An Experience With Wizard101 - My Wizard101 Review

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The game puts players in the Spiral world where Malistaire an evil mage is plotting. Players take control of a novice wizard who must explore, level and quest in this magical world in order to foil Malistaire's evil plans.

Upon creating an account players name their character through a large index of pre-determined names (a child safety feature to ensure all names are profanity free). Players are then able to choose from 7 different schools of magic each with unique skills and playstyle. 

From here players are thrown into the Wizard101 world and are required to go about completing various quests for the NPC's within the game. Players level up and gain equipment as they progress which leads them to unlock new spells, quests and areas.

• Free To Play

• MMORPG

• 10MB Initial Download

• Over 25Million Accounts 

• PvP Available

Usually I'm not a fan of turn based combat, but I enjoyed Wizard101's turn based card style combat system which has players selecting cards from their 'deck' to cast on opponents. Battles are engaged via dueling circle which supports up to 4v4 battles, these circles make it easy for other players to help you in battle or for you to avoid battles entirely. The great thing about Wizard101's combat is that loot and experience is automatically distributed after the fight, offering a fair system.

Houses are another fun feature of Wizard101, players start off with a dorm room inside the Wizard City School (Ravenwood) and are able to decorate it with furniture, ornaments, carpets and trophies that are dropped from monsters in battle. Players can eventually upgrade to a modest castle and then a luxury castle. A large amount of housing options are available purchase with gold but the best are reserved for Crowns.

Pets are also available in Wizard101 which can either be purchased from the various stores located in the Spiral, from the Crown Shop or dropped by monsters. Pets originally start off as eggs and eventually hatch (time differs between eggs) from here the player can train them through various stages. Powerful pets can become a true ally on the battlefield; healing and attacking on the wizard's behalf.

I spent the best part of a month exploring the Wizard101 universe and even as a full blown adult was impressed by this children's game. The unique and exciting combat system combined with the endless quest driven story kept me wanting to play forward and explore the rest of what Wizard101 had to offer.

My only issue with the game is the lack of free content available, its more of a free trial than anything and early on in my adventures I had to decide whether or not I wanted to invest money into Wizard101 to truly experience, but I am glad I did.

I would definitely recommend this game to parents, children and everyone in between, just go in expecting to spend some money to get the full experience.