Posted By: gatorlaw
Skully's Review of Crystal Key - 04/06/02 06:23 AM
Again - just posting this as a separate thread so I can include it at the review list
Just wrapped up The Crystal Key. While it had some good points, I can’t say that I had a whiz-bang time.
I thought it quite a short game. The worlds you explore are big, but there just wasn’t that much to do. Imagine free access to a storeroom on the enemy’s ship, but you don’t take anything from there! And all those tool chests and storage containers left unopened! (Of course, you ARE on a mission to save the Earth – no time for lollygaging!) The graphics had serious potential to be jaw-dropping beautiful, (the pictures on the box and on the save/restore screen were certainly gorgeous), but in the game itself they were kind of muddy. And in Ozgar’s ship it was too dark to really see what you were looking at.
Numerous glitches caused by problems with QuickTime (thanks again to Jenny100 for her assistance). The game also either froze or crashed a few times if I tried to use or look at the portable portal at incorrect moments.
I was pretty annoyed with the inventory management. There is no way to really examine the few objects you find. You’re shown a quick close-up when you first pick it up, and then it becomes a small icon in your inventory. What was that thing found outside the elevator on the flooded world? I know what the walkthrough said it was, but without that help, I’d still be in the dark. Manipulation of objects was not always handled consistently either, especially at the end of the game, trying to finagle the image projector and the portal. On the plus side, objects disappeared from inventory once you no longer need them.
The worst plot hole was being thrown in a jail cell but allowed to keep my backpack – sure made escaping easy! The fun moments include the several rides you get to take (I’m amazed at how quickly I pick up alien technology!)
I can’t exactly sing from the rooftops about this game, but there was enough here that I’m interested in its sequel. I’ve seen a lot of other thumbs-down here at GB, and it makes me wonder why the developers think there is a market for a sequel of a game that a lot of people don’t think too highly of. I just hope it has more meat to it and the quality of the graphics is vastly improved.
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Skully
Just wrapped up The Crystal Key. While it had some good points, I can’t say that I had a whiz-bang time.
I thought it quite a short game. The worlds you explore are big, but there just wasn’t that much to do. Imagine free access to a storeroom on the enemy’s ship, but you don’t take anything from there! And all those tool chests and storage containers left unopened! (Of course, you ARE on a mission to save the Earth – no time for lollygaging!) The graphics had serious potential to be jaw-dropping beautiful, (the pictures on the box and on the save/restore screen were certainly gorgeous), but in the game itself they were kind of muddy. And in Ozgar’s ship it was too dark to really see what you were looking at.
Numerous glitches caused by problems with QuickTime (thanks again to Jenny100 for her assistance). The game also either froze or crashed a few times if I tried to use or look at the portable portal at incorrect moments.
I was pretty annoyed with the inventory management. There is no way to really examine the few objects you find. You’re shown a quick close-up when you first pick it up, and then it becomes a small icon in your inventory. What was that thing found outside the elevator on the flooded world? I know what the walkthrough said it was, but without that help, I’d still be in the dark. Manipulation of objects was not always handled consistently either, especially at the end of the game, trying to finagle the image projector and the portal. On the plus side, objects disappeared from inventory once you no longer need them.
The worst plot hole was being thrown in a jail cell but allowed to keep my backpack – sure made escaping easy! The fun moments include the several rides you get to take (I’m amazed at how quickly I pick up alien technology!)
I can’t exactly sing from the rooftops about this game, but there was enough here that I’m interested in its sequel. I’ve seen a lot of other thumbs-down here at GB, and it makes me wonder why the developers think there is a market for a sequel of a game that a lot of people don’t think too highly of. I just hope it has more meat to it and the quality of the graphics is vastly improved.
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Skully