Wizordum is a retro FPS that asks: what if instead of shotguns and chainsaws, Doomguy hurled fireballs and cast frost spells? Developed by Emberheart Games and published by Apogee Entertainment, it’s a full-throttle throwback to 90s fantasy shooters like Hexen and Heretic, soaked in pixel art charm and brimming with arcane chaos.
And while it nails the retro vibe with style and personality, Wizordum’s magic sometimes fizzles when it comes to clarity and consistency. Still, if you’ve got a soft spot for boomer shooters and wizardry, there’s a lot to love here.
🎮 What’s the Spell Here?
At its core, Wizordum is all about fast movement, colorful destruction, and pixel-perfect exploration. You step into the enchanted boots of a lone mage in the shattered realm of Terrabruma, where an ancient seal has broken and Chaos has come crawling back. Your job? Track down the source of corruption and blast it into magical confetti.
Every level throws you into handcrafted biomes—graveyards, sewers, shipyards, mossy ruins—stuffed with hidden rooms, breakable boxes, wandering monsters, and enough fireball fodder to fill a magic academy morgue.
It’s an FPS built for momentum and mayhem. Spells fly fast, enemies explode in satisfying bursts, and the snap of your character casting magic is just as theatrical as it is effective.
🧙 Combat, Classes & Chaos
Wizordum ditches the traditional bullet arsenal and replaces it with a surprisingly diverse suite of spells and magic gear:
- Fireballs that tear through crowds
- Frost blasts to freeze and shatter enemies
- Enchanted staves with secondary fire modes
- Mystical potions and one-use items (some helpful, some confusing)
Combat is punchy and kinetic. Autorun is on by default. Strafing, bunny hopping, and corner peeking all feel great, especially for FPS veterans. Enemy design leans into fantasy tropes—armored skeletons, sewer monsters, chaotic mages—and each one pushes you to keep moving and casting.
You can choose different classes (like Cleric or Sorceress), which offer different playstyles, though progression between them isn’t very well explained.
🗺 Level Design & Exploration
The level design channels 90s shooters hard: sprawling maps, verticality, tons of secrets, and monster closets galore. Sometimes that nostalgia hits perfectly—hidden loot caches, secret challenges, and fun environmental puzzles. Other times, it leans too hard into outdated quirks:
- Enemies that spawn behind you constantly
- Arbitrary triggers that stall progress
- Confusing layouts padded with too much backtracking
- Crates. So many crates. All hiding a single coin
There is a map marker, thankfully. You’ll need it.
Still, the level variety is strong. From haunted graveyards to snow-covered fortresses, each biome feels distinct, and the secrets within make exploration rewarding—if occasionally exhausting.
🛠 Inventory & Upgrade System
Between levels, you spend collected gold on upgrades—extra spell power, more health, new attacks—but the economy is grind-heavy. Gold flow is slow unless you smash every box in sight. And the item system? Clunky at best. You’ll often scroll through half a dozen throwaway scrolls and gimmicky trinkets just to find a healing potion.
Inventory bloat is real, and the lack of hotkeys or clear sorting slows down the action.
🧩 Built-In Level Editor & Replay Value
One of Wizordum’s strongest features is its built-in level editor. You can create, share, and download custom episodes and campaigns directly from the game. This opens the door for a long life of community content and modding—something most indie shooters dream of but rarely implement so cleanly.
Each level also includes optional challenges and is tied to online leaderboards. Whether you’re chasing a high score, hunting every secret, or speedrunning the map, there’s plenty of incentive to revisit content.
✅ What Wizordum Gets Right
- Gorgeous pixel visuals with vibrant colors and stylish effects
- Responsive, fluid movement perfect for old-school shooter fans
- Satisfying spell-based combat that feels just different enough from gunplay
- Endless secrets and hidden paths that reward exploration
- Level editor that adds major replay value
- A solid foundation for future content thanks to community tools and class variety
❌ Where the Game Stumbles
- Item system is messy and poorly optimized for fast-paced gameplay
- Difficulty spikes randomly, with cheap one-shots and surprise traps
- Backtracking and crate smashing pad levels unnecessarily
- No clear sense of progression between characters or across gold usage
- Monster closets feel outdated, not nostalgic
- Limited enemy variety early on; it picks up later
Wizordum: Wizordum is a magic-fueled shooter that casts a powerful spell—until it occasionally trips over its own robes. It nails the look, the feel, and the pace of a 90s fantasy FPS, and it comes packed with just enough modern convenience (like a level editor and leaderboard challenges) to keep it relevant. The combat is consistently fun, the secrets are satisfying, and the world is worth exploring. But cluttered inventory systems, uneven pacing, and a few too many "gotcha" moments drag down what could otherwise be a near-perfect spell-slinging romp. If you're here to blast skeletons, soak in some pixel-art charm, and unleash hellfire with your fingertips, Wizordum absolutely delivers—just don’t expect perfection in every spell. – Flare
