Celtic Carnage

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	Solutions Two walkthroughs at CASA.

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Celtic Carnage
by The Traveller in Black

Episode 4 of Phoenix
1993

(based on 1 rating)
1 review

About the Story

The Great Temporal Struggle Continues :-

"Know you, that over 2000 years ago there lived a proud race of warriors in the land of ERIN. Many were the heroic deeds of the CELTS in battle and many were the legends of this people; although, without doubt, the greatest of them was SETANTA or as he was to be later known ... CUCHULAINN. The son of the god LUGH and the beautiful DECHTIRE, he was already a "living legend" because of his incredible feats of strength and valour - even before he had reached the age of twenty.

Know you, that when Ulster's need for heroes was greatest, CUCHULAINN disappeared and the Red Branch Knights of King Conchobar were laid low by a terrible sickness known as the CESS NOINDEN ULAD. This was the time when Queen Medb of Connacht crossed the border on the infamous raid, the TAIN NO CUAILGNE. Initially just to steal the prized bull, Queen Medb now intends to conquer Ulster and slaughter every warrior, and she has every reason to believe she will be successful - for she has some formidable allies. Summoned from the "Primal Darkness", she has several of the most fearsome Formorrians. Not only BALOR of the Evil Eye, but also BRES, CICAL FOOTLESS and even the bloated LOT, each ready to quench their thirst for blood and souls.

Know you, that it is the task of PHOENIX to cure the "sickness", stop the forces of the evil Queen Medb and her Formorrian allies and, of course, to learn what has happened to CUCHULAINN, the hero of Ulster. If he fails then the course of history in all the "EMERALD ISLE" will be dramatically altered and, in turn, possibly the future of the entire world. But will even the mighty PHOENIX succeed against the forces arrayed against him. He has known success in the past, or was it the future .,. but perhaps the odds are too great this time. For not only BALOR and the Fomorrians have emerged from the "Primal Darkness' ..... there is also GORE!!!

Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: Unknown
License: Former commercial
Development System: PAW
Baf's Guide ID: 2664
IFID: Unknown
TUID: hwncunmh6kk7z94b

Member Reviews

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Number of Reviews: 1
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

A deep delve into the Ulster Cycle, March 16, 2021

by Victor Gijsbers (The Netherlands)

Celtic Carnage (written by Ian Brown as Traveller in Black) is the fourth and last instalment in the Phoenix series. I haven't played the other games, but I understand they all feature a time travelling Traveller in Black who has to perform heroic deeds at different points in history. Or perhaps I should say mythical history, for that is where Celtic Carnage puts us, right in the middle of Irish mythology -- especially, if I judge this correctly, the tales of the Ulster Cycle.

Setting and story are the strong points of Celtic Carnage. Ian Brown has clearly done his research, and the source myths shape every aspect of the game. Indeed one has to pay close attention to details in order to be able to solve the game, since names mentioned only in passing sometimes turn out to be crucial later on. The story, especially in the second half of the game, is structured in a way reminiscent of RPGs, where NPCs give us quests that tells us where to go and what to do there. This gives the story momentum in a way that is harder to achieve in more exploration-driven games. Sometimes I found it hard to follow what was going on; where much fantasy and sci-fi errs on the side of explaining too much, Celtic Carnage explains perhaps too little. Of course this can and perhaps should be seen as an invitation to delve into the Ulster Cycle ourselves and become better acquainted with them.

Although I ran into a few guess-the-command issues here and there (tips: you can 'search' without a noun, and you have to 'mount' the chariot rather than 'enter' it) the game is actually quite forgiving. There are some instant death moments, but they are clearly sign-posted (and 'ramsave' and 'ramload' are your friends). As far as I know it is impossible to bring the game into an unwinnable state, except maybe by missing an item in the castle early on. I ended up using the walkthrough a couple of times, mostly because I wanted to keep playing at a moderate speed, but the puzzles are fair.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. (I stumbled on the game during an IFDB Spelunking expedition in which I play ten random games.)