Game Review: Master Of Magic (Commodore 64, MAD)

When Mastertronic launched their premium priced MAD range, they needed a few games that would hopefully push each of the 8-bit systems they were supporting and deliver not only great gameplay but superb graphics and sound, giving some of the best value for money that they had up to that point. To do that they turned to some of their most trusted developers including David Jones and Shaun Southern but for the first couple of releases they looked to the Darling brothers, and it was Richard Darling who created Master Of Magic for the Commodore 64…

Answering the call of Thelric, the Master Of Magic…

As you’d expect from a fantasy RPG, there’s an elaborate story to draw you into Master Of Magic before you even get started playing the game. While exploring some caves underground, you come across a strange pool. Investigating it further, a hand suddenly emerges and drags you into it and pulls you through into a strange underground world.

Revealing himself to be Thelric, the Master Of Magic, he forces you to explore the mysterious maze of caverns, seek out and defeat a minotaur within and retrieve the Amulet of Immorality that he is holding. Do that and Thelric will return you home safely… that’s assuming you make it back to him alive as the path ahead is filled with danger.

Impressive Pedigree

As with many of the early titles in the MAD range, the list of credits for the game are impressive. Coding duties are handled by Richard Darling, and as well as working on a plethora of original games for the Commodore 64 with his brother David, he handled a number of solo titles including the C64 conversion of Spellbound.

Onto the visuals, and here it was Jim Wilson who took the helm. Jim was a well established Mastertronic artist by the time Master Of Magic was release, having provided most of the early loading screens seen on Commodore 64 games – both original art and adaptations of many of the cartoon style images from John Smyth.

Finally coming on to the sound, and while there are no sound effects in the game, it features an incredibly memorable soundtrack by none other than Rob Hubbard. Just looking at the three names involved it’s quite clear that you’re going to be in for something special.

The Screen Display

Being completely honest, first impressions of Master Of Magic aren’t particularly impressive. Apart from the Rob Hubbard music (which never disappoints), the screen is split into four windows and a status bar at the very top. The top left corner is the smallest and this is the game map showing your character as a small yellow dot which you move around the caves. Your field of view is limited so the maze reveals itself gradually as you approach cave walls and creatures that you encounter.

To the right of this is the status panel which describes what you see, gives a running commentary of combat and responds to your commands. In the centre is a horizontal strip where the joystick-controlled in-game menu pops up, and at the bottom is a large panel that displays objects and creatures that you can see in your immediate surroundings.

Your status bar displays your magic power (M), health, described here as body strength (B), and the time you have taken although there is no set time limit in which you need to complete the game.

Playing The Game

Master Of Magic is controlled completely with the joystick and is fairly easy to pick up and learn. By default you use the joystick to move your character around the caverns, with the vast labyrinth scrolling around your location. As you encounter creatures and objects, pressing fire will bring up the menu in the centre panel.

From here you can choose to attack creatures in range (either physically or using a selection of spells at your disposal), pick up and examine items, check your inventory or swap back to movement around the maze by selecting the RUN command. It’s a fairly intuitive system and it’s relatively easy to avoid combat early on if you need to especially when you’ve got limited weaponry to hand!

Gameplay

After a couple of minutes of play, you’re drawn into the game through a combination of the incredibly tense combat and the need to explore. Scrolls are scattered around that give you hints regarding what lies ahead on your quest and things that you will need to discover in order for you to find the Amulet and return safely to Thelric in one piece. Like a lot of RPGs, these might seem trivial, but they’ll play an essential part in you being able to complete the game so you need to pay close attention to every single one of them.

A Magical Atmosphere

Despite the main game taking place in an extremely small portion of the screen, it doesn’t stop Master Of Magic from oozing charm and atmosphere throughout. I’ve mentioned it countless times already, but Rob Hubbard’s soundtrack to this is absolutely sublime and is one of his best pieces of music ever and really fits the game perfectly.

But what works so well and adds to the game so much is Jim Wilson’s artwork. Each of the creatures you encounter is beautifully illustrated and this really gives you a superb sense of everything that you can see around you, bringing the game to life so you quickly forget how small the main playing area really is.

And all of this is helped even more with the constant narrative that flows during play in the main text window. There’s so much going on during the game that you’re never short of information about what is happening – whether it’s the small map (that you really need to map while you play!), artwork depicting what you see, the commentary or the wonderful score – it all adds up to make a spellbinding package.

Graphics and Sound

I’ve mentioned the look of Master Of Magic already, and it’s difficult not to be impressed with it all to be honest. Even though the main playing area is incredibly small, the look overall more than makes up for it with Jim Wilson’s superb illustrations, the easy to read font, uncluttered display… pretty much everything about the visual side of the game works perfectly.

As for the sound… well Master Of Magic has absolutely no sound effects whatsoever in the game but this is more than made up for by the absolutely breathtaking music by Rob Hubbard that plays throughout. The music here is arguably some of his best work ever, and not just the music that he composed for Mastertronic and it’s worth loading the game up just to sit there and listen to the music on its own.

Overall

Master Of Magic is an almost perfect RPG for the Commodore 64. It has a fantastic and deep control system, great graphics, an absolutely stunning soundtrack by Rob Hubbard and a massive map to explore. However, it’s not for the fainthearted as it can be extremely tough at times, and the fact that the minotaur at the end can only be defeated by using a specific weapon, bringing back memories of the end of Final Fantasy VII which was beyond frustrating.

It’s easy to get lost in the map and more casual RPG fans might need some help from the odd cheat or two so you can get to the end of the game, but it’s an incredibly absorbing game and easily one of Mastertronic’s best ever releases for the C64.

* * *

You know what we think but why not share your thoughts on this game! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below, or add your own score using the slider in the summary box at the top of the review!