The Crystal Key Review

|Tap-Repeatedly|FFC Archives

           

The Crystal Key

Review by Orb

Let me just get this out of the way right at the very beginning.  The Crystal Key is my cup of tea. In fact, I’d like to coin a new term that dim-witted shooter fanatics who have no concept of what an adventure game comprises can start calling the games I love (so they can avoid having to go there and think for a change) … “Riven clone.” I guess this sort of articulates where I stand as far as my allegiance to the graphic interface adventures popularized in the last five years. This is just a good, old-fashioned, inventory-based adventure game, with some really pleasing and appealing graphics. The farther I went into the game, the more I enjoyed it.

The story itself is a very straight science fiction story, similar to MGM’s Stargate series, except that you won’t find any Earth cultures such as the Egyptians, Atlanteans, Anistazi, et al., cluttering up the narrative—this is not sci fi, it’s Science Fiction, to paraphrase Harlan Ellison.

The survival of Earth is threatened by an alien race led by a being known only as Ozgar. A transmission is intercepted by Earth from a race of people called the Arkonians telling of their fight against Ozgar. You are the test pilot of Earth’s first hypership sent to the origin point of the Arkonians’ signal, to find out what’s out there and stop this menace. The game itself follows a linear path, which is self-evident, but you can explore around all you like.

The interface is nicely controlled via Apple’s Quicktime VR, giving the player unlimited movement in looking around. Travel occurs via movies that transport you to the next point you want to go to, so no million clicks/steps to arrive at any destination, and the travel itself is fun, like being on a mini–roller coaster. Cursor changes to show hotspots, so no pixel-hunting. 

Inventory is kept in a bag below the game screen, and inventory items are simple, not too many, all get used, and there’s no scrolling to see what’s in the bag. Captured inventory items float into your bag once clicked on, and to use the item, click once, then click on the desired area of the game, and the item floats itself into use.

The look of some of the gameplay areas is very similar to graphics from the Journeyman Project series. There was an alien vessel definitely reminiscent of portions of these games. The one-click cursor keeps gameplay very immersive. A desert world gives the player the feeling of being on Lucas’s Tatoonie, and there is an excellent recreation of a jungle. There are smoothly polished marble floors to glide across. But the graphical high point is definitely the Arkonian city on the water, which includes some absolutely phenomenal design and movie sequences that are so pretty, they are worth playing the game for. Riven comes to mind. There is also some very Riven-esque tunnel work that’s well-designed. The graphics of a rock hitting the water of a pond was just simply visually stunning.

The music and ambient sound are very similar to Jewels of the Oracle, and Jewels did pleasantly come to mind during gameplay, although The Crystal Key is not a straight puzzle-based game by any means. There are, oddly, portions where whole sections go by with no music or sound at all (either that or it cut out, but nevertheless, it was not there). Some sound effects that would have logically been present were not, such as the sound of a freight car you are traveling in, and it is simply missing a number of ambient sounds it should have.

An interesting thing included is a mapping feature that only goes for the very first portion of the game, handy for a learning curve overall and designed well in that it would serve an expert as well as a novice, and it is a subtle but strong entrance point in the game in that respect.

As far as puzzles go, there are very few areas in the game that even remotely resemble a straight puzzle; these are also built in a very immersive fashion, all are sequential, all follow and forward the story, rather than looking like the third ear on a pig’s head (after all, I always keep a big fat slider puzzle to access my bedroom door at home, etc., know what I mean?)—there’s just none of that here.

The inventory is extremely well-designed. There are no red herring pieces, which I hate. All items are used and discarded once used, so there is no redundant, unnecessary clicking through an inventory scroll to get what you need. There is none of that assembling inventory items to make something you can use, and the items are cleverly used themselves, keeping the game interesting enough for an expert but simple enough for a novice. The design of the inventory is exceptionally pretty; each item is lit as though there were a spotlight on it—select one and the light pulsates lightly, letting you know it’s available for use. There is no holding the mouse down and dragging to use an item, which is just ducky with me. The only design drawback in this area is that when interacting with environmental items, such as pulling a handle, it must be executed very slowly to work.

There is a lot of serious equipment here to hunker down and get working—generators, freight cars, spaceships (the grungy Han Solo/Star Wars kind, not the Kubrick/2001 kind), a diving bell, etc. One of my favorite designs in the game involves an Arkonian shuttle that looks eerily like a floating version of one of those Airstream travel trailers seen all over the American landscape, eternally 50s, smooth chrome metal land beasts.

I had some initial freeze problems that were solved by uninstalling the Quicktime on my computer and installing the Quicktime from the game disk. I also had a memory freeze, although I was well within system requirements, that I solved by allocating a heap o’memory to the game. There were some problems throughout the game using the save feature, and I had to work around these. There’s a fair bit of waiting after each travel movie that I didn’t like—left me tapping my foot. There were also some points in the game where the movies would lock up and then skip to the end of the sequence; at one point I had an inventory item jump to just suddenly appear in the inventory bag. The game inexplicably dumped out in the middle of a hologram sequence. I’d rather have to double-click on everything than have all the bugs I encountered, given a choice.

There’s a lot of worlds and environments to explore that have been well-compacted onto two disks (no FMV, hallelujah!). The only problem in this was there was a fair amount of disk swapping that occurred with increasing frequency as the game progressed.  There are 10 save game slots, which I found to be plenty, and to be fair regarding all the crashes, not once did a saved game get dumped out, as in other games; it always saved everything I wanted (once I got it to save).

This is a game novice and expert alike can enjoy, well-written and well–thought out, simple but not simple-minded. If you are looking for a beautiful, immersive world mixed with classic Science Fiction, The Crystal Key is quite a find.

If the novice is also a novice at computers in general (well, okay, Macs—I played it on a Mac …), then it will be a tough go for him/her to work around the bugs and learn adventure gaming at the same time. The game however, is a classic to give to a novice to enlighten her/him on the joys of adventure gaming. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Earthlight Publisher: Dreamcatcher Release Date: December 1999

Available for: MacintoshWindows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

PC: Windows 98/95 Pentium 133 MHz 32 MB RAM Minimum 70 MB hard disk space 8X CD-ROM drive

Mac: PowerPC 120 MHz Mac OS System 7.5 or higher 32 MB RAM Minimum 70 MB hard disk space 8X CD-ROM drive

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

Pages

Top

Category Archives

Top

Blog Posts

Top

14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.