~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.  :) 
