Amazon.com Product Description: Schizm: Mysterious Journey is a thrilling first-person 3-D adventure game that will appeal to everyone from the novice to the experienced adventure gamer. A compelling, nonviolent story line, highly nonlinear gameplay, and incredible graphics combine with a mix of puzzles of varied type, including mechanical, logical, sound, and inventory based.
A fascinating adventure awaits players of Schizm: Mysterious Journey. It is the year 2083. Ten months ago, the first humans landed on Argilus. They found cities, towns, and industrial installations--all deserted. Doors unlocked, meals unfinished, strange machinery still operational... but no people. Scientists were brought in, research bases set up. Four months later, your supply ship has been sent to check on these bases. But when you hail them from orbit, there's no answer. The scientists, too, seem to have vanished. Now your systems are failing and you and your crewmate have no choice but to abandon ship. But where can you go? In Schism: Mysterious Journey, players explore the fascinating landscape in this unfolding story of an alien world filled with mystery and intrigue.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Nonsensical puzzles. Get the DVD version.
If I had played this in DVD, perhaps my experience would have been a better one. Not that the puzzles would have made any sense- they wouldn't. Not that the ending would have wrapped things up more satisfactorily- it wouldn't. But, at least the ride would have been better.
After years of devotedly playing adventure games, I've become discouraged. Seems that designers think that the harder the puzzles, the better the game and the less sense it makes, the better the puzzle. I suppose there are gamers who like that sort of thing, but not me.
For the opportunity to wander in gorgeous other-worlds, immersed in graphics that takes my breath away, I am willing to put up with nonsensical puzzles...provided I have a walkthrough and did not pay a lot for the game.
Schizm, being an older game, still has beautiful graphics. There is no snow- my personal favorite- or rain, however there are some lovely, if limited, vistas with excellent detail.
Thankfully, the designers used video for the few people you encounter, and not computer rendered characters. The voicework is done very well, and the music and sound effects go excellently with the areas you move about in. However, the differentiation between sounds for two puzzles should have been better. There are no captions for the sound puzzles.
There are a couple of enjoyable puzzles- the train tracks was fun, but hard. It made sense and you had to think your way through to solve it.
The rest were best left to the walkthrough. The markings on one puzzle were poorly rendered and difficult to see. Another made no sense at all for your actions- there was no reason given for what you had to do. To make it worse, you can complete only part of the solution before having to go hunt down a tiny missing part...with no clue as to where to find it. (A note: From one website, it seems that there should have been a character asking for this item, however the CDRom did not show this request)
As noted, the CDRom version has too many problems to make it worth buying. Overall, unless you are playing the DVD version, I would recommend you find something else to play.
Rating: - An unbelievable nightmare . . .
When I first installed this and got it working (finally!) my jaw dropped to my feet. I had been under the impression from the screen shots online and on the box that this game actually looked as good as, say - Myst?
Hah.
When I finally realized I had done nothing wrong in the install and troubleshooting, I was so disgusted I actually felt bile rise in my mouth. In short, this game looks TERRIBLE.
Now, I'm out about 60 bucks for two games that are outright unplayable. This and Reah. They inhale big time. Why? Because they are nothing more than interactive mpegg-y video sequences. You don't actually explore anything, unless you like watching bad streaming video at low resolutions as you 'walk' to the next location. You can't look at anything, and the video garbage is so messy that this is in no way an interactive experience, unless they were just going for eyestrain. When you stand in one area, there are huge color blocks and hash that obscure and ruin what might have been nice visuals.
Why couldn't they have gone for still screens like in Riven or Myst? Those were immersing enough and sure as hell looked a lot better. This hack company tried to go to 3d and it's so god awful I can't describe it accurately. It's like downloading a bad video off of some kid's computer. I can't believe this was brought to this country. Remember that train sequence in the first Myst, the one that drove everyone nuts and was ugly to boot. Imagine blowing up that low res stuff to fill the whole screen and trying to play it. Well this game is just like that, there are no worlds to explore, just click the arrow and watch a cruddy video of how you walk through the area.
People compare it to Myst 3 with 360 views of all locations. Huh? Maybe they got a different game. What I got was so unlike Myst 3 that I'm just stunned. In fact, I have never run into this kid of gaming engine before, And I have played all kinds of games, from Mario to Kings Quest. This kind of engine is pure rot.
What it looks like is this grainy video that you press and arrow to 'walk' forward. Then the low quality video takes you halfway across town or whatever to another puzzle that you can hardly see because it's so low res.
Wow, I am out of money and patience and warn you to stay away from this clunker like the plague.
Rating: - Bad...
Okay, first off, I've played MYST since I was five, so don't think I don't know about this stuff. *ahem* Anyway...it's horrible.
First off, the storyline is so...bland...boring...bizarre...(need I go on?)... It lacks the depth that I expected.
Second of all, the puzzles are almost impossible to solve. My dad and I eventually stopped playing it, even after we looked at the walkthrough on the internet, because nothing was coming together right and we were basically just walking back and forth thinking we missed something. Well, there's really nothing to miss...it's just poorly done, that's all...
Third of all, despite what you may think, the graphics aren't that great. Sure, the music is OK, but...I've seen better...
So, the verdict? I would suggest skipping right on out of this web page and ordering yourself a copy of Real MYST.
Rating: - A first for me...
The first plot to EVER make Star Trek look good.
The basic premise is that people from Earth inhabited a planet full of wonderful machinery, but no people. It is a Type 4, M type planet (Oh my God!) If that part of the plot didn't pique your interest, I don't know what will. The two characters that you play as were stranded now, and all the people from Earth have dissapeared also... DUN-DUH! The cymbals crash, I'm incredibly involved in the plot... Which finally comes back at the end of the game, with a twist that is so ludicrous! It was a cop-out that was almost insulting! Not that there was all that much build-up.
Let me start out by saying that you will never have to worry about the incessent talking that are unfortently all to common in some adventure games... In fact, you never talk at all. One could say that there are no cutscenes in this game, but everytime you move, the game simulates the first-person footsteps as you 'move' forward. This was graphically stunning (I used the CD and I thought the Graphics were awesome. But I've never seen the DVD version) But it also leads me to my next point.
You cannot skip these walking scenes. Some last as long as thirty seconds, and you still have to go through six more to get to the location that you want to go to! At first I was like 'This is beautiful' and the second time I passed by that same stupid boat thingie I'm like 'Look at the view' and by the tenth I've brought a book to read while I'm waiting for the clip to stop! It made Kate Walker's continuous walking in 'Syberia' a sprint!
However, the puzzles were very hard, with occasional clues that in were in no way obvious. I had a walkthrough.
You must know Pythagorean's thereom in order to understand a puzzle, as well as understand warped alien language played backwards... Your clue 'plays' once, and then you never hear it again. So pay attentian! Unfortently, due to all the walking, My book distracted me from this ever so temporary hint, so I had to once again, look at the walkthrough.
There's a glitch, where if you follow the logical choice (Going to a new location that opened up) you will lose the game. So make sure to remember that your characters (There are two, remember?) have not visted the locations that the other started in. I know this seemes like a spoiler, but if you don't think of this, you will lose the game and be forced to start over from scratch, very tedious considering all those once beautiful cutscenes of 'walking'.
The music was okay, not outstanding. Of course, it's not like James Newton Howard was on call for the soundtrack. "A new Dreamcatcher game? I'll be right there!" I think not.
Overall, I gave this game a three, because if you are in for a game with outanding graphics, and extremely so-hard-that-you-bang-your-head-against-the-wall-repeatedly-and-get-a-concusion-and-your-game-crashes-so-you-have-to-start-all-over-again puzzles, then you'll probably love it. I think that Myst lovers will enjoy it too... Not that there's a difference. For newbies, I suggest Nancy Drew games (Do not get any after number nine, except for maybe number 11. The other games stink... I sugges Danger on Deception Island) or Syberia for those who are bored of Nancy Drew. Perhaps, Mystery of the Mummy will do something for those who found Syberia too easy. But, for those who don't care about the puzzles, enjoy walking around. The graphics are superb.
Rating: - Pshaw, ignore it.
This is a nice game, but somewhere around the second or third puzzle I had to cheat to figure out how it worked. No sane person could figure it out. I NEVER would have.
I wouldn't recommend it. I never even finished it. How can I if I have to cheat to do the puzzels?
- An unbelievable nightmare . . .
