izigame.me

TL;DR:
• 6 years later and "The Stars are Left" has the same game breaking bug in Chapter 3 inside the C'thulu caverns, rendering it unplayable, with the exception of two possible workarounds (link of possible workarounds below).
• Game is unplayable on Windows 10 because it keeps crashing on the majority of loading screens (even after trying ALL the fixes posted). However, if you have Win 7, or can install Win 7 in a dual boot setup just so you can play this game, then go ahead and get this game, since I did have a blast playing the original campaign (in 2012).

Possible workarounds for "The Stars are Left" DLC:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/42910/discussions/0/846955554789654781/?ctp=3#c522730702147953641
https://steamcommunity.com/app/42910/discussions/0/846955554789654781/?ctp=4#c152393186488333437

Possible workaround for Win 10 issue (has not fixed the crashes for me, had to install Win 7):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1596401837
======= End of TL;DR section, but keep reading if you want some personal insight =======


I bought the "World of Magicka Bundle" pack as I was missing a lot of the DLC and also wanted to get Magicka 2 since I loved the original campaign from Magicka 1 so much, I thought I'd try and experience all the game content available (boy was I going to regret this purchase).
At the time I played the main campaign, it was on Windows 7, so it didn't have any game breaking bugs (not to say the game was bug free, but at least I didn't encounter any that would make the game unplayable).
I wanted to get into the game again and play the DLC with my brother. So I actually bought the "World of Magicka Bundle" twice (one for me, one for him).
Long story short, we started playing "The Stars are Left"... (Now I'm on Windows 10) Oh boy.... crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash...
"Okay, maybe my save got somehow corrupted", I thought to myself.... delete save game, start new game, first loading screen, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash...
Googled a bit the crashes, and found out that most people on Win 10 are having the same issue.
Figured out the crashes are a combination of Win 10 and .net present on Win 10. I remembered I still had my old Win 7 disk in a drawer, and after some fiddling, got Win 7 to run on my hard drive (running in a dual boot mode with Win 10 on my SSD, but that's irrelevant to the point). I start up Magicka and start a fresh "The Stars are Left" game.
I reach the end of Chapter 1... Holy crap!!! No crash so far!!!
I reach the end of Chapter 2... Holy crap!!! STILL no crash!!!
I reach the C'thulu caves in chapter 3... aaand crash... reload game, crash... crash, crash, crash.
I am now stuck in the same state as the OP in the links above and it keeps crashing every single time I get on a loading screen (most of the time with water sound in the background before it crashes).
I am FURIOS about the 70-80 Euros I spent buying the "World of Magicka Bundle" pack twice. I am a software developer myself and work in the automotive industry. To me it is impossible to comprehend how a developer can release a product that has, what we would call, a "show stopper" issue, and almost 6 years later, that issue is still there, all the while the developers keep releasing new products and "new features" (DLC) while not giving a crap about the product they already released and that was already bought by the consumers.
I went through the trouble of installing an additional OS just so I can play this game (something that the vast majority of the consumers probably won't, or in some cases, can't do), just to get rid of the OS and .net incompatibilities of the game, and I STILL can't play the game because of the game breaking issue mentioned in the original post.
Probably after some time of fiddling around with the workarounds above, it will eventually work, but after a few hours of having issues with this game, I gave up for now, and I'm going to try the suggestions above again (based on the feedback, people said that at least one of those 2 has worked for them).
I'm guessing that, eventually, I'll manage to finish that god forsaken DLC, but no one should have so many issues with a product that they PAID for. If a show stopper issue came up on one of the products that my company has released, both the company as well as the developers that caused that issue would be in DEEP shit.


Moral of the story:
If you have Win 7, or if you can install Win 7 on a separate disk so that you can play this game, and are prepared to do some fiddling, go ahead and buy the game.
Otherwise, as much as it pains me, considering how GOOD this game used to be and how big of a fan I used to be, DO... NOT... BUY... THIS... GAME...
Also, the fact that they removed the ability to play together with a friend that has a certain DLC that you don't, without announcing it, is scummy business practice (an example in the link below).
https://steamcommunity.com/app/42910/discussions/0/1743355067082229857/