Wizdom Academy… hoo boy. Let me just preface this review by saying my coverage of Wizdom Academy in its early access stage is going to be quite the mixed bag, as this game had such a jarring combo of good and bad and “could be great but is currently glitchy or part of some unethical practice” that I was left struggling to consolidate my feelings on the title. Be forewarned that this review will cover both objective problems with the game, moral objectifications, and praise based on theoretical parts of what the game could be once it leaves early access. Wizdom Academy is a game with a ton of potential, but a lot of work needs to be done. The best way I can describe both the state of the game at the moment and my feelings about it is messy.
If you aren’t familiar, Wizdom Academy is a simulation/colony sim game that just entered early access with an incredibly unique theme that makes it stand out from other titles in the genre. In Wizdom Academy, you are the headmaster of the titular school for witchcraft and wizardry. Those are my words, not theirs, but the Harry Potter and Wizard101 inspirations in Wizdom Academy are clear. The game is all about taking in young witches and wizards and helping them develop their skills through a unique magical education system, watching them grow from children with sticks to full-grown mages of varying quality, depending on how good of an education you can give them.
Conceptually, I love this game. I’m also quite a big fan of how the game actually approaches the concept of education from a simulator standpoint. A lot of emphasis is put not just on being a profitable school, but on making classes meaningful and helping students leave their allotted school years better and brighter than they were when they came. The game very simply but effectively rewards you for delivering quality courses and helping students graduate, something that is done through trials and isn’t just an offscreen victory.
The game even accounts for troublemaking students when you fail to keep your classrooms properly engaging.
Now, I wish the system for coursework was a little more involved, allowing you to change the curriculum as you see fit and maybe develop the personalities of the students a bit more as you do. One of the playable headmasters is a dark wizard, after all, and I think creating an alumni of warlocks would be really fun.
It’s at this point where I have to discuss my first big issue with Wizdom Academy, which is the blatant and admitted use of AI art. In the early access version of the game, you will see AI used for essentially every single character’s headshot—something I am fervently against. However, I have to give some credit to the developers here, as they preface this choice as something that will only be used during early access, and it seems they plan to actually hire artists to replace their generated assets. I really hope they follow through with this promise; I can tell from the game that the developers must appreciate art of all kinds, not to rob their game of beautiful, inspired human creation.
Wizdom Academy has a fair bit to do and manage in its early access state, from recruiting teachers and students to actually running classes and building your school, all while managing a resource called mana, researching new buildings, managing your gold income, your fame, and defending against attacks from magical creatures.
In the early game, it can all be a bit too much. The game doesn’t do an incredible job of explaining that new classrooms and essential buildings must be researched first, using points gained from educating your students. It can also be really heavy on the resource demands for running the school, with several so-called “mana droughts” hitting you early on—the only way to really counteract them being to disable parts of your school, which just isn’t very fun. The game could certainly do more to be beginner-friendly, and just pushing mana droughts to later in the game would make the early game much more enjoyable.
On top of spelling and UI errors, there are plenty of bugs currently present in Wizdom Academy. One particularly devastating bug I faced constantly had to do with construction; for one reason or another, my construction buildings would randomly cease working, which meant nothing new got built around the academy. As you might imagine, this persistent bug was something of a game-killer, as with nothing being able to be built, there was no expansion. I think the game could drop the need for a dedicated builder entirely, and it would be fine.
Buildable space also feels pretty limited. I would like to see the starting grid expanded just a bit, and with fewer space-blocking obstacles to make it much easier for people who are learning how to build using the game’s prefab rooms.
Expeditions—which I’m pretty sure wasn’t actually what the game called them—are little missions you can send your teachers and students on to protect the school or learn in the field, often with a little battle involved. These battles are not yet implemented, leaving this feature a little bare bones at current, but I imagine a lot can be done here to really expand on the game. Perhaps a deck-building minigame or some kind of turn-based combat? Whatever happens, I feel like this area of the game has the most untapped potential, and I’m eager to see what comes of it.
If I could think of one thing to add to Wizdom Academy, on top of all of these fixes and tweaks, it would be more from the building system. While I like it currently, the ability to build curved walls, bridges, and buildings hugging edges would be a phenomenally witchy addition to a game all about going to school for magic. Food for thought, developers; you already have a lot to work on as it is.
Pros:
- An excellent concept, unique for its genre
- Gameplay that uniquely prioritizes education as well as the economy
Cons:
- AI-generated art, hopefully temporary
- A litany of bugs and little balance errors that need to be fixed before the game launches
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