Rating

B

Specific Ratings

GameplayB
GraphicsA-
Learning CurveB+
Replay ValueC
SoundB

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Excellent graphics, beautiful environments
  • Nice ambient sounds
  • Story is clear and consistent
  • Game runs entirely from hard drive
Cons
  • Gameplay is very linear
  • Loading new scenes takes way too much time
  • High system requirements

Mysterious Journey II (PC)

Reviewed by:
Reviewed on:

Summary

Mysterious Journey 2 is a graphically very good first-person point-and-click adventure. It is similar to Schizm: Mysterious Journey, but less difficult and with a somewhat better story. A good game, but not truly outstanding.

Description

Mysterious Journey 2: Chameleon, the sequel to "Schizm: Mysterious Journey," is a first-person point-and-click adventure, with cut-scenes in 3rd person. It is basically set up along the same lines as its predecessor, "Schizm: Mysterious Journey," but it is not a sequel in the sense that there is a continued story. Both games stand on their own.

The game is comparable to the Myst series, except that you can wander freely around the (impressive) 3D world, and look wherever you like.

The story takes place on, and above, the original Schizm planet, but there the similarities end. You are playing with a single character this time, as opposed to Schizm, where you could switch between two characters. You are Sen, a young man who awakes from a cryo-sleep without memories. He sets out to find about his past and his identity, and during the game the whole story slowly unfolds. Interaction with the other characters is one-sided, basically other people will just be telling you things.

The graphics are great, and the world is very beautifully done. Some of the scenes are really awe-inspiring. A drawback is that lots of the environment is inactive; You'll find whole areas that you can walk in and enjoy, but they don't really play a part in the game.

The story is good and consistent, immersive, and doesn't leave too many loose ends. This is a great improvement over Schizm, where the story was often vague.

The gameplay is a bit disappointing, as it is very linear. Basically, you move from puzzle to puzzle with cut-scenes in between.

The game is full of puzzles, which are moderately to very difficult, but still a lot easier than in Schizm. I managed to finish the game with only one look at a walkthrough. There is a lot of variation in the puzzles, and they blend moderately well into the game.

Sounds are nice, but nothing special. They are mostly ambient, and do not really match the atmosphere that well.

The replay value of this game is not so good. All you can do is spend some time admiring the scenery, it's not like the game has different paths. There is a lot of scenery to admire, though.

The interface is easy. You can control the character with both keyboard and mouse.
Once installed, you don't need the CD in the drive anymore, which is definitely a plus (provided you've got 2.6 Gig on your hard drive to spare).

Unfortunately, the specs for this game are a bit high, your computer really needs to be up-to-date to truly enjoy it.

The minimum is:
A Pentium III 800 Mhz processor,
128MB RAM (256MB for XP),
a 64MB Hardware T&L Direct3D Compatible VideoCard with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver
a DirectSound compatible 16-bit Sound Card with DirectX 8.1 compatible driver

I must confess that my computer was not above minimum specs, (I have a 1 Ghz processor, 256 MB Ram, but only a 32MB VideoCard) and the game was often choppy, but did work, all the same.

Overall a good game, but not truly outstanding.

Review Page Hits: 0 today (174 total)