Chemicus - Journey to the Other Side
Your friend Richard (a chemistry expert) has been
kidnapped and is being held prisoner in a world called Chemicus. The
occupants of Chemicus have discovered their transmission molecules that
protect their energy source is missing and they have accused Richard of
stealing it - this is what happens when you discover a secret gateway to
another world and take something (an amulet in this case) that doesn't
belong to you - when something goes missing guess who gets blamed? It's
now up to you as Richard's friend to first find the amulet, travel to
Chemicus, use your knowledge of chemistry and prove his innocence.
Now truth be known if Richard had had to depend solely on
my actual knowledge of chemistry for his release (we're
talking Chemistry 101 taken as a freshman in college) he would still be
locked up in some dim dank dungeon to this day - but fortunately for
Richard (and me) there is what is called the Chemicus Brain Center. It
is basically an in-game encyclopedia of terms and information about
chemistry. But in order to access this brain you have to pick up
knowledge chips that are located throughout the game world. Luckily the
first few chemistry experiments are simple and you are able to access a
few locations to find the chips, because the further you progress in the
game the more complicated the experiments.
Chemicus is a first person, point and click, inventory
based game. There is no character interaction but you periodically see
videos of Richard telling you to hurry up etc., and every once in a
while you will view one of the inhabitants of Chemicus walking by - but
for the most part it's a lonely mission. You move through the various
locations via a transporter which is activated by pieces of the periodic
chart (yep, that nasty old periodic chart we all had to memorize) that
you find scattered about in various places. Inventory is hidden from
view until you want it - then it's just a matter of clicking on the
button at the bottom right and up it pops - you scroll through, grab
what you want and if it can be used it will be - if it can't, the item
will drop back into your inventory. There is also a sort of magnifying
glass (called an Analyzer). If you pull it over to an inventory item
you will see it's chemical makeup.
You load, save and quit the game by means of the
communicator and finding this communicator is the first puzzle of the
game. You can either choose to give your game a saved name or the game
will assign a name (date and time) when you go to quit. There is also
an on disk walkthrough and I'm not ashamed to admit that I used it (see
previous notation about Chemistry 101) - especially towards the end.
And I would advise note taking and lots of it. The graphics are
beautiful and are the slide show type (ala Myst) and the music fits the
game. It's neither intrusive or loud.
The game comes on two CD's - I swapped disks exactly once
- it will start from the disk you are on. I did get dropped back to
desktop a couple of times and the game threw a couple of in game errors
at me but exiting out and starting the game again took care of those
issues.
Chemicus is the first Tivola game I've played. I have
Bioscopia and Physicus sitting on my to be played shelf and if they are
half as good as this one - I'm in for a real treat.
Final verdict : Don't let your lack of chemistry
knowledge put you off - it's a marvelous game and after you're finished
you might just find out you learned something.
My system specs :
AMD 450
192 megs Ram
32 meg Tnt video card
Soundblaster Live
sound card
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GameBoomers
