A Capri Puzzle Spree
A Quiet Weekend in Capri takes the entire island and puts it into 4,500 photographs. Add in about 100 puzzles, and you have one hot weekend.
Category Archives: Reviews
Do You Uru?
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is quite simply one of the best puzzle games ever created. You don’t just play Uru, you experience it.
The Gate is Open Again
Traitors Gate 2 is almost two games in one. Let me explain. The premise of the game is essentially that terrorists from Unnamed Middle-Eastern Country (TM) have developed a computer virus that could knock out every computer system in the world, or some such nonsense. As Agent Raven (remember him from the prequel?), you must infiltrate their installation, copy the virus, and destroy the research. Since a direct assault is out of the question, you must go through an ancient Babylonian temple which happens to have a back entrance into the facility. So, in essence, you play one type of … Continue reading The Gate is Open Again
Dark Fall Doesn’t Fail
Dark Fall takes you to a sleepy little west-England town, where the train hasn’t gone for over fifty years. It was at that time that the staff and all of the guests of the station hotel vanished mysteriously. No bodies were ever found, and since then, from time to time, various ghost sightings have been reported, and others have turned up missing. Please make yourself"comfortable. You came here because of your brother’s answering machine message, in which he said he needed your help. He is an architect in charge of the renovation of the hotel and station, and his message … Continue reading Dark Fall Doesn’t Fail
RHEM Will Puzzle Puzzlers
Those of you who have been waiting for the next great puzzle game to appear, wait no more. RHEM is without a doubt one of the most difficult and challenging games I have ever played. It is a world full of puzzles, and your intellectual noodle will be stretched extremely far while playing. The game is also inexpensive. You can get a copy of it for just about $30, which makes it an excellent deal considering I guarantee you will be working at the puzzles for many, many hours if you have any hope of solving RHEM. It also ships … Continue reading RHEM Will Puzzle Puzzlers
Chemicus: Above the Learning Curve
It’s no big secret that I like puzzle games. I love to spend my computer game time solving riddles, fixing machinery, and finding solutions. And if I can learn a thing or two while I’m at it, so much the better. Chemicus was right up my alley. Chemicus is a puzzle game, but you get to (some would probably say "have to") learn so much about chemistry and related fields that I was seriously tempted to declare this a cleverly disguised educational game instead of a puzzle game. The introductory movie and background in the manual are certainly melodramatic enough. … Continue reading Chemicus: Above the Learning Curve
And I Thought Nintendo’s Solstice Was Addictive
These two little gems, now finally available on one CD, have been around as Internet games at www.popcap.com. The Omni group has finally gone and catered to us (the uprising Mac-users) and polished them up a bit. Bejeweled & Alchemy provide all of the entertainment value you enjoyed back in the old days before the Internet. You know…Tetris…Dr. Mario…Bubble Bobble. Simple, yet exceedingly complicated as you go along, just like a good puzzle. If one of them isn’t your type, you’ll be sure to enjoy the other and all of its addictive qualities. "Bejeweled" features a series of multi-colored gems, … Continue reading And I Thought Nintendo’s Solstice Was Addictive
Russian Fairy Tales
Sometimes a puzzle game will come out where the entire purpose is to solve puzzles. While I could be perfectly happy solving puzzles all day long, I crave some atmosphere and story and characterization intermingled with good puzzles. Fortunately for me, there are games like Jazz & Faust. Jazz & Faust is a puzzle/adventure game set in a fantasy environment with medieval and Arabian Nights -style elements. In it you play one of the two title characters as you try to unravel a mystery and achieve an ancient treasure. The trick is, once you have solved one of the character’s … Continue reading Russian Fairy Tales
Assimilation: AI is Irrelevant
I hope I’m not hopelessly dating myself, but I remember when the pizza joint down the street from the college campus got in a game called Ataxx (this was back in 1990). It was different from a lot of the other games that were coming out at that time, in that is was a turn-based puzzle game. I spent many hours at this game, trying to beat ever-increasingly-difficult AI opponents in an effort to get a higher ranking. (Take that, Droolman!) Later, in 1993, 7th Guest came out with a rehash of the Ataxx game as one of its puzzles … Continue reading Assimilation: AI is Irrelevant
Silent Hill Horror Lives
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams is basically an improved Xbox version of SH2 for the Play Station 2. I did not have the opportunity to play the original Silent Hill game, but I am told by several of my colleagues that I missed out in a big way. From speaking to them, I don’t know if either version of SH2 quite lives up to the original, but I did have an enjoyable time playing the game, especially about 11:00 at night with the lights all turned off. The Xbox version has an added sub plot that was not in SH2 … Continue reading Silent Hill Horror Lives