Magic & Mayhem: The Art of Magic Updated Preview
We've got a new build of the sequel to Magic & Mayhem. Read our latest impressions of it.
When last we tuned in to the saga of Magic & Mayhem: The Art of Magic, it was cruising toward a March 2001 ship date. Obviously that didn't come to pass, but the game is much farther along now and is beginning to look a lot like a finished product. We recently had a chance to check out a much more complete version of the game, which included the entire single-player campaign, multiplayer and skirmish modes, and a really slick musical score (a feature noticeably lacking the first time we previewed the game). The Art of Magic is still a bit rough around the edges, but it appears to be very solid in its current form, and it is clearly shaping up into an impressive genre-bending title.
The Art of Magic provides a full story-driven single-player campaign, as well as a nifty multiplayer skirmish mode. As in the first game, the single-player campaign follows a "find the lost loved one" theme. In the original Magic & Mayhem, you were an apprentice mage who had to track down a missing uncle. In The Art of Magic, you play a magic-imbued youth who must find his abducted and equally gifted sister.
The game's single-player structure has a bit of an Evil Islands feel to it, though the star of the show is nowhere near as annoying in The Art of Magic. The main character--a young man named Aurax--wakes with a slight hangover after a huge party. He has apparently become a man, at least in his village's eyes, and the party was in celebration of this fact. But in no time at all, skeletons attack his village, kill his father, and--with the help of a powerful evil wizard--abduct his sister. However, she has time before the attack to inform Aurax that they both have the ability to wield magic powers.
As the branching campaign unfolds, Aurax will have to tackle approximately 30 missions as he attempts to find the evil wizard who kidnapped his sister. And while the original game featured very little in the way of mission variety, The Art of Magic has a decent mix of mission types. Most of the missions have the same basic goals--kill the magic user on the far side of the map--but the tactics required to complete each mission vary pretty widely. For example, one of the early missions--which is very reminiscent of the classic "Pathfinder Dwarf" level in Myth II--requires you to infiltrate a troll stronghold without being identified. You can do so by casting a morph spell that makes you look like one of the trolls. Another mission challenges you to defend several key strategic points from attack, while others simply pit you against an evil spellcaster and require that you be the last man standing. The slight variations in style and theme are a welcome change from the first game.
Magic & Mayhem: The Art of Magic Quick Links
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- Bethesda Softworks
- Charybdis
- Real-Time Strategy
- Release: Oct 26, 2001
- ESRB: Teen
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