Cheet Sheets 1996 October/CHEET44.ZIP/2AGCARP2.TXT

Text File | 1995-10-07 | 8KB | 177 lines

~Magic Carpet 2

Review obtained from the Internet.  Written by Jeff Rowe


~Magic Carpet 2 - First Impressions

This is a preliminary review of Magic Carpet 2, from the perspective
of someone who really enjoyed playing the original Magic Carpet.  It
is intended for those who know MC1 and details the differences
between MC1 and MC2.  If you want to discover all of this for
yourself, read no further. If you have played MC1 and wonder if you
should get MC2, read on.


~Review

This is a very nice extension of the original Magic Carpet.  It is
more sophisticated in graphics and game play, but keeps enough of
the original game elements to be similar.

Note:  I'm playing this on a Micron P5-133 in high-res mode and a
Gateway 486-66 with 16 Megs in low-res mode.  High res is far too
slow to be fun on the 486.  I'm also only on level 8 or so.  I just
got it yesterday, but I've spent 2 intense days playing it.

First and best of all, you can save games in the middle of a level
and go back to your savegame if you die.  This feature was sorely
missed in MC1.


~Pause Menu

A very nice new feature is the pause menu.  When paused, you can
save or restore a game, adjust the video brightness, adjust the game
speed, set the resolution mode, etc.  Most of these functions are
available as function keys but you don't have to be "live" when
using them in pause mode.


~Game Help

There is a lot of onboard help.  Unless you turn the help feature
off, you actually have boxes popping up all over your screen telling
you what menu items mean, what items are being shown on the map,
etc.  This is happening WHILE you play, which can be a big help at
first, but can get annoying later. (Example:  A box pops up with a
line pointing at a sheep that says "Kill this for its mana".  When
you do a box points at the mana and says "Possess this mana."
Another box pops up and points at your "possess mana" spell icon at
the top of the screen and says "Use this spell to possess mana."
This can be very helpful for newbies, and very unnecessary for those
of us familiar with the original Magic Carpet.


~Opening Menu

The opening menu is cool.  You'll have to see it because I can't
really describe it.  It allows you to save/restore games, configure
your joystick, change your player name, play a network game, or
exit.  The graphics are vastly better than MC1.


~The Netherworlds Map

Once you get past the opening menu, you enter a map level much like
a 1600's map showing monsters, gargoyles, etc.  The narrator tells
you about the next level and a magic mirror appears at your next
level.  When you click on the mirror, a little carpet with a wizard
on it flys from the previous level to the new location.  It's a
little hokey, but doesn't detract from the overall impression of the
game.  At least it gives you some idea of where you are and where
you've been, which MC1 did not.


~Game Objectives

Unlike MC1's simplistic "kill everything until you get enough mana"
games, MC2 guides you through several sub-tasks in each level until
you complete them all and then directs you to the exit point.
Literally guides you.  A narrator (the same voice as the original
game) tells you what to do at the beginning of each level, and each
time you complete a task, he tells you what to do next. It kind of
annoyed me for a big red blinking arrow to show up on my seeing eye
and point me to my targets, until I reached a level where I had to
work through several other areas to get to the target.  The arrow
doesn't show you how to get somewhere, it just shows you the
eventual target.


~Graphics and Game Locations

The graphics are similar to MC1.  However, MC2 adds things like
caves and tunnels to fly through, and some of the worlds are in
darkness and have glowing lava all over the place.  There's more
variety than just having land and water and sky, as in MC1.  This
makes the game play much more challenging and can be a bit confusing
when your map shows a target but you can't get there because the
underground grotto doesn't have a direct path to it.

Note: Look for walls that open.  :)


~Spell Menu

The spell menu has been changed drastically.  Holding down the
Control key pops up the spell menu at the bottom of the screen.  You
select the spell you want by clicking on it.  Each spells now has 3
levels.  For instance, the fireball spell is the first one you get.
Once you use it enough and advance through the levels, you get the
level two version of fireball, which is rapid fireball.  I don't
know what level 3 is, since I haven't played that far.  Possess mana
is a level one spell, and mana magnet is level 2.

You can still only use 2 spells at a time, but you can associate
several spells with each button by holding down the Shift key (while
holding down the Control key to access the spell menu) and clicking
the appropriate button.  Then you can cycle through the spells
associated with a button by holding down the Shift key and pressing
the appropriate button.  I think I prefer MC1's method of allowing
you to number 10 spells and call one directly by hitting the number
key assigned to the spell, but the MC2 method does work very well.
It just takes getting used to.

Example:  I associate fireball, meteor, shield and metamorph (neat
but useless) to my joystick trigger.  I can select one of them by
holding down the Shift key and clicking the trigger until the
desired spell is displayed.  I release the Shift key and use the
spell.  I can do the same for my other joystick button.


~Monsters

The monsters are either new to MC2 or have a completely new look.
Worms and flying worms have recognizable heads and are different
colors.  Flying worms now dodge, too.  There are fireflys (compare
to birds), bees, worms, flying worms, spiders (which sound like
crabs from MC1 but are easier to kill), etc. The other wizards fly
around with billboards over their heads telling you who they are and
the names are written in the color of the wizard.  This can be
turned off, but it makes identifying a wizard and its castle easier.
The wizards are not all human either.


~Game Play

Game play was one of the best features of MC1 and MC2 doesn't change
it.  The game seems a bit faster than MC1 and the joystick seems to
control the game a little better, but the flight controls are the
same as in MC1.  The only thing I didn't like was the altitude
control.  In MC1 you could maintain the same altitude until you
encountered an obstacle which forced you to the height of the
obstacle.  You could fly at a chosen level.  I don't know if it's a
bug in my sound card game port, my joystick, Magic Carpet, or is
truly a feature of the game, but unless you hold back on the
joystick constantly the game forces you to fly at ground level at
all times, until you hit an obstacle which forces you upward.  You
have a small amount of up and down control like in MC1, but I want
to maintain a constant altitude.  I have to pull back on the
joystick all the time to do it.


~Overall

Overall, at this early stage in the game, Magic Carpet 2 is a solid
improvement over the original without changing the things that made
MC1 so much fun.  As a reference, my top five favorite games are:

1.  Doom2 (of course :)
2.  Terminal Velocity
3.  Magic Carpet
4.  Virtual Pool
5.  Myst

If your tastes are similar to mine, MC2 will be a winner for you.
Feel free to comment or disagree.  :)