When you start Magicka you don't know what you're up to. Cast your first spell, destroy something, kill yourself, burn down a house, melt cheese or just grill some sausages. This big adventure will require skills to learn to cast spells as fast as you can. This is only way to survive sometimes. On top of that you'd rather be smart to find the weak points of many different foes who will come across your journey. Having troubles passing through an area? Just call some friends and they will help you in a fight or just cast the wrong spell on you :p. Well Magicka is a unique game without vampires ;-).
I recommend that you also read the e-book : The Ninth Element. It is well written and fully in sync with the humour of the game.
Some DLCs will give you a very hard time to defeat the bosses but that's where you should call your friends for online adventure.

The 76 metascore is the result of what Magicka was when it came out: A hidden gem executed okey-ishly and with some bugs. But that's way too far from the game Magicka is today...

Which is one of the best Local-Multiplayer/Co-Op/Versus games in all of Steam. I was a late buyer so I got to skip all the supposed bug-fest, but let me tell you this: Right now, Magicka is a blast to play with friends. Be it local or online multiplayer, co-op campaign or versus or survival, with keyboards or with controllers or any mix of all of the above.

Aside from the super-robust level of multiplayer options, the game's campaigns (main and all of the DLCs) are amazing. The main campaign is filled with easter eggs, little details everywhere and stupendous and magnificent narrative comedy. I'll be frank and admit I haven't finished most DLCs yet (as I wait until all my buds can get together to finish them in one sitting), but I can tell you that The Stars Are Left, The Other Side of the Coin and Dungeons And Daemons are worth every penny.

The quality for your money also applies for multiplayer-oriented DLC, which is cheap and adds lots of cool themes, robes with different stats and abilities and weapons that range from The Doctor's Screwdriver to Ak-47s and of course a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amount of staffs.

The gameplay is a bit hard to explain as there are truly no games like Magicka: Top down isometric spell casting & mixing shmup with always-on friendly fire is the shortest way to put it. The long one is: You see your wizard from a top-down-with-an-angle perspective, you can cast 8 elements: Fire, Life, Electricity, Water, Cold, Earth, Arcana/Death, and "shield" which gives any combination of elements a defensive use of sorts. All this elements are on their own very weak but once you combine them you can get deadly creative. From mini-volcanoes that light enemies on fire and explode when touched to steam-compressed mines that send foes (and friends) flying away Team Rocket-style to Death-electric beams that freeze to freaking Meteor Showers to casting Death Itself (whom kills someone on-screen at random).

Now remember that the game has always-on friendly fire. Yup, it's a madhouse.

If Mario Party destroys friendships, Magicka will obliterate blood-related family ties. But in the nicest, funniest and best ways.

As a lover of couch co-oping, well-executed games, friendship, and... well, games in general, I urge you, TRY MAGICKA. It's very unlikely you'lle ever regret it.

Unless you have no friends, of course. Being burned/electrocuted/bombed-away/exploded into tiny pieces accidentally on purpose is not as much fun when a complete stranger does it.

Kill your friends.
KILL THEM ALL.

I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun cooperate experience. The game has a whacky campaign. The spell system is not difficult. The physics are great. There are only a few instances where upon the game breaks and that is after obtaining a spell like vortex that allow you to kill story driving NPCs, but they make for hilarious and avoidable moments.

Too many DLC's. Seriously unstable. It can crash the game on multi after completing the chapter or just randomly crash. The gameplay is fun. Combining spells is seriously addictive and if you get skill to mash buttons like crazy you can even shot fireballs like machine gun. Totally recommended from the gameplay. However unstable play is serious disadvantage.

I think Magicka is probably the best mage-game out there. With its amazing sense of satirical humor, Magicka really does bring out out the laughs very often. The game also has an amazing blend of gameplay, music (which I must say is very good for most Paradox games), and graphics, which really is great for the environment, but especially for the Magicks.

I think the only con for this game is the optimization, which makes the game run dreadfully on potatoes. And majorly, the bugs, probably the biggest downside to this game, makes some areas almost unplayable. However, the support from Paradox is very good and really puts the game up-the scale.