Magic Carpet 2

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Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds
Developer(s)	Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Peter Molyneux
Release date(s)	1995
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: K-A USK: 12
Platform(s)	DOS
Media	1 CD-ROM
Input	Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse

Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds is a 1995 computer game, the sequel to the Magic Carpet. It was developed by Bullfrog and published by Electronic Arts (EA).

The basic concept of the game remains the same as Magic Carpet, with the player being able to build a castle, collect mana, destroy creatures for their mana and battle rival sorcerers. The apprentice's master, who died after unleashing his deadly spell, was being spied upon by the Netherworld's ruler, Vissiluth, who is now intent on conquering the world of the living. It's once again up to this apprentice to stop him, by battling this demon.

Magic Carpet 2 fixed many of the design complaints present in the first Magic Carpet. It featured the addition of night-time levels, and underground levels, which not only helped alleviate the repetitiveness of the preceding game, but also accompanied the storyline progression, which was mapped out before each level. Also unlike its predecessor, the game proceeded by completing various missions such as reaching checkpoints and destroying specific buildings/monsters, rather than just simple accumulation of mana.

The implementation of mid-level saves received mostly a positive response, although some hard-core fans of the first Magic Carpet questioned the need for such a feature, as the difficulty of Magic Carpet 2's levels was generally lower.

Magic Carpet 2 added 15 new spells. Most notable was that each spell had three "levels" and the player could upgrade them either by using them frequently or picking up experience scrolls. However, quite a few of the new spells were criticized for playing little or no practical use. There are also 20 new monsters. The wyvern was still the most dangerous, but there was also increased variety from other creatures than could stun the player (Manticore) or drain mana and steal spells (Zombie). The most difficult to kill was the seven-headed Hydra; the player had to reduce all of its heads to zero hitpoints within a short time before it regenerated them and some players criticized the addition for such a monster.

It had twenty five levels plus five secret levels for a total of thirty, compared with Magic Carpet's fifty and the additional twenty-five from Magic Carpet Plus. Since the main executable file for Magic Carpet 2 was named netherw.exe instead of the expected carpet2.exe (following the precedent set by Magic Carpet's carpet.exe), it led many to speculate that Netherworlds was but one of a series of standalone Magic Carpet 2 expansions.

Magic Carpet 2 was rushed to completion by EA in order to make the holiday season and the release shipped with many bugs including a fatal bug that often caused the game to crash. This fallout prompted Bullfrog designer Peter Molyneux to part ways with EA.