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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2002
Schizm: Mysterious Journey
System: Windows
Company: DreamCatcher
Price: $29.99
Moody atmosphere, colorfully rendered environments, challenging puzzles: It's the stuff Myst was made from.
Schizm: Mysterious Journey is a developmental nephew of the now-classic graphic puzzler. The environments look great, but the story is a flimsy artifice on which to string a series of puzzles and the acting sequences are generally atrocious.
But people who like puzzles should enjoy the game despite its drawbacks.
Players have two roles to play during the course of this science fiction adventure on the apparently uninhabited planet Argilius. You take turns exploring the world as scientists Sam and Hannah, who must find out what happened to the previous scientific research team that, of course, vanished.
And that's pretty much the extent of the plot. The rest is just moving from one brain-teasing puzzle to the next.
If you don't like to pay too much attention to your games when you play them -- and I mean really pay attention -- you are likely to find this a frustrating experience. Schizm: Mysterious Journey jealously demands your focus if you hope to solve many of these puzzles.
But if you enjoy the challenge of difficult puzzles with vague hints and don't mind devoting your attention to the game, it can be a great deal of fun.
System: Windows
Company: DreamCatcher
Price: $19.99
With the title and pedigree this game carries, one expects a lot more.
Frank Herbert's Dune is tied in with the Sci-Fi Channel six-hour miniseries that aired last year, a relatively faithful translation of the renowned science fiction tale by the late Frank Herbert.
The story of Dune, the book, follows young and pampered Paul Atreides, the privileged son of a prominent duke, who journeys with his parents to the desert world of Arrakis.
Here unfolds a plot ripe with feudalistic intrigue: The duke is murdered by a traitor within House Atreides on behalf of rival House Harkonnen, and Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, must flee into the wastes of Arrakis to survive. The story follows Paul's growth from boy into man into messianic savior of the desert dwellers known as the Fremen.
Too bad this game isn't half as rich or enjoyable as the book or the miniseries. I'd rather spend time watching the incomprehensible David Lynch theatrical movie.
The game takes place during Paul's time among the Fremen and involves lots of roaming around, falling into quicksand and fighting with guards who have all the artificial intelligence of a yo-yo.
As if the game's dullness weren't enough to cure insomnia, it takes a long time to load the various levels.
Much more enjoyment can be found in games such as Emperor: Battle for Dune and Dune 2000.