Nothing bad can be said about Magic Carpet, given that you like challenges.
Bullfrog's title is a masterpiece, a real achievement of playability, innovation and graphics. No other game before has ever offered something even remotely similar, with the possible exception of Populous. The story itself is spectacular: a war of Wizards led to the destruction of the world, and the apprendist of a powerful mage is appointed by his master of getting ridden of the evil creatures plaguing the world. The game boasts a very intriguing Arabian-like atmosphere, and the Magic Carpet of the title ties everything together.
Gameplay is the strong point of the game: you fly with your Magic Carpet, go around killing monsters by using your powerful spells, and taking "possess" of the balls of energy called Mana that they release when dead. When you possess an high enough amount of Mana, you will be able to pass to the next level. But, you can't hold all that Mana alone, so you will need to build a Castle (another spell, mind you). And proceeding in the game, you will find more and more spells, which will give you an edge over your adversaries. Yes, because you not only have to deal with the neverending legions of hellish creatures, but also with other wizards on magic carpets, trying to take your Mana for them. Amazing sky battles, powerful magic, and horrific monsters, this game has got them all. And let's not forget about the fantastic interface: you see everything in a first person, but not in a slide-show fashion like those Eye of the Beholder games: you can move totally freely in a 360° envinroment, fly everywhere you want. Your HUD will show your health, your amount of Mana, a situation of the Castle (it can be destroyed by creatures or wizards! Beware!), and a map showing where monsters and Mana are. You can even enlarge the map to show more of the world.
This game really puts your strategical abilities, reflexes and wits to test. Levels featuring wizards are really difficult (although there is no time limit), because the adversaries usually start off in better conditions than you. Levels with creatures only, while rare, are a nice change of pace, and will have you just collect Mana to fill your Castle. Spells come in various fashions: fireballs, lighting bolts and vulcans to attack, but also defense spells like shields, invisibility and reflect. And your adversaries can use those too. With such great variety, it's no wonder that the game delivers in a powerful way. The only complaint that can be moved is for the excessive difficulty of the game, which starts off slow, but becomes very hard later on (although almost never frustrating). But if you like challenges, this won't be a problem... there are too many easy games on the market. Also, you won't end this one in a seating. Expect lots and lots of hours of gameplay. Even I haven't finished all the levels in the game (now it would be quite difficult to run the game, so I'm stuck). There is a multiplayer part, where different players take control of the wizards, but I could never test it, as I didn't have two computers before.
If gameplay is the strong point of the game then graphic is the most notable one. All the world is designed in a full 3-D envinroment, with only monsters and creatures in 2-D. You can move your carpet everywhere, not only in a X-Axis like Doom, but also in an Y-Axis, meaning up and down. the world really feels alive, with inhabitants and trees, and of course creatures. The water is very nice to look at, and not fake like the one found in Panzer Dragoon. And then, the most amazing part: the terrain can be modified at will. If you have the right spells, you can create craters, canals and even vulcans. Every change you make to the world is in real-time, and will NOT disappear after a while: you can fly through the canals that you created, for example. And the level of detail is amazing, especially if your computer can handle the High-Resolution graphics (of course, that's not a problem anymore). 2-D images are also given full animations, making them almost 3-D. The complete 3-D world will probably confuse you at first, and it might get you some time to master the controls (again, that shouldn't be a problem anymore). The combo of keyboard and mouse is reccommended. The sound department is another thumbs up: musics have that "1000 and 1 nights" feel to them, making them almost unforgettable, and monsters shrieks and spell effects are just as great.
Some games will not be forgotten and Magic Carpet should be one of those. I could go on babbling about how I passed countless hours on this game, but I prefer to leave that to you to discover. Too bad that modern computers have issues with older games, because it's an experience that everyone should have. If you can put your hands on this one, and know how to run it, absolutely go for it. On a side note, the sequel, while a good game in itself, is marked by excessive asiness and an overall less free atmosphere. So, I advise you to try this one before. Or, if you already played the sequel, get this game and see the differences.