When I first loaded this game it reminded me strongly of that
arcade classic Gauntlet which was never released for the
BBC Micro. The object is to negotiate the 32 different levels
of mazes, collecting treasure and various artifacts along the
way. Each labyrinth has atitle which gives you asmall clue
as to its nature.
To complete it, you have to find all the treasure and the
master key which opens up the trapdoor to the next one. All
this has to be done inside a time limit and failure todo so
means the end of the game.
Completing the levels is made more difficult by the many
obstacles which bar your path, including doors which can
only be opened once you have the correct keys, fungus which
you can walk through but is damaging to your health and
sliders which move across your path and injure you when you
get in their way. Of course, no game of this sort would be
complete without the nasties, and they come in the form of
ghosts, spectres, guards and trolls, all bent on stopping you.
There are two ways to deal with them: The first is by hand
to hand combat, which is carried out by simply walking into
them although this also results in them damaging you. The
second and much better way is throwing missiles, thus
avoiding contact and allowing you to kill them at no risk to
your own health. This however, is easier said than done.
Along the way, you will bump into magical artifacts to help
and hinder. For example, there are crosses which are of great
benefit to your health, while the stealers destroy any keys
which you may be carrying. It didn't take me long to learn
which objects Ineeded and which I had to avoid.
An interesting feature is that you can play four different
characters during the game, although only one appears on
screen ata time. You can choose between Kaldor the lepre
chaun, fleet of foot but not very good atcombat, Mandrake
the enchanter, useful when it comes to using the magic
potions which are dotted around, Cheysul the titan, who is
best suited to performing tasks of great strength and lastly
Moriana the warrior, who is well armoured and perfect for
combat.
It doesn't take long to learn which of the four to use for the
many tasks which have to be carried out. To summon one you
simply hit the appropriate key - 1 to 4 - and within a couple
of seconds the character you summoned appears where the
last was standing. Each starts off with 6000 health points
and the game ends if one of them dies.
The graphics are smooth and fast - the monsters can be
on to you almost before you have time to react. Ishould point
out here that Ifound some of the sprites used are very similar
to those in acouple of other games, including Ravenskull,
Dunjunz and Repton.
In fact, in some ways the game could be considered to be a
sort of cross between those three with a hint of Icarus and
Imogen thrown in for good measure.
The sound effects are few and far between - just a few
beeps and blips that manage to keep you informed of your
progress. I found this a refreshing change from some of the
loud and obtrusive pieces of music that some games blast
out.
One minor criticism about the tape version - I'm one of the
lucky ones who can slip a disc into the drive and have the
game up and running in seconds. However, if you want to
play this from cassette it's only fair to warn you that you'll
have a very long wait.
I found White Magic contained enough variations of
puzzles and mazes to keep me well entertained. It has just
the right level of difficulty to make the game possible to
complete without being too easy - it took me about an hour
of play to penetrate to the fourth level.
I reckon that the sign of a good game is when it manages
to keep you playing, just so that you can see what the next
level is like, and this one certainly manages to do that.
If the other levels can maintain the high entertainment
value that is produced by playing the first few, The Fourth
Dimension should be on to a real winner here.
I reckon that the sign of a good game is when it manages
to keep you playing, just so that you can see what the next
level is like, and this one certainly manages to do that.
Screenshots
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