1st September 1989
Spell binding game
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.
Screenshots
