TIME HOPPING FUN!
A Review of The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
by Mark Woon
Ever wonder about events and mysteries that have been hidden by the
mists of time? As a member of the Temporal Security Agency (TSA), you
can find out what really happened waaay back when, and more. With the
ability to travel through time, it's your job to research various time
periods, and ascertain if everything that the history books tells us
are true.
Zig-zagging through time, you'll visit 5 distinctly unique time zones.
From your modern, future home in 2328, you can jump to the depths of
one of King Richard the Lion-Hearted's medieval French castles under
siege in the year 1204 AD; to a meteor damaged space station; to the
mysterious Mayan catacombs of Chichen Itza in 1050 AD; and Leonardo
DaVinci's Milan design studio at the dawn of the Renaissance era. For
me, part of the fun in Buried in Time is the opportunity to learn
about these various time periods.
The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time is a sequel to the original
Journeyman Project. Fortunately though, you need not have even heard
of the original to feel completely at home with Buried in Time. You
play the role of Gage Blackwood, TSA agent extrodinaire. However,
when temporal distortions originating from your research sites are
discovered, along with several incriminating artificts that have been
planted in your locker, you're arrested and put on trial. Before that,
however, you manage slip away and travel back in time to an earlier
you. Your future self has just enough time to give you his
time-traveling suit and a cryptic message before being apprehended by
another member of the Temporal Security Agency. It's up to you to
clear your name!
Confused? Don't be. All that's important is that you've been framed, and that you have to clear your name. Everything will be filled in as you go along, and the great introduction will almost immediately bring you up to speed.
And speaking of introductions... It's refreshing to find that the high
quality of the graphics that you see at the beginning of the game is
maintained throughout. Incorporating many short video sequences with
clear, high resolution graphics and great sound, Buried in Time is one
of the best multimedia games I've played. Even the acting, while not
great, is pretty good.
Among my favorite scenes is the one where you have you scale up a castle wall using a grappling hook, and the crossing of a (practically) bottomless gorge by jumping from one swing bridge to another. In the latter scene in particular, the real-time video quality action was truly amazing. If only more of the game could have been done in this fashion, but this is the only instance where this is used.
Interface-wise, almost everything worked well. Everything could be
controlled using the mouse, with keyboard shortcuts for certain
actions. The screen is divided into 5 sections: the main view window,
a message window, an inventory window, object display window, and the
navigation buttons. My sole gripe is that it would have been nice to
be able to completely control movement from the keyboard instead of
having to rely on the mouse to click on the navigation (direction)
arrows. That way, the mouse could be kept on the main window, instead
of having to drag it back and forth between that and the navigation
arrows.
Gameplay itself was smooth. The plot was easy to understand and the puzzles were not so challenging as to be impossible. Experienced gamers will actually find the game rather easy except for a couple rough spots, and relative novices will find it challenging, but not too difficult. This game would have scored a high 4 if not for two things: it's linearity and it's replayability.
First of all, the storyline was set in stone. I much prefer adventure games that had multiple paths to different (or even the same) outcomes. But everything had to be done in a specific order, or there would be no progress in the game at all. At times, this proved to be really frustrating as there are no real clues to work with. The only way one could have discovered the solution was trial and error and a lot of luck. Unless, of course, you cheated and consulted the hint (read: cheat) line.
As such, the replayability value of this game is pretty much
negligible. Other than to watch a couple of cool video sequences,
puzzles, or video sequences (the one I mentioned above), there's not
much point in playing this game twice.
Buried in Time measures success with a point system. You receive for performing certain actions or finding certain objects. However, I found that even finishing the with an imperfect score (some 13500 out of 15000) was insufficient to make me want to replay it for a perfect score.
If you're a hard core adventure gamer, the only real draw to Buried in Time is the novel multimedia format. To all others though, Buried in Time should be a lot of fun to play. Not only does it make good use of multimedia, it's also chock full of facts and has an interesting plot line to boot.
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time |
| Company: |
Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, Inc.
|
| Cost: |
$64.95 |
System Requirements:
486/33 or faster
MS Windows 3.1 or later
8 MB RAM
Double speed CD-ROM Drive
640x480 SVGA display with 256 colors
MS Windows 3.1 compatible sound card
Mouse
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Interface 3
Replayability 2
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.