Schizm: Mysterious Journey

I would have really liked to love this game even more. I remember spending hours on this game when I played the CD version some 15 years ago (gosh I'm that old). I dived right back it. By the way it is the DVD version here (meaning a few more cinematics, better compressed graphics, and the (in)famous telescope puzzle). There's the bad acting, which is immediately balanced by the still gorgeous graphics and the great music. The atmosphere is quite unique and hasn't aged that much. The first puzzles are great and well thought out, providing that you have a liking for mathematical puzzles (say hello Thales! hello 12 base calculations!). Then comes the moment when your characters meet and everything slowly goes south. The second half of the game is really tiresome, filled with much less inspired puzzles (telescope, bridge rising) and an awful lot of backtracking (especially if you do it without any walkthrough). The problem there is that you have 2 heroes to guide, meaning that you will have to perform all remaining travels twice, and on top of that, all transitions from point to point and between areas are unskippable (and rather long). For a game relying on exploration and experimentation it quickly becomes annoying and I found myself reaching for a walkthrough simply to make sure that I was not travelling for nothing. Overall a good myst-like, that fells short (about a 'quick travel function' short) of becoming a must-have.

Just saw this game finally was for sale here on GOG. Played it about 10 years ago. Had the cd version and the graphics were amazing. Heard the dvd version looked a lot better and had more puzzles, not sure if it's longer. Asked support which version is being sold and was told it's the dvd version. Definitely buying it again. Don't remember what happened to the copy I had and wanting to see how much more beautiful it will look.

It's a very nice game. We played it from the CD version, and the graphics were also great (but certainly not as much as on the DVD). The sound is great. Two characters are a great idea. Some puzzles can be solved only by their cooperation (!!). But these two characters never meet in the game. We've solved all the puzzles except the last. It is very difficult and it has only a slight lead (but it has :-) ). We had to use the solution guide (it's "setting a few rows of buttons on one machine") ... I highly recommend this game - but the player's patience is needed :-). And in one case - also good hearing :-)).

Very Myst/Riven-like controls and gameplay, so if you want your fix, this is your game. I owned the CD version way back. The graphics were so low-res that it was impossible to figure out some of the puzzles. I wanted to love the game so much, but I resented having to use a walkthrough for the first time ever in a puzzle game because of this (I think Uru: Ages Beyond Myst was the only other time I needed to). I see this one has a download size of over 7 GB, indicating it is the DVD version with high-res graphics, so I'd highly recommend it.