From the beginning you get the feeling that this won't be a joy ride, as we are forced to choose one of four insanely silly characters, to level up and defeat the evil monsters. It's been an excruciating ordeal to decide between a Harry Potter cheap rip-off named Awkward Student, a Fat Friar, the Weird Gyspy and a grim joke called the Baker's Wife. Despite my visceral loathe for the wizard kid, the alternative was simply abysmal, so I had to go with the goofy bookworm that the Awkward Student stands for.

These wretched characters are a far cry from any hero you'd expect to find in a quality RPG, but this is just a taste of the complete lack of imagination that plagues Dawn of Magic 2. The storyline is twisted and unappealing, slowly sinking into near irrelevance as you progress with the campaign and in conjunction with the dreadful characters, renders the entire adventure boring and uninspiring. The action takes place ten years after the main villain Modo was destroyed and now your mission is merely revolving around cleaning the world of his minions.

You start with a few quests inside the Avon Academy, completing basic tasks for the professors and getting familiar with the surroundings and the schools of magic. There is no challenge whatsoever in these assignments as long as you are inside the walls of the academy and nothing prepares you for the horror that surrounds this fortress. The terror does not reside in the dreadful creatures that populate the world of Dawn of Magic 2, but in the sheer difficulty of the missions and the unintuitive game mechanics.

Regardless of the character you decide to level up, you'll be always low on hit points and incapable of fending off the waves of incoming enemies. Running is not a very gracious method of dealing with the threat, but as you'll quickly find out it's the only mean to get the job done in the initial stages of the campaign. Virtually every critter and monster on the map is a threat and it will attack you unprovoked, triggering a chain reaction that will put you in the position of fighting large mobs.

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Dying is something you'll get used to in Dawn of Magic 2 and besides the implied detriment, it has two side effects that are equally frustrating. First of all you have to go through loading times that shall test your patience and will power, while presenting you with the opportunity of thinking about the faulty questing method. Furthermore the saving system revolves around some checkpoints that are few and disparate, so a lot of time will be wasted each time you run into a pack of aggressive monsters.

In theory, we've got over 100 spells to choose from and combine, making the 12 schools of magic available one of the most comprehensive wizardry compendiums available in a RPG. It might sound pretty glamorous, but what you'll actually wind up doing is shifting between a few useful spells, whose effects are enhanced by a bunch of support charms. Since half of the spells in every school are passive the variety is not that great, while the practical use is even less impressive.

The damage inflicted by these spells on a single target is considerable, but in the absence of a reliable area of effect magic, it's virtually impossible to deal with a large number of foes. On the other hand, every battle is fought against a handful of enemies, so you are basically bound to adopt guerrilla tactics and kite the enemy for as long as you can. On the down side, both your hit points and mana pool (named chi) are quickly depleting, while potions are hard to find and only replenish a small portion of  each.

Another thing one should be aware of while playing Dawn of Magic 2, is that leveling up doesn't provide you automatically with new spells or upgrade the existing ones. You gain special spell points that can be used to enhance your magic, but you need to buy the particular scrolls before spending them as you see fit. It's not something explained very clear, but  if you fail to make the needed purchases, you'll soon find yourself with a lot of unspent points and a bunch of low level, ineffective spells.

Depending on the school of magic you decide to specialize in, your character will grow horns and tails, mutate limbs or grow scales and fins. Some would expect that choosing the alignment in the beginning would also have an impact on the aspect, but it will only influence the attitude other NPCs have towards you. Mobs are equally unattractive, failing to add anything to the supposedly grim and oppressing atmosphere and the incidental boss fights are nothing more than a brief distraction from the grinding routine.

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Conclusion:

Nobody expected Dawn of Magic 2 to be the next big thing in the RPG industry, but since this is virtually a clone of some popular titles, it shouldn't be that hard to make it remotely exciting. Frankly I found it exhausting while unchallenging, a time dicer rather then an enthralling experience, making the very prospect of a possible expansion unsettling.

Gameplay: 63

Dawn of Magic 2's gameplay in not only imitative and lacking any novelty, but it is also crippled by some faulty mechanics that have a deterring effect on most players. You frequently get stuck on the map, which is by the way difficult to navigate and crowded with legions of monsters that must be purged step by step. Path finding is atrocious and left clicking your way implies the risk of attacking a creature in melee mode, when you were actually trying to flee with low hit points.

Graphics: 64

This game would have probably made an impact in terms of visual effect ten years ago, but nowadays it just looks bland and uninspiring. Your character is ridiculous in the beginning and simply becomes weird once the side effects of magic learning begin to carve his body. The enemy is comprised mainly of insignificant critters and mutated insects that make no sense whatsoever and fail to stir either imagination or interest.

Sounds: 69

There is nothing to shout about sound effects in Dawn of Magic 2, but at least the music is nice and the few dialogues are good enough to make up for the time spent listening to them. The actual in-game effects are negligible and the few variations caused by using spells of different schools of magic will almost certainly go unnoticed.

Multiplayer: 56

Multiplayer should be the final fronteer for RPG games but sadly, Dawn of Magic 2 will weed out even the most dedicated players eventually, so it's most unlikely one will even venture online. For those brave enough to do it there are capture the flag and deathmatch opportunities, but be prepared to deal with the feasible situation when nobody will join.

Hardware: 70

Except for a few crashes that sent me back to the drawing board at the last checkpoint, the game runs smoothly even when you are overrun by enemies. Ironically the frame rate drops in towns due to the talkative citizens, whose thoughts and remarks are shown into big text balloons that fill up the screen.