Magics Quest II: The Dream Review

I am sure that some of you may wander things like: “Magics Quest II? What about Magics Quest 1? Was it better? Does the story connect somehow?”. Well, in order to answer your questions, there was no Magics Quest 1! The creators thought of doing number 2 first and leaving an opening for a prequel! Even though it seems like a good idea, I am totally against it since, firstly, there may never be a Magics Quest 1 depending on the sale of number II. Secondly, I think it is a marketing tool to trick people who purchase this game into demanding a prequel.

Story – Atmosphere
In the game you take the role of a beautiful girl named Magic who was magically transferred from the sunny beach where she was probably on holiday, to a strange magical island and is probably looking for the way back. On her quest she will pass through many challenges and will see some mysterious creatures blocking or helping her way. You must have noticed the extentive use of the word “probably” in the text. Well, this is because the gamer has absolutelly no idea what is going on or what is the story of the game! There is not an introduction in the beginning of the game and even as it goes on, you still have no main storyline to follow. You just guess that since you were teleported to another place, the sensible thing to do is to go back to where you came from. Overally, the storyline is of the weakest ever in history of adventure games. The atmosphere of the game is really lacking. With the exception of the territory of the magical pool, not even once did I feel that I was in another magical world.

Story: C-
Atmosphere: D

Graphics – Sound

The graphics are the strong point of this game. All areas are beatifully designed and utilize a lot of colors and shadows. But the repetition of many areas can really drive you to scream. In particular, a maze in the caverns drove me insane because there were so many screens that were exactly the same! Magic is also nicely drawn, with nice movement and a red bikini. The animation is also great for a mobile phone game.

As for the sound, it is rarely used. A few sound effects now and then, a few second melodies and that’s all. In an age that our mobile phone speakers play polyphonic music, Magixost showed us that she paid no attention at all to the musical themes of the game. Even the adventure games of 20 years ago that used the pc internal speaker, had better music.

Graphics: B+
Sound: D-

Gameplay – Compatibility
That may seem unimportant for a mobile phone game but as it turned out, it isn’t. Magixoft made a really nice gameplay system that has hints of how point and click adventures were brought to consoles. You control all movements with the arrows of the phone. When you want to interact with something, you press the main centric button which opens a cross menu with 5 options. Up is “Look”, left is “Talk”, down is “Use”, right is “Item Use” and in the center is the inventory. I found the system a bit difficult to use in the beginning but after a while I got used to it and was fine. The 10 save slots are more than enough and the save/load system works wonderfully.

My only comment on the gameplay is the movement of Magic. When you press an arrow in order to go somewhere, she moves and she will never stop unless you press the arrow again. This can get extremelly frustrating at some point you are forced to pixel hunt and you character always gets away from the point you want to stop her.

My biggest problem in the game was not the sound, neither the strange movement of Magic. It was that Magixoft created a mobile phone game that works in very very few phones! With the exception of northern Europe, the rest of the world uses Nokia phones less and less. Only one out of 20 people have a phone compatible with the game in the UK and even less are the numbers in Greece were it is one out of 35! I had much trouble finding a friend to lend me his phone in order to play the game. I really don’t understand why they made it like this, but it really shrinks their market.

Gameplay: B
Compatibility: C-

Conclusion
Kudos to Magixoft for bringing adventure games to cellphones. Unfortunately this move is hindered by a lot of mistakes that need a lot of improvement. I wish Magixoft the best and hope their next game will be improved in the areas noted.

(Note: This game was reviewed and rated as a mobile phone game and not as a pc one. Therefor the standards used are different.)

Final Grade: D+
(find out more about our grading system)