Previous Next

Gargoyle Games' latest fantasy epic is the best yet. Join ZX Computing as we enter the dungeons of Icemark (but don't forget to bring your Grimoire).

You, Axil the Able, a fair to middling magician in the land of Icemark have made a baaad mistake. Sitting in your favourite tavern one night, you were telling ribald tales about Master Therion, who just happens to be one of the greatest Wizards not just of Icemark, but of all the lands of Graumerphy. He also happened to be sitting in a corner listening to every word.

Thirty seconds and one annoyed Wizard later you find yourself standing in a dark, dank dungeon beneath the castle known as Collodon's Pile. All alone, you look around at the dismal surroundings wondering why you didn't take your mother's advice and go into banking, until the sounds from just along the corridor make you realise that perhaps you're not alone after all...

After their excursion into science fiction in Marsport, Gargoyle have returned to the lands of fantasy with Heavy On The Magic, is similar to their earlier games Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach, but is even more sophisticated than they were. As with all their recent games, Magick features large animated characters and locations which occupy the top two thirds of the screen display. The lower section of the screen contans three windows giving information about your (Axil's) position in the dungeon depths, objects carried, and a display for the text commands that you enter to control Axil's actions.

Like a traditional adventure, Magick allows you to enter verbal commands in order to control your character, but instead of getting a text response, you can see Axil and the other creatures on the screen move in response to your commands. The figures are a little less finely drawn than in previous Gargoyle games, but somehow the quality of the animation is even better. The movement is more realistic and the animation actually seems to add to the personality of Axil - for instance, if you tell him to move in a direction that is blocked he will begin to move, then turn to face you and shrug his shoulders as if to say "Well, what d'you want *me* to go about it?"

Axil's task is simply to get out of the dungeon alive, but as there are over 250 rooms and more than 20 different types of monster out to get you (including goblins, wyverns and werewolves) it's a task that should keep you going for a long time.

Like all good dungeons, this one also hides a number of magical items, locked doors and traps that can put paid to all but the canniest adventurers. Axil begins the game with three spells; Blast, Invoke and Freeze. Blast and Freeze are self explanatory and Invoke allows you to call up powerful beings who may or may not feel like helping you - it all depends on whether or not you've collected the correct Talismans to protect you. As you go along you may find further books of spells which will give you a better chance of surviving attacks by monsters.

Axil has three ability scores; stamina, skill and luck which affect the outcome of all his actions (attacking a monster when his stamina is low will result in a quick defeat, while a high luck score can save him from a sudden, ghastly death). These scores are determined at the start of the game, but experience gained from successful (or unsuccessful) adventuring can boast or lower them, so keeping a close eye on these scores is vital to Axil's chances of getting out alive. Even using the 'save game' option affects your stamina, so you can't use it as an easy way of getting out of tough situations.

Commands are entered using a language called Merphish. This contains some 400 words and is as sophisticated as you're likely to find even in most text-only adventures, so although you are limited to relatively simple two-word commands there is still plenty of scope for giving instructions. All the usual pick up/drop/examine commands are available, as well as those for casting speels and travelling in all the directions of the compass, but it's up to you to experiment and find out the rest of the things that Axil can do.

Merphish also allows you to abbreviate commands so that just two words can be used to convey quite complex meanings. There is an ogre called Apex, who is, fortunately, willing to help you and if, for instance, you need help opening a door, you can just type "Apex door" and Apex will understand what you mean.

Magick strikes just the right balance between problem solving and monster bashing which should allow it to appeal to everyone, not just adventure purists or arcade addicts. The game is played in real time, so when you suddenly find yourself being chased along a corridor by a werewolf you have to react quickly or you'll find yourself dying a 'horrible death'. All the monsters are very well drawn and animated, and the way that Axil casts spells is impressive, so that the graphics help a lot in creating the right sort of atmosphere for the game.

There have been many attempts to capture the spirit of fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragons in a computer game, most of which have met with mixed results. For me, Heavy On The Magick is the first computer game that comes close to recreating the illusion of an exciting and challenging fantasy world, which is what D&D is all about. And Gargoyle plan to produce both Magick 'modules', which carry on from the end of this game and other completely new games also set in the lands of Graumerphy, so the adventures of Axil look like continuing for some time to come.

A Monster Hit.