Magicka: Vietnam

Magicka: Vietnam poster

Magicka: Vietnam is the first DLC for Magicka that contains new playable content. The DLC features wizards fighting in the Vietnam jungles with various machine guns such as the AK47. Players will be able to liberate prisoners from a POW camp, face off against deadly Vietnam themed enemies, fight in fields of rice paddies and destroy buildings filled with Goblin-Congs. The release date was on April 12, 2011 and the DLC is available on all major digital distribution channels for $4.99.

As with the base game, Magicka: Vietnam requires activation with Steam even if purchased from non-Steam distribution channels.

• US Steam Store - $4.99 USD
• Australian Steam Store - $4.99 USD
• UK Steam Store - £3.49
• European Steam Store - 4,99€

Features and Gameplay

Magicka: Vietnam consists of the following features:

• New wizard model: GI Wizard robe
• A new scenario challenge: Vietnam Rescue Mission.
• A new survival challenge: Vietnam Survival.
• New enemies: Vietcong Goblins, Orcs and Trolls wielding heavy machine guns and more
• New weapons: M16A1, AK47, RPG-7, RPD and more
• New staff: Patriot Staff that throws Liberty Grenades (that can be pushed)
• New magick: Napalm
• The ability to crouch. If you hold a machine gun, Blocking (Ctrl) will cause you to crouch instead and dodge gunfire.

The new challenge map will take place in the jungles of Vietnam. In keeping with the Vietnam theme, it will be a rescue mission featuring Vietcongs, radio towers, ammunition dumps, PoW camps, helicopters with Captain Vlad giving the mission briefing. The score earned in the challenge is based on completing map objectives as well as the time taken by the player. A higher score is earned by completing more objectives and by using less time.

As most of the enemies in the two challenge maps use machine guns from range, sometimes from offscreen, the gameplay is vastly different from the adventure campaign, requiring the tactical use of Napalm, long range spells and magicks and crouching. Use of self-shields (+Self) are highly discouraged because bullets deal physical damage and using self-shields would usually cause the player to be chain-knockdowned and die during a crossfire.

Accessing the content

Both the Vietnam Rescue Mission and the Vietnam Survival challenge are accessible in the Challenge section at the Main Menu of Magicka.

In a multiplayer game, all players will be able to play both challenge maps in Magicka: Vietnam provided the player hosting the game has purchased the DLC even if the connecting clients do not own the DLC. The base game client (patch 1.3.6.0 and beyond) already has all the necessary data to play Magicka: Vietnam.

Development

Magicka: Vietnam was officially announced on the second day of the Game Developers Conference 2011 (held on February 28-March 4, 2011). Closed beta for Vietnam began on March 18, 2011 shortly after asking for volunteers two days prior on the official Paradox Magicka forums.

Content of the DLC was revealed during a five hour live stream interview between TotalBiscuit and the Magicka developers held on March 12, 2011 and another interview at GDC 2011 by Gamereactor. TotalBiscuit was also able to provide a sneak peak of Vietnam on his popular YouTube channel shortly before the launch.

Further hype was built up on the Facebook and Twitter pages of Magicka with screenshots. On March 31, 2011, Paradox announced the release date of Magicka: Vietnam.

Reception

The reception for Magicka: Vietnam when it was announced was generally positive. However many players felt that Arrowhead should have focused their efforts on bugfixing and patching the game as there were still many game breaking issues plaguing the game.

The launch of Vietnam was well received as the patch that was released along with Vietnam fixed many of the outstanding bugs and crashes in the game. However, some players felt Vietnam was a bit too costly (at $5 which is half the price of the base game at $10) for the content it offers which can be completed in under an hour. However, this is slightly mitigated by the fact that only one person needs to purchase Magicka: Vietnam for a group of up to four friends to play together.

Paradox also held a one day Steam sale during the launch which consisted of the full game, Wizard Hat DLC and Magicka: Vietnam for $8. While the sale is intended to commemorate the launch of Vietnam, several players felt the price was unfair as the game + Wizard Hat DLC would cost only $3 more in comparison for players who already owned the game.

Gallery

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  Starting a mission

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  Captain Vlad near a helicopter

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  Jungle combat

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  Jungle combat

Trivia

• The aircraft that drops the napalm strike has the silhouette of an F-4 Phantom, which served in the Vietnam war. However, at the end of the trailer, the aircraft that appear are F-22 Raptors, which first flew twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War (in 1997).
• The poster is a parody of Battlefield Bad Company 2, which also happened to have its own Vietnam expansion, released a few months earlier than Magicka's expansion.