I just finished the game. There were plenty of puzzles, plenty.
I appreciated the ability to move more freely in the game. I didn't like the acting nor the cut scenes involving characters. I had expected more the quality of those in Uru. (What's his name at the trailer? He's fun! I hope he has a part of the Uru online game!)
I guess I expected too much. I feel let down.
For me, it just wasn't as "luscious." I prefer the first Schizm. Also, I don't know if I'm all that satisfied with the end that is reminiscent of a 50's sci-fi attempt at Invasion of the Body Snatchers (or was it The Night of the Living Dead?)...monotone voices thinking all alike!
And, was it just my version? I heard many an email delivery "signal" during game play. What was that about? Maybe during taping someone at Dream Catcher fell asleep and didn't monitor the recording? I can't conceive that one would leave a microphone on, though while make cd copies. I doubt such would have been connected to such equipment. I know it wasn't my computer as I always turn off virus ware, and when virus ware is off I also disconnect from the net. So no mail is coming in while I'm playing.
There was also one panel in the halls of the End Game that seemed to have no part of the game. If it did, I'd like to know what to do with it in case I missed something.
I missed the depths of the sounds of Schizm I, the floating islands, glorious depth and solidity of color, etc. I miss the "awe." It just lacked the "glory" and thrill of the first one. That may be typical of the first of a series of games, movies, etc. But Myst Exile didn't let me down and it was the third in a series.
Even if Schizm II had gone in a totally different direction, I would have preferred replication of the feel, glory and wonderment in which Schizm I was immersed. The thrill is gone. But the beginnings were there in the woods, in the little "ship" rides. The potential was there.
I dislike cutting to wide screen in the middle of a full screen game also for those cut scenes. I felt they were, literally, cut...top and bottom gone!
I don't think I'll visit this game again, unless there's are reason to play with that one panel. I have revisited Schizm I.
The efforts are awesome though and I appreciate the hard and difficult work! But the quality of the actual mechanics of the game were so much above the acting and the cut scenes for me.
I never, ever would have completed this game without the aid of MaGtRo's walk through. Math!
Genius created the puzzles and genius is reflected in figuring them out in the walk through!
I feel like I just worked very hard and completed a 5 hour college course but didn't get the content I had desired.
Still, I do think it is another "must play" for the adventure gamer.
I feel like I have been extremely critical but then again, I think about where we are with technology in gaming. I expected more.
Is this a new favorite for anyone? It's a grade of "A" in effort but not "A" in final impact and product.
Was anyone else let down?

Marcy 64 I did not quite understand what your problem was with MJ2. It is true that MJ1 had sharper graphics and somewhat harder puzzles. MJ2 on the other hand had more interesting interaction with people.
The quality of the game was dependent of the ability of the computer you played it on. I thought that it was a very good game. Personally I thought that MJ1 was better but that is just my opinion.

I agree with you 100% Maryc64. I have talked to a lot of people who had played this MJ2 & they pretty much told me that they felt cheated somewhat. The ending was bad. After I finally got through the game I said to myself, " this is it?" What a let-down. MJ1 was a 100% better.

My computer specs are similar to those of Inferno's with a new graphics card, of course, as a result of Uru's demands, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Computer is a bit over a year old, 2.4 GHz, 512 MB ram, 120 GB. I didn't run the game at the highest setting for resolution hoping for fuller color. Computer is not that full, around 90% free, and I am fussy about keeping it clean for optimum performance.
Happy holidays!

I'm near the beginning of the game (I'm messing with the foggy steps puzzle). So far I've enjoyed it very much. The graphics are more stylized than those in Uru. MJ2 is beautiful, though (with the use of 3D) in a different way than Schizm. I'm loving the controls, which I didn't expect in a 3D game!

There has been quite a bit of story so far, and it's grabbed me. There's obviously something suspicious going on and explanations haven't surfaced yet. I'm not quite sure what to make of the Companions -- are they innocent by-standers or are they secretly using the "humans" as chess pieces?

I like the colorful costumes. (To be honest, I've often thought that "traditional" color palettes in our fashions and homes are unnecessarily subdued. How many of us drive a purple-plaid car, for instance?) I wouldn't be surprised if an alien culture was less afraid of color than we are.

Can't speak to the ending because I'm not there yet -- but I guess I'll ratchet down my expectations a bit after what was said here.

I haven't heard the email signal. I'll start listening for it.

Lasanidine -- I'm assuming with the ending that you get more detail and more things happening on the HIGHER setting? What resolution did you use that showed the most stuff?

I haven't found any math puzzles yet. Well, if they WERE math puzzles I didn't know it, anyway.

Some of the earlier puzzles have been hard -- apparently they level of puzzle difficulty stays the same throughout the game (unlike other games where easy puzzles come early and harder puzzles are saved for the end). So far I haven't enountered anything anywhere near the difficulty of the hardest puzzles in Schizm.

I couldn't believe it, but after unpacking the MJ2 resource files and listening to the Ogg music I found that at least one of the tracks contains the "email" sound. So this is not your PC but someone must have been sleeping while recording the music.

I just finished MJ2 and really enjoyed it. I never heard the email sound, but was glad that the option to go back and read the script was there. The music drowns out the voices in some places and I would have missed a lot otherwise.

Other than the long load times of cut scenes, the game installed and ran beautifully and I loved the graphics and appreciated the ability to explore the beautiful places at my leisure.

I used full acceleration and high detail as always. I did not ajdust my settings and had no problems playing at 1024 x 768. It ran smoothly.

I did not like the math puzzles. I have no idea what the base numbers are all about. This must have been after my time in school also. I agree with Maryc64 about these being created and solved by geniuses! There was no way I could have done the math without a WT, but loved the other puzzles. I thought they were unique and plentiful.

I would have liked a less abrupt ending, but all in all, was happy with the game.

Melanie

How funny - I'm playing the game right now and I'm at the fog maze and the email notification sound is loud and clear. Could not for the life of me figure out what was going on - glad I read this.

As to the game so far - I could have done without the laser puzzle and I've been on this stupid fog maze for two weeks now - not my idea of a fun time. I got a save from Mag but the game won't recognize it for some reason so I guess I'll have to muddle through on my own - which at the rate I'm muddling is going to be months