Great concept but needs a little more
Written: Jun 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: neat ideas, good story
Cons: limited freedom in playing
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| dmarusz's Full Review: The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of time |
A continuing series, the Journeyman project, created by Red Orb(of Myst and Riven fame), takes one step further in an ongoing plot. You're Gage Blackwood on a covert mission to find out why your mother named you Gage. Perhaps it's your Jonathan Frakes attitude.
Actually, that's not it. Somebody has been playing with history through time travel, a revered time agent has gone turncoat and aliens are trying to put you out of business. You now need to jump to three time periods to solve the case. Haven't we all been there?
If our ratings were on the half star, I'd probably give this game a 3 ½. Looking at it, a four star is not that unrealistic. Mainly, due to what it tried to do. The concepts were just neat in themselves. My favorite was that you are equipped with this suit which has an image inducer that allows you to acquire any person's identity that you come across.
You acquire an artificial intelligence unit that is called ARTHUR. He talks to you as the need arises. If you click on him, he gives you a hint. The only time he talks out loud is to comment on a situation. This is great as it allows you to make the game as challenging or as easy as you'd like. Essentially, you set the hardship level and can change it any time. ARTHUR also acts as the comedy relief which works well as I found him to be extremely comical. In fact, in the options I turned his controls up to "Chatty" (maximum talk level).
The plot is good. It revolves around earlier happenings of previously released games but it is easy to catch on and the continuity is there for those who have followed the series.
You get to go to Atlantis, Shangri-la and El Dorado in three different time periods. You also get real, talking characters which sets it apart from Red Orb's Riven and Myst. On a side note, it was fun to view this game because I received a better understanding of what Red Orb did versus what Cyan had influences on in Riven and Myst. You'll see when you play it.
The sounds and visuals are very good, excellent in some spots. This combined with a very user friendly interface made it a breeze to play.
The dark side of this game stemmed mostly from the over controlled architecture of the three time periods. You definitely will not get lost or need a map. In some cases, you really only have one place to go. I personally like more freedom than this, and it seems to make the plot drag a little as well.
One other minor note was that the sound was shaky. This usually happened when you saved the game. The CD could not keep up with the speakers giving a definite warble. Even when I changed the sound option to the most basic setting, it did not help.
Hopefully, Red Orb will try this again with more elaborate maps in the next sequel. Then, this game would be worth five stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dmarusz
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Member: Dave Maruszewski
Location: Maryland
Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Long live the comic book and PC game! At least for me.
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