Spellcaster University, developed by Sneaky Yak studio, comes out of Steam Early Access demonstrating an interesting take on management and building up the best magical university.
At the beginning of the game, you are the director of magic for the university that gives you the role of putting together every aspect of building up a successful one; from budgeting to recruiting the right teachers, and developing the best students that you can. Spellcaster University takes some strategy and thought from the start. You want to make sure as the director, that the students gain the best knowledge they can, from what type of university that you decide to run. You will build up the university with facilities that will meet the students’ basic needs and classrooms and teachers to develop their knowledge effectively. Although all this work could be for naught as at any time, the Lord of Evil comes and destroys the university, as you face this against the clock throughout the game. To defeat him, you must have students who will be built up through your university and can fend him off. I enjoyed the thrill of the feeling of any second the Lord of Evil coming, as this added some intrigue for me, as I built to create the best university I could. However, for others, this feeling of anxiety about losing everything could be too much and lead to disliking this aspect of the game.
This is when the deck build aspect of Spellcaster University comes into play. You will notice that there will be 6 decks that are available within the game. These decks are dependent on how you build up the type of curriculum you are teaching the kids. The decks in the game work as a deck will have a cost and the more one pulls a card the cost will go up for the deck for another pull. Within each pull, you have the option between three cards that will help you the most. This is where much strategy comes into building up the university that you envision. Such cards come in the forms of upgrading the rooms with creatures and potions to entire new rooms to add to your university. Within Spellcaster University, the challenges will push you to have to adapt and build the school in different ways such as your school cannot be too tall. These challenges add an element that will challenge you and push you to have to adapt to the circumstance that you are in. I enjoyed these challenges as I had to adapt and change my strategies several times.
The graphics of Spellcaster University are not one of its strong suits as nothing exciting or much polish was put into this section of the game. Much could have been done to emphasize the magic-filled world that you are put in with more vibrant colors and animations. Instead, it’s filled with uneven textures and average graphics at best. The music is not anything special, but more like background music to accompany you through the game. I was hoping for more wizardly music from the soundtrack, but that did not come. While I was disappointed in the graphics and music, this is not a game that is too reliant on those two aspects to succeed.
As the director of this university, it is dependent on you to build up the students at the university. You could destroy their potential that leads them to a life leading them nowhere or leading to a successful journey as a mage. This is dependent on your university successfully building up the students through building up houses, yes like Hogwarts, that will focus on the abilities of the students of each house. I found that I kept coming back to Spellcaster University through the days I played it. I was thinking of different ways I could set up my university and better utilize the cards I had drawn. I also was tempted to try different curriculums for the students that gave new ways to build up the university in new unique ways. The tutorial did not add much to the game where one does have to play a couple of times to figure out the mechanics and the way the game works. Through learning the mechanics of the game, one will start to find joy in developing these students into great spellcasters.
Spellcaster University gives you a great variety to create the experience that you want. This is great to have five difficulty levels that you will get to sink your teeth into to change up how difficult you want a certain run through. To game length, you can have a quick gaming session to a session that can last much longer, whichever your heart desires at that time. There are different modes that add new challenges to the experience, when one gets bored and wants to change up the experience. Spellcaster University adds great variety for the player into developing the experience they want based on prior gameplay they gain.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience of Spellcaster University; it gave me enough strategy, management, and racing the clock feel that I enjoy. The game might be disliked by others because of the random restarts that will happen in the game. Also, its shortcoming with the graphics and soundtrack within the game could have pushed it even further. But Spellcaster University challenged me with the strategy of the decks and how I would build up my students and university. Most of all, I enjoyed the freedom to create the gaming experience I wanted that night through the different modes and difficulties. If you are into a simulation, strategy, and management level game with the bonus of a wizardly world, you should check out this title from Sneaky Yak Studio.
Score 7/10
Check Out the Spellcaster University Trailer:
Spellcaster University is available for $24.99 for Windows PC and Mac via Steam.
Steam Review
Gaming has always been an outlet for me to interact with different people and explore all kinds of possibilities. I play a wide variety of games always willing to try different mechanics and storylines that developers are trying to create for their games. I grew up delving into MW2 and World of Warcraft, I miss the Wrath of The Lich King days, and as I have gotten older I have found a love for RPGs and strategy games, my favorites being The Witcher 3 and Total War. Always looking forward to the next great game.
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