I played Celtica last year. I
agree about the sense of peace that b42241 mentions. But I also had an even
greater sense of sadness. It was a bit like walking in a cemetery. There is
a cemetery in the game, but the whole game had that sort of a feel for me.
The world of Celtica was deserted. The people had died.
Celtica was lonelier for me than Myst. Even before I found the girl's diary
and learned of the tragedy that had struck the little artist's colony, I had
that sense of loss just by moving around the gameworld. I'm not sure of why
this was. Maybe it was because Myst had more variety in the locations.
Celtica was mostly green hills, the ocean, and a few landmarks, like the
deserted house, church, lighthouse, and the odd gazebo or lookout point. At
one point you have to negotiate an underground cave maze (ugh) but most of
the game is green hills with the ocean in the distance. In some areas you
hear new age music, in others the sound of the surf or the whistling of the
wind. I also seem to recall the sound of dripping water in the underground
cave.
The underground cave area was apparently used at one time as a Nazi bunker.
This gave an eerie sort of "corruption beneath the surface" aspect to the
gameworld. This was sort of appropriate, considering what tore apart the
artist's colony and ultimately resulted in its destruction.
Most of the story unfolds as you read the girl Bernadette's diary. You read
of her initial hope and exhilaration as the colony sets up residence on the
island. You learn of the strange objects they find on the island. And in
later entries you notice Bernadette's growing despair as the friendship
shared by the artists deteriorates and some of them become consumed by
ambitions poor Bernadette doesn't seem able to understand. And then you
recall the names on the headstones in the cemetery.
Some people found Myst to be lonely, which I did not. I was too interested
in poking around. But if you found Myst to be lonely, you will certainly
find Celtica to be lonely.
Unlike Myst, many of the puzzles are not fully integrated with the gameworld.
The puzzles in the house are just laying out on tables or in cabinets,
waiting for you to solve them. A few puzzles are more integrated with the
environment, like the lock on the door of the gate and the elevator down to
the cave.
Celtica had a few bugs. The pyramid puzzle in the house had a tendency to
freeze or get the pieces mixed up so you couldn't solve it. Upon replaying
the game I had another freeze just after finishing the slider in the closet.
(This was, by the way, one of the easiest sliders I have ever seen in a game
- a simple 3x3.) I also had freezes at the alchemy puzzle and the prism
puzzle. The longer you play the game, the more likely it is that it will
have a freeze somewhere. If you play it only in short segments, it may never
freeze at all. But it's a good idea to save before tackling a puzzle, just
in case.
Most of the freezes were non-repeatable. What froze the first time I played
the game did not freeze the second time and vice versa. The only place where
a freeze was predictable was the point where I had to go through a glowing
purple gate and change from CD1 to CD2. 2 times out of 3 I'd have a crash.
But after restarting the game, I always seemed to get through on the second
try. So be sure to save your game whenever you're about to enter a glowing
purple gate to CD2. Also I've heard of other people having trouble with the
pyramid puzzle. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any puzzle that is
buggier than any other.
Most of the puzzles are logical. If you have a special aversion to sliders,
the walkthrough has a step by step solution to the little 3x3. If you have
an aversion to underground mazes (me! me! me!) the walkthrough can get you
through that in a hurry too.
Though most of the puzzles were logical, I never did understand the alchemy
puzzle. I got the solution from the walkthrough, but could not understand
how you were supposed to figure out how to solve the puzzle. I didn't notice
any kind of obvious clue anywhere. Maybe I missed something. But that puzzle
really bothered me because I like to understand the logic behind a puzzle
even if I have to cheat first to get it. The walkthrough said:
"Click on the herbal diagram at left to find out your task: you must
"harmonize" the fluids in the three beakers you're facing."
but I couldn't make any sense out of that diagram. I don't know if it was
just me having trouble with that particular puzzle, but I'd be curious to
know how others tackled it. It was rather a clumsy puzzle anyway. It took a
lot of fiddling to adjust anything, so it would be a nuisance to do by trial
and error.
Celtica is on 2 CD's. As long as your game doesn't crash when you switch to
CD2, CD swapping is not too big a problem. The game is fairly linear. If you
play the game all at once, and don't have to restart due to freezes or
crashes, you will play CD1, CD2, and then back to CD1. But I seem to
remember that you always had to start the game with CD1 in the drive.
Someone who is currently playing the game will have to confirm that.
The ending was sort of weird IMHO. For most of the game you're playing on
this deserted island and suddenly the game switches to a sort of sci-fi
where you apparently begin a journey to another planet.
Overall Grade:
C+
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