Ranking every Magicka Chapter

 Magicka 1 is my favorite game, and I just wanted to make a fun quick blog ranking its 12 chapters, from worst to best. 

12: Chapter 11

Chapter 11 is really the only chapter in the game I don't like. The chapter is hard, but it's hard as the opposite way of the Grimnir fight, where it's the type of hard that just makes it impossible for casual players to get through. Magicka 2 would overcorrect this by a lot, making it so a team of 4 players are almost impossible to TKO if they care even the slightest bit, but this chapter isn't hard in the fun way, it's hard in the insta-kill way. There's monsters that insta-kill you very quickly like Yeti and Beholder, as well as just annoying enemies like the teleporting dwarves, mixed with lava mechanics that are just annoying. You have to get past these long sections of lava that can be instantly turned to fire causing you to drown if a salamander breath hit. All this would be fine for a short difficult section, but this is the entire level and it's one of the longest levels in the game. The other problem is the tricks to get around them are things that serious players would do that just make the challenge trivial, there's no happy difficulty, it's just insta-death or casual win. Fafnir's also not a very good boss. It's also difficult in the "this will absolutely wipe casual players but if you're actually trying it's not very hard." type difficulty. You just put on fire shield and move around and you're basically invulnerable even if it takes awhile. The humor in this is fine, but nothing special for Magicka, and there's not much lore added or anything. The Gram quest is cool but the fact that it requires you to keep a sword in the section where you have to get past a long section of lava that you can lose your sword to anytime is perhaps the most sadistic thing I've seen in any of this series. You get invisibility and summon elemental, two really cool magicka, this level but it's almost the end of the game so you barely get any time to use them.

11: Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is the chapter you go back in time. It's also the only level with zero fights in it. As such there's no real reason to re-play it. You can use it to get the achivement for getting through a level without casting basic spells really easily, and it's the chapter you get Teleport, my favorite Magicka, but there's basically no gameplay this level. It's like waiting in an elevator between two levels.

10: Chapter 8

This is another really long level, a lot of it taking place in darkness unless you light it up, over precarious cliffs. While this risks running over a similar trouble as the lava in 11, in practice it's not really an issue since there's barely any knockback, and you can pretty easily light up the darkness, or just teleport through it. This level also has the bridge battle, a battle on a small bridge with goblin army forces approaching from both sides which is a fun challenge predicated on a lack of space to manuever, with spacing being a wizard's best friend. I have kind of a personal vendetta against this level however for its boss. The Goblin Aristocrats are pretty easy to beat, maybe a slight challenge for casual players, but overall one of the easiest bosses in the game, as they can only use basic elements and cast nullify. But in challenge rooms Goblin Aristocrats "nullify" I've found to be one of the most annoying enemies to fight, since they can act as devilishly difficult support for stronger enemies by nullifying your magic.

9: Chapter 1

The first chapter of the game is quite funny with memorable parts like the sword in the stone, the woman with the exclamation mark chasing her and everything in Castle Aldreheim, and gives a pretty good tutorial for the game, which is basically skippable, followed by two easy fights against goblins and spiders, and a boss fight against a troll, a stronger common enemy in the game. Ygg the forest troll is a good tutorial boss, being slow moving and easily avoidable, and with an elemental weakness, but lots of regenerating hp teaching the new player to avoid close fights, and practice using proper elements on corresponding enemies. While a good introduction, not much reason to go back to it as it more serves to ramp the player up to the greater challenges of the game.

8: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is a pretty good chapter to ramp up from Chapter 1. It suffers a little bit from lack of monster variety since while goblins and trolls are different in tactics, both are weak to fire. Goblins do come in impressive variety, and the game really hits its stride with its humor with things like Goblin Hood or the Goblin Aristocrat making a somber chant only for it to be revealing to be gibberish, as well as fun secrets hidden on the map. I'm not a big fan of the boss of the level Jormungandr as hitting his head is kind of an annoying mechanic. There are tricks to get around it with wetting his head and then using lightning to chain to it, but the fact you can only hit his head is unintuitive when most of the game is delightfully intuitive, and you'd think you can damage him normally. Jormundanr is also the least squishy thing in the game, having too much HP but doing barely any damage making the fight feel really grindy. Most of the level is pretty fun, though the game is still kinda going easy, without much real challenge. Any serious player will blaze through Chapter 2 basically without thinking.

7: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 sees you mostly traveling through the city of Havindr. Similar to Chapter 2, I like most of the chapter more than the boss fight. The Machine part is obviously a joke, but the Warlock is kind of annoyingly-anti squishy and while not really hard, he takes a while to fight. That said the Warlock is a lot more of a threat then Jormungandr and so the fight is a lot tenser and more of a challenge. The enemies are more varied and signifignatly stronger in 4 compared to 2 with varieties of orcs and disciples (dark mages), the secrets are as exciting with fun things like just burning the dynamite to get through the door instead of having to wait for the long fuse to go off. 

6: Chapter 9

The Swamp Level. This chapter has the annoying swamp water mechanic which periodically makes it tricky to use lightning for rez or similar effects, but the enemies are great this level. Zombies and the undead really change your thinking having to use life as primary damage dealer, especially when mixed in with alive enemies that heal from life like treants. This level is full of difficult but fair fun enemies like treants and undead knights that are high damage dealers but slow, and so emphasis is put on mobility, something that again would be easier with lightning for haste and teleport. There's the fun jokes of healing the villagers and you also get the Vlad fight, one of the best fights in the game. Not only is it fun from a story perspective (including one of the most shocking twists in video game history. I won't spoil what he actually is but turns out Vlad isn't human!) but Vlad is a fun boss, running around shooting out powerful elemental blasts and trying to life drain.

5: Chapter 3

Chapter 3 involves fighting beastmen, and druids, enemies you don't see most points of the game and are a fun diversion with differnet tactics. Beastmen are more mobile and elemental, and Druids have their nature magic, as opposed to the usual slow heavy hitters the wizards have to face. The airship sequence is tricky for casuals, but a very fair challenge for its place in the story, and a fun dynamic, even if the developers wished it turns out well. Jotunn isn't as good a boss fight as Vlad, but I do like that there's a secondary objective in this fight where you can beat and optimally beat him before any house explodes. If you do you get the M60! Also while they're not as flashy or as practical, this level in general just seems to have the coolest weapons in the game just everywhere. 

4: Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is a struggle up a mountain at the edge of the world with a lot of pit mechanics pre-teleportation that aren't really the fun, frustrating if they work, but usually just being a mildly annoyance to avoid. The daemons are also not that fun enemies since it's a bunch of waiting around for them to materialize although at least they've different elements and attacks. By itself it would be lower...but this chapter also has the first Grimnir fight. The Grimnir fight is by a good margin the best fight in the game. Grimnir is the most developed character in the game followed by Vlad, he has a really cool introduction, is built up since the prologue, and this fight really justifies it. First Grimnir traps you in a mental duel where you have to fight a procession of enemies past and future while a giant ethereal Grimnir watches, showing you a display of his power. Than after you beat that, the fight proper begins. The difficulty of the Grimnir fight is JUST right. Grimnir is a difficult but winnable fight for a single casual player, and a group of serious players. Grimnir wiped the Magicka developers several times, yet he's not a frustrating unwinnable fight for even a casual team. This comes from the fact that he is perhaps the squishiest boss in the game, not much HP, but really strong spells with large area of effect, and can cast numerous at once. Even a casual team can win with teamwork and focus if one nullifies and the others attack or they use overlapping elemental shields and dry themselves out but on the other hand when do wizards ever colloborate ;) Grimnir really feels to fight exactly what he is, the greatest wizard in the world bound up but still just flexing his magical power on you. 

3: Chapter 5

If I just wanted to relax and play some casual Magicka...I'd probably do some of the easier arenas, but if I was going to do one of the campaign levels it'd be level 5. Level 5 is the battlefield level, where you go through a large army of orcs, disciples, and trolls. It's a long level, with lots of enemies, which is difficult to casuals, but to serious players are not really a trouble. They put up enough of a fight that the mind is stimulated, but just little threat that it's a fun relaxing playthrough just tearing through them. This chapter really shows the degree of difference skill at Magicka makes. For casual players the threat of this level and what makes it diffiult is the sheer number of enemies, but when you get good at the game, weak enemies no matter the number don't post any threat so you can feel like a god at the game just by easily destroying the enemy army single-handedly. The 300 references are also funny and Khan is a pretty fair boss fight, his insta-kill bombs kinda annoying but nothing that bad.

2: Chapter 10

Chapter 10 sees the wizards traveling through Niflheim, realm of the dead combining the best aspects of Chapters 3 and Chapters 9. You're fighting elements and shades, undead enemies with elemental attacks, so fighting combines matching opposite elements and using life in a new strategic way. This level also has the Death fight, one of the best in the game. Death is a real tricky enemy, summoning shades, creating illusory copies and insta-killing with his scythe. This level tries for atmosphere in a way most of Magicka doesn't, and it honestly works really well. While still ultimately comical, the shady atmosphere of Death makes for a really cool boss fight and level.

1: Chapter 12

Chapter 12, the final chapter, is a boss rush. Vlad and Grimnir are the first two enemies and not only are they two of the top 3 fights in the game with Death, but the two are a study in contrasts, humorous given they are old friends. Vlad is bombastic and theatrical, running around and attacking with massive elemental blasts. Meanwhile Grimnir is underplayed, precise, and focused while chained up. The two both make for amazing fights leading into Assatur fight. Assatur isn't as good a fight as Grimnir, but he's still pretty good and it just completes the trifecta of chapter 12.