It took me a long time to grasp exactly how it worked. There is a crafting component that changes the attack properties of spells. The game does an extremely poor job of explaining the more complex systems in place. Sadly this is kind of where the excitement ends. It all feels great and extremely empowering. There is a very generous auto-aim that also homes in attacks on enemies. The spells can also be charged for critical attacks.

There is no mana in the game, so players can lob off fireballs as fast as they can press the button. It starts off with the fireball, and over the course of the game eight different abilities can be obtained. Once equipped, they give the player endless mana to cast magic at enemies. The story revolves around a normal person gaining access to these magic bracers. Yes it is an FPM (first-person magic, I just made that up) and yes, the first thing I wanted to compare it to was Heretic boy am I old. It takes place from a first-person perspective, but instead of bullets, players are hurling fireballs and ice beams at enemies. Outside of all the frame rate controversy, Lichdom: Battlemage is actually a very interesting game. Lichdom: Battlemage now runs significantly better (at least on Xbox One, which is where we tested it for this review,) but the real question is, is it too late?

Well the developers took that criticism to heart, and have spent the last few months working on a patch to fix the frame rate. Awful frame rates plagued the console releases, even as someone who normally isn’t bothered by these issues, it was bad. At the time of release it was panned for its poor performance, which was truly a sight to behold.

It was released in 2014 on PC to mixed reviews, then it came to PS4 and Xbox One back in April of this year. Lichdom: Battlemage is already an old game by today’s standards. Everyone deserves a second chance, well at least in some circles.

Lichdom battlemage review download