[Bastich]

I have a bunch of games that have been shelved a while for various reasons and was just wondering if any were worth the time.

Adventure
Mystery of the Druids
Seven Games of the Soul
Riddle of the Sphinx
Schizm
Egypt: Tomb of the Pharoah
The Crystal Key

Druids, I have never even installed. Faust doesn't work in Win2000 and I had planned to play it in Win9x but never got around to it. Sphinx, I never even installed. Schizm, I wandered around for about 10-15 minutes and it seemed rather boring so I quit. Egypt, I played for several hours and got to a point where I found out I was supposed to be recording some info that was necessary to advance and would have to start the game all the way at the beginning again so I uninstalled it in disgust. The graphics were awful anyway. Crystal Key, I played for maybe 10 minutes and it seemed boring. Most of these cost me $5 or less, so it isn't a big deal if they suck. Are any of them good?

Action/Adventure
Devil Inside
Nocturne
Silent Hill 2
Blair Witch 1-3

Devil Inside crashes when I get to the house. Nocturne, I never played. Silent Hill 2, I played for maybe 15 minutes, but stopped for some reason. I haven't played the BW games. I think some of them have less action, but I don't recall the differences.

So the question is, the HD or the circular file?

[colpet]

I depends on what you like. 3 of those games are in my all time favorites list. I love lonely, 1st person type games with challenging puzzles. If that's your inclination then you should like Schizm, Riddle of the Sphinx and Seven Games of the Soul. I'm glad I played Crystal Key, but it wasn't remarkable. I played Mystery of the Druids, but don't remember much about it except for a spectacular maze that I had a lot of fun with.

[Fairygdmther]

I liked RotS and Schizm, though the latter had very difficult puzzles. I got the same place you did in Egypt, mind you that was after dying several times. Crystal key was downright awful, the others I haven't played.

FGM

[Deshrill]

While I've heard of most of the games on the list, I've only played one: Silent Hill 2. It's a survival-horror game with adventure elements, so if you liked the Resident Evil games, you will like Silent Hill. Think of Silent Hill as a more puzzle-heavy variant of Resident Evil.

Silent Hill 2 does a great job with creepy graphics, great music, and disturbing cut scenes. Some of the puzzles can be a bit obscure, but I can't remember a whole lot about it because I haven't played it for a few years.

[BacardiJim]

RotS is one of my all time faves, and the best game TAC has put out. (OK, I haven't played BS3 yet, but as of 3 months ago, RotS was the best game TAC had put out.)

Schizm is beautiful but marred by endlessly trudging back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again through "empty" (unimportant and non-interactive) screens just to show you how beautiful it is and artificially increase game length. Also, the puzzles are not only very hard (a good thing) but obscurely clued or with distorted clues to artifically enhance their difficulty to an extreme level (a bad thing).

The Crystal Key is so lackluster as to be completely forgettable. Try Cydonia (Lightbringer) instead.

Mystery of the Druids is one of my least favorite adventure games ever. The dialogue tree is perhaps the worst ever created and the puzzling (with the exception of the alchemy puzzle) is so ridiculously illogical as to actually make you want to throw your monitor out the window in fury when the solutions are revealed to you.

The Egypt games are just bad. Poor design, poor storytelling, easy non-puzzles. Like an adventure game you would see on MST3K.

7 Games of the Soul is one of those bizarre Arxel Tribe games that people either love or hate. It is fresh and original in concept, but doesn't always make a lot of sense. The design concept finally starts to gel about halfway through the game, but then at the end you discover that everything you thought you finally understood about your character's "purpose" in the game was a lie. Interesting graphics and more philosophical than the typical adventure game. Also the best soundtrack ever.

[Curt]

I haven't played any of those games, none really appeal to me (apart from MOTDruids maybe), so sorry for partly hijacking your thread - but how come there has never been a review of Mystery of the Druids on Adventure Gamers?

I had to go to Game Rankings to get an idea of how the game is rated because AG is a bit behind on reviewing this game for some reason.

Knowing the dedication of those who work for this site, though, I'm sure there is a good explanation...........

[fov]

I have played through the first chapter of Nocturne and quite enjoyed it, but the controls are very hard to get used to. I have put the game aside for a little bit because I keep getting killed on the train at the beginning of the second chapter, but I'm definitely planning to go back to it.

Have not played any of the others on your list...

-emily

[BacardiJim]

Originally Posted by Curt

I haven't played any of those games, none really appeal to me (apart from MOTDruids maybe), so sorry for partly hijacking your thread - but how come there has never been a review of Mystery of the Druids on Adventure Gamers?

Because none of us is willing to play the damn thing a second time merely to bother writing a review for it. I'm not sure you could get me to play it a second time even if you put a gun to my head.

[AGA]

I really enjoyed MotD. Like Jim said, the dialogue trees did suck, but apart from that it was a solid game, with good puzzles and a nice plot.

[BacardiJim]

Let me give an example of the "puzzling" in MotD:

Spoiler:

At one point you are stuck on a pier with two people to talk to. You must exhaust every single possible thread of every possible conversation tree with both characters. Twice each, in rotation. This involves restarting the entire conversation each time. You do all this for the sole purpose of making the cat appear so you can scare the cat who knocks over the bait bucket which makes the fisherman leave so you can attach the bait bucket to the end of the fishing line so you can use it to scrape sea salt off the side of a ship! You then take the salt and walk into the graveyard (whose iron lock you have managed to disable using a little manila folder) where you grind the salt up in the top of a headstone in order to....

wait for it...

Spoiler:

CAST AN ANCIENT DRUIDICAL MAGIC SPELL WITH THE SALT WHICH WILL DESTROY A CRYPT! This despite the fact that you aren't a Druid, you have no knowledge or experience with magic (being a Scotland Yard detective), you don't actually have or know any spell to cast, and there isn't even any indication that you actually believe in magic even if you had all the necessary knowledge. You just wander up to the crypt, throw salt at it and it crumbles.

This, of course, is after you have already fully invested yourself in your role as a policeman and protector of the public by:

Spoiler:

giving what would in reality be a fatal mixture of rubbing alcohol and apple juice to a bum in order to make him pass out so you can steal what little money he has... to allow you to make a call from a pay phone.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the many wrong wrong horribly wrong aspects of this game.

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by BacardiJim

Because none of us is willing to play the damn thing a second time merely to bother writing a review for it. I'm not sure you could get me to play it a second time even if you put a gun to my head.

You know, you are actually increasing my desire to play the game. It is starting to sound like a good car wreck. I have to look out of perverse curiosity. LOL!

[Bastich]

Well, is certainly sounds like the general consensus is that I should definitely play Riddle of the Sphinx, give Schizm another try, maybe try Faust, and avoid the rest like the plague...

As for the more action oriented, SH2, and perhaps Nocturne...

Thanks for the input everyone!!!

[syket]

I would definitely give Faust a try. It's one of my favourite games, with a great storyline, not to mention the amazing music.

[Curt]

Originally Posted by BacardiJim

Let me give an example of the "puzzling" in MotD:


.........

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the many wrong wrong horribly wrong aspects of this game.

Thanks BJ, that's just about put me off wasting any money on it. Maybe if I can get it really really cheap (like 1 Euro) then I'd give it a go - just don't expect a review.

AG should still have a review though, if only for the purpose of warning off others.

[Helen]

I can only give my comment on 3 of the games.
Mystery of the Druids - I like and had fun playing, but seems ALOT of people dont really like this game.

Seven Games of the Sould - Buggiest game I have EVER played I had nothing but problems with this game, had to finally quit in chapter 6 I believe, because
my computer was in grave danger, I was about to take a baseball bat to it.
BUT had I not had so many problems it could have been very enjoyable.

Silent Hill 2 - Thought it was great, I played it on my PS 2, good scarry game
with great creepy atmosphere. Definately a must play if you like survival type horror games.

[Martin Gantefoehr]

>>I'm not sure you could get me to play it a second time even if you put a
>>gun to my head.

We *will* put a gun to your head some day soon, Jim. And it *won't* be to have you play MOTD a second time...

;-)


Regards,

Martin Gantefoehr
House of Tales Entertainment

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Bastich

I...was just wondering if any were worth the time...

...Silent Hill 2, I played for maybe 15 minutes, but stopped for some reason. I haven't played the BW games...

Silent Hill 2 is magnificent. In my quasi-review / feature in my site, I described SH2 as "a metaphysical tragic love story cast in a world of unspeakable horror." In conceptual and stylistic scope, the Silent Hill series is light years beyond your typical survival horror / adventure game. But - and this is a major 'but' - you must play it in a particular state of mind. Don't think of it as a 'game' per se, but more as a challenged inflected 'experience'. For SH2, set yourself the goal of finding out what exactly is going on behind that mysterious letter from your dead wife, and the 'pockets' of characters you meet along the way, and make yourself 'psychologically vulnerable' to the goings-on in the story. You don't need to treat any of the Silent Hill titles like any other standard game. In fact, if you want to concentrate more on the depth of the story and the tragic, bizarre world it takes place in, crank down the combat difficulty level to 'easy' or 'beginning'. Pay very close attention to your surroundings for some enlightening tidbits on the story and characters, and be aware of your decisions, as they will ultimately determine which ending you get (sad, neutral, hopeful?).

In fact, the concepts behind the SH stories are so openended that people are still finding new ideas, references, and meanings in them. The first Silent Hill came out in 1999, and they're still formulating theories and analyses today. Now can you say that about Resident Evil?

EDIT: And if I may be allowed to quote myself [ at Zara]:

Despite its imperfect, occassionally contrived, and often times melodramatic execution, Silent Hill 2 is adventuring at its highest caliber - poetic, artistic, raw, emotionally uncompromised, reflective, brutal, and hauntingly beauteous. But it is also NOT a game for children or the very sensitive player. Pokemon, Lara Croft, and Mario can go to hell for all it cares. This is a truly mature story which explores themes that may give even some grownups nightmares - physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, manslaughter, drug use, torture and mass murder, and euthanasia. This is a different kind of adventure, a different journey, underscoring that the truth never is easy to face, and you must guide James and take care of him along his path, even if that path leads to damnation. Silent Hill 2 shares the same plateau as the novels of H.P. Lovecraft and the film Jacob's Ladder, with sprinklings of David Lynch. This is no ordinary computer game.

[BacardiJim]

Originally Posted by Martin Gantefoehr

We *will* put a gun to your head some day soon, Jim. And it *won't* be to have you play MOTD a second time...

Ahhhh... death threats. NOW I feel like a real journalist!

For those who don't know, Martin's company, House of Tales, is the developer of MotD as well as a series of downloadable "Mobile Adventures," adventure games you can play on your cell phone. They are also the company behind the upcoming(?) Moment of Silence.

[Curt]

Originally Posted by BacardiJim

They are also the company behind the upcoming(?) Moment of Silence.

Which is what we'll all get around here when Martin makes good his promise.

(Just kidding, BJ )

[Erwin_Br]

A few years back I won the Crystal Key after a entering a contest here at AdventureGamers (minus the s, back then). I was so excited. I never won anything before! Anyway, I never opened the second CD. What an awful experience. I think Marek must've hated me for sending that piece of garbage to me

Just kidding Marek

Oh, I did like the box-design though. That's about the only reason I keep it

--Erwin