Categories --> Unreal Tournament --> previews --> Dark Magic

Dark magic is a game where you take the role of a magic user more commonly known as a 'mage'. As a mage you have the power to wield a large number of spells depending on what circle of magic you choose and which school of wizardry you choose to join. The spells become more powerful as you battle your opponents to< become what is called 'The wizard'. Each Circle of magic is one of 6 elements, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light and dark. There are also extra abilities awarded for the school of wizardry you choose. These are: White magic, Anti-magic, Shadow Mage, Necromancy (death) and kairi.

Another great feature of Dark Magic is the ability to gain Exp. or Experience points. As your frag count goes up so does your Player level. As you level up the spell you have cast the most will also level up becoming more powerful in itself. As you level up the amount of Exp. you gain gets less and less making it harder to reach those higher levels.

Play test

The first thing you Notice when you load up Dark Magic is the custom HUD which isn't the best thing but that's because the team have been working on the coding and spell animation more than anything and this IS only a beta version which still has a few bugs. On the Shot above you probably noticed to big fiery things either side of the screen, well they are just my phoenix wings which is why im flying over some water and as you'll notice when you cast a spell that gives flight  the HUD character (top right) Also gains little wings to show you the spell is in effect.

You also may notice the two bars on the right which indicate your Health and mana (to those of you who don't know what mana is its what drains when you cast spells).

The controls are pretty much the same as unreal tourney. The numbers select spells instead of weapons and flying is very similar to how you swim though flying doesn't last for ever but it does last a damn long time.

The bot support isn't all that great as you sometimes find yourself looking at a bot which is just stood there looking right back at you just asking to blow his face apart with a big ball of lava. Also occasionally bots decide to forget how to cast spells and for a couple of frags they walk up to you and try to look at you to death.

Apart from these little bugs and they are being fixed, Dark Magic promises to have custom maps and models and they are adding a weapons choice too with magic swords and arcane books (shot above, bottom right).

Scores

Graphics 8/10

Gameplay 10/10

Sounds and music 5/10

Controls 9/10

Extras ( spells etc..) 9/10

Overall 8/10