When comparing Artemis vs Magicka, the Slant community recommends Magicka for most people. In the question“What are the best team-based games on Steam?” Magicka is ranked 8th while Artemis is ranked 19th. 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 The focus on social interaction and teamwork creates a highly interactive game
A team of players will have to cooperate in order to play and succeed in this game, making it highly interactive. Each player will need to interact with the rest of their team throughout in order to succeed, making for a very social and party centric game.
Pro Fulfills every fun Hollywood space battle trope you can think of
Artemis is designed around many popular sci-fi tropes, providing an enjoyable sense of fan-service for those who are interested in sci-fi pop culture and movie media.
Pro Creative scripting system where anyone can write a scenario makes for endless gameplay
Users can create their own mission scripts, which they can then share on the developers' forums so that other players can make use of them. This way there is a never ending amount of new gameplay.
Pro A choice of 6 distinctive roles, that allow for a variety of play styles, which keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting
Crew on the bridge consists of a captain and 5 stations.
- Engineering - in charge of energy distribution and the DamCon.
- Science - in charge of scanning and information distribution.
- Weapons - in charge of military equipment.
- Comms - in charge of monitoring communications between enemies and friendly ships.
- Helm - in charge of piloting the ship.
Being that there are a few different roles to choose from it will take many play-throughs to experience them all, which gives good variety to the player, especially when considering that the experience even with the same role can play out differently with a group of different players.
Pro The player vs. player gameplay completely changes up the strategy of the game, making it much more competitive
Version 1.1+ allows for PvP, making Artemis very interactive in a different way from the co-op. This way those that want to be competitive have an outlet of gameplay.
Pro Node Played it
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 Difficult to play online
Artemis is built with LAN play as its focus, making online multiplayer a bit of a pain as the user has to port forward. However you can use a service such as Tungle and connect to the dedicated Artemis network, which makes the process much easier
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.