When comparing The Lord of the Rings - War in the North vs Magicka, the Slant community recommends Magicka for most people. In the question“What are the best Online Co-Op games on Steam?” Magicka is ranked 13th while The Lord of the Rings - War in the North is ranked 54th. The most important reason people chose Magicka is:
Since the main gameplay mechanic of casting spells is skill based on how quickly you execute a certain key combination, there's a high chance of misclicking or mistargeting and accidentally attacking your ally. There’s nothing quite like thunderbolting or summoning death on your friends.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Good implementation of co-op experience
Players can help their teammates out when fighting by helping them regain health. This encourages players to communicate and stick close to one another.
Pro Good class diversity
With three classes to choose from, all with different play styles, strengths and weaknesses, gameplay is diverse. This also encourages players to play through the content of the game more than once to experience how differently each character plays.
Pro Story
Fun from talking to main characters from lord of the ring
Pro Story
Fun from talking to main characters from lord of the ring
Pro Chaotic gameplay that results in amusing friendly fire
Since the main gameplay mechanic of casting spells is skill based on how quickly you execute a certain key combination, there's a high chance of misclicking or mistargeting and accidentally attacking your ally. There’s nothing quite like thunderbolting or summoning death on your friends.
Pro The spell system is pretty unique
Magicka has a unique spell-casting system based on adding elements such as fire, water, and stone to an action queue.
There are eight basic elements (each assigned to a key), of which up to five can be queued at a time. Some elements can be combined in the queuing process (such as fire and water to create steam). The effect of the spell changes to match the elements you add to the queue. Additionally, there are four casting methods: beam (right-click), area (shift+right-click), self-cast (middle-click), and imbue weapon (shift+click).
Pro Funny story and music
Story twists and music create an fun and easy gameplay atmosphere.
Pro Two different gameplay modes
Other than the standard campaign mode there's also a survival mode that's your standard affair with increasingly difficult waves of enemies. There's also an online leader board for survival mode.
Pro Casual fun with friends
Not too complex gameplay allows hilarious time with friends even if they don't know the game.
Cons
Con Issues with ATI cards
The game is nearly unplayable in Chapter 8 due to constant freezes, crashes, and stutters on ATI cards.
Con 'Saving Disabled' when playing couch co-op
'Saving Disabled' glitch when playing couch co-op means that, at some point in your progress, one of the players will lose progress and you will have to restart entire campaign. Game drops completed missions randomly and, if both players do not have the exact same progress, you cannot save any further progress.
Con A bit of a learning curve
With the number of spells you have at your command comes the challenge of discovering and remembering them all. But once you know them, you'll be able to counter anything that's thrown at you.
Con Memorizing spells is extremely difficult
The vast combination of elements make it all but impossible to blindly figure out what spell combos the game has and even the wiki page has no usefulness in finding spells for your play style.
Con Optimization could be better
At certain times during competitive play, the game can lag or slow down (not rare for an online game), which may mess up the timing of skill shots in the game. Being that timing is highly important to the gameplay, having a poor netcode that fluctuates during play can be upsetting, especially if it results in a loss.