The Positive:

Behold fellow gamers! This is the game that brought me into video gaming. I didn't know what video games could amount to until I picked up this gem. After this game I bought every adventure game I could get my hands on. Thus adventure games led me to RPG's (Final Fantasy 7 is awesome) and RPG's, some having action elements, led me to some decent action games (Max Payne was quite fun). That was about six or seven years ago. Even after all that gaming it still rests near the top of my top ten games. Its graphics are still amazing with its bright colors and beautiful cinematics. If there is an adventure game company that can at least stand with Squaresoft its Cryo. When talking with people they actually look... well, like their actually talking. Everything looks awesome from the 3D rendered people to the luscious backgrounds. They even added small touches like bees and birds flying around and many others. Its story isn't the best but its still entertaining and the ending was quite unexpected. The new age soundtrack of the game is top notch. I caught myself humming the tunes half the time. Each music piece worked just right with each and every part of the game. Oh! Lets not forget the puzzles! I have never played a game with such unique, fun, and enjoyable mind benders (except for that of Beyond Atlantis 2).

The Negative:

Hoo boy! How can I possibly say anything bad about this game. Well I can! As I said its story isn't that great (But it not bad! Dang positivity!
Stop that!) and their is a decent amount of puzzles where you will be needing a walkthrough. I needed help on a few puzzles at the Mayan level
and some near the end. Oh and that wierd crystal puzzle! It was interesting but there is no way I could find those distinct areas for that darn crystal and thats mainly because their was no clear explanation as to what to do(But the majority of puzzles were very inventive and fun to figure out! One more word positivity and I'll tape your mouth shut!). Some people had trouble with the squidlike creature near the end, well I didn't. Finding it was the problem.

Overall:

I enjoyed it, the scenery was beautiful and diverse

Hey JesseGolem, I think you liked this game! It's one of my favorites too.

I agree with you about the wonderful music and the unusual ending. Also that the chief challenge with that squid-thing was in finding it.

Hi JesseGolem,

I loved reading your review! Yes, it is indeed special to me as it is special to you, because it's the first real adventure game I played.

I couldn't agree more with you on the nice little details throughout this game, and how both the amazing music and the puzzles are perfectly appropriate to the different historical settings in the various real or mythical countries. For instance, I remember working out the five-and-twenty based Mayan numerical system on a piece of paper, before I tackled the temple puzzles!

I think Cryo was a rather unique company, because it mainly tried to capture the significant mythology of the world, and some of its major historical settings and religious experiences, and turn them into creative and captivating multimedia 'edutainment'.

Sometimes it looked rather random and to some even a load of hokum, but I guess that's the price you pay when you center on myths and beliefs which will appear extremely meaningful and revealing to some, and illogical to others.

I found an old advert from about 2002 for Cryo on the site of the former German distributor, Modern Games, which perfectly illustrated their ambition: The Mystery of Mankind in DVD Technology, highlighting their series of games Versailles, Time Machine, Ring (of the Nibelung), Pompei (Timescape, Legend of Vesuvius), Odyssey, Faust (Seven Games of the Soul), Atlantis, Egypt, and China: The Forbidden City as parts of one project.



It sure looks like it!

Rich

Yes, I believe the people looked so lifelike (at the time), because their faces were rendered as high-resolution static images, onto which the animated parts (lips and eyelids) were superimposed, as it were.

I found this out browsing the various files on the CDs.

Rich

As Jesse put it, this was the game that hooked me on adventure games. I have found very few that have compared well in terms of the overall artistic value (music, graphics) or inventive use of mythology and history in the story line. I am jonesing for some new game of this standard.