cleared rooms. It also ends with a winning element: cutting through a battalion of goblins on a noble rat steed.

And E2M2 is also a real fireworks show, taking place on a flotilla of battleships cruising down a river. You have to teleport between their trap-filled holds in search of keys to open the upper decks. While those two episodes are my favorites, episode two keeps the (free) video game variety going with locations like a haunted house and a swamp temple.

Wizordum finds itself in a bit of an odd situation two-thirds of the way through Early Access: It’s certainly in great shape, but it’s bogged down somewhat by a first act that feels like Emberheart Games was still figuring things out. The studio has already reworked E1M2, an initially poorly received sewer level, and the second half of the first installment could use some similar attention. But with the third installment on the way, Wizordum’s best may still be on the horizon, and it definitely gets a qualified recommendation from me in its current Early Access form.