The Wizards - Dark Times: Brotherhood puts us in the shoes of a wizard, as the name implies, and that was more interesting than I thought it would be, I must admit. But the first impression wasn't the best, and not so much because of the game.
If you follow our website, you can see that we've done a lot of analysis of virtual reality games. And surprisingly, the vast majority of them were localized in Brazilian Portuguese and, unfortunately, The Wizards is not one of these cases. And the saddest thing about it is that the game seems to have a well-developed story. Just as I've spoken highly of all the other games I've reviewed, I have to start by saying that on this point, the game is a bit of a disappointment.
But looking on the bright side, this is one of the few negative points I found in the game. As usual in virtual reality games, you take control of your character from a first-person perspective, which greatly increases the immersion in this type of game. And right away, I felt like I was playing The Elders Scrolls, not in terms of the universe, but the feeling is very similar.
As a curiosity, there is a VR version of Skyrim, but unfortunately it's stuck on last generation's console, which is sad because we could possibly have an even better version this generation. But back to the game, just like in Skyrim, you can use each of your hands for certain things. To explain this, let's go into...
Gameplay
Before ordering this game, I took a look at a trailer for the game, a quick look, I didn't even finish the trailer because, as I always say, I like to preserve my experiences as long as I can. The name couldn't be clearer: it's a fantasy game with a lot of magic and fantastic beings.
And in terms of gameplay, I was very surprised as the game was much more than I could have imagined. I thought the game would focus solely on combat, but the game's traversal is also very interesting. But first, let's talk about the combat, as it also has an influence on this journey.
The Wizards - Dark Times: Brotherhood has good combat mechanics, both for close-range and long-range combat. The simplest attack comes in the form of a fireball, which is very useful both in and out of combat. You can use it to burn some of the elements that prevent you from getting through the scenery.
All the weapons can be accessed by pressing the triggers at the same time as performing certain gestures. In addition to the fireball, we can "summon" shields, elemental bows and arrows, as well as swords. In addition, we can deliver a kind of sonic blow, which also helps to clear the way. But in general, all the weapons can be useful outside of combat.
Weapons or spells can be used individually in each hand, i.e. if you want, you can take a fireball in one hand and a shield in the other, or have a shield in both hands or even spells. But more complex items, such as the bow, use both hands at once.
We have a reasonable variety of enemies, who attack us both from afar and with more melee attacks. In addition to the common enemies, there are also some very frantic boss battles.
At first glance, combat can seem quite complex, but over time, things become more "understandable" and everything starts to feel more natural. And while traversing the scenery, you can also interact with various objects, climb walls, climb ropes and various other things that make the traversal really cool.
There are also some puzzles in the scenarios, such as small missions to unlock rewards in chests, among other things. Oh, and if you have another friend with virtual reality glasses, you can play the games in co-op, which always makes the experience much more fun.
Visuals
The Wizards - Dark Times: Brotherhood isn't one of the most beautiful virtual reality games I've ever seen, but the reality is that games with more refined visuals are rare. That said, the game looks pretty good, with reasonable graphics in the settings and on the enemies. The resolution of the textures isn't great, but the modeling of the scenes is interesting.
But the strong point of the game is the spells and the way they interact with the scenery. Both the spells and the weapons available in the game are practically all spells, always illuminated, and this illumination radiates through the scenery, especially in darker settings.
The most basic enemies have an equally basic, very simple modeling, which can be a bit off-putting in some cases. But the stronger enemies, as well as the bosses, have a more refined look that is in keeping with that universe, and use equally magical and different moves.
Was it worth it?
We played The Wizards - Dark Times: Brotherhood through PlayStation VR2, which is a remastered version of the game, with improved visuals and rendering. I haven't played the previous version, but this version is possibly the best way to play this game.
In terms of story, we explore the kingdom of Meliora, ranging from pestilential forests and poisonous swamps to the ruins of Necropolis. In the story, a mysterious plague has spread through the kingdom, contaminating the inhabitants, and all that remains is for us to face this apocalypse.
A simple story, but one that serves well as a backdrop for the approximately four hours of gameplay that The Wizards has, taking only the single-player mode into account. The gameplay is varied, with eleven different spells that always make the experience unique, not to mention the co-op mode that even includes new enemies.
Overall, it's a very competent game that lived up to my expectations and was a lot of fun. But I must reiterate that unfortunately the game is only in English, there are other languages but ours is not included, and this is a very negative point considering the fact that the game has a lot of dialogues.
See also:
Skull and Bones goes against its own ideals - Review
Penny's Big Breakaway is simple but competent - Review
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is faithful and modern - Review
English 
Portuguese