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Among the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 39 / 40
Date: November 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Our heroine,Arian,who is a photojournalist,falls through the crack in a volcano while out covering a story.She stumbles upon a hidden world in the center of the earth,and becomes a hostage to her new environment.Eager to return to the surface once again,she meets many interesting characters along the way.It seems everybody wants a favor from her,before she can proceed on to the next area.There are dinosaurs,giants,floating islands,submarines,blimps,suspended bridges,jungles,diamond mines,and the list goes on.The graphics are breathtaking-reminiscent of "The Longest Journey" and "Syberia",two of my all time favorite games.I'd have to put this one among those very few,rare games,that will not let you down.Though there is only one CD,don't let that fool you.It's quite a lengthy game,and Arian travels a very long way.I would have liked to have had a location icon in the inventory...it would have lessened the tedious distances.Also,the hotspots were hard to find at times,especially when she went from room to room,or progressed onto the next screen.It was tricky sometimes,I had to click in the farthest corners to find them.There are just enough puzzles in this game to keep it interesting,although a few were so difficult,that I needed a walkthrough.
The storyline is rich and engaging,and the laptop computer that Araian uses is priceless.There are two different endings to this game.You can choose to end the game about 3/4 of the way through,or play it to the end.The cut-scenes are wonderful,the sounds of birds chirping,the seagulls,the water rippling,all add to the beauty.Although I would have preferred the musical score to be played more often,it serves it's purpose and is quite satisfying.I was very pleased with "Journey To The Center Of The Earth".For true adventure gamers....it is a must have.

Great buy!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 28
Date: October 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I didn't know what to expect with this game but after seeing the demo decided to give it a shot, and was very pleasantly surprised. The graphics are impressive, the story is gripping, and there is a heck of a lot to see. It is a long game that kept me busy for nearly 50 hours.

Not only that, but more importantly, it was really fun. There is something very playful about the really colorful, vibrant colors that make up the palette of the settings, and there are lots of characters. This is not a lonely Myst-like game where you wander alone. You speak to many of the other characters, and interact with them. Lots of puzzles, most of which tie into the story quite nicely.

I recommend it highly! For 20 bucks, why not?

Doesn't Live Up to its Promise

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 25
Date: February 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In Journey to the Center of the Earth--a game only loosely based onm the Jules Verne Novel--you play Ariane, a freelance photo journalist on a trip to Iceland. While there, an accident separates her from her helicopter and pilot. Trying to find a way out of her plight, she falls, like Alice, down a hole and discovers a whole new world. While trying to find a way back to the surface, she explores this world and uncovers a mystery.

As others have stated, JTTCOE is a third person game much in the tradition of The Longest Journey or Syberia, with a strong female protagonist on a quest that isolates her from everything familiar. As such, JTTCOE could have been a really good game. I expected it to be a really good game. There were some good things about it, even some parts that were quite enjoyable. But as a whole, it didn't please the way its predecessors did. There were too many glitches that made me think it had been rushed into release without being tested thoroughly.

I wish I could say that where JTTCOE is good it's really good, but that's not the case (except in the opening and closing animations, where the helicopter flying over the ocean is indistiguishable from film). Mostly, things were...okay. The graphics were pretty but not stunning. The animations were adequate. The voice acting and story were all right. So there wasn't much greatness to make up for the fact that a lot of this game is kind of boring. The one savng grace is that there are no timed puzzles and you can't die.

The puzzles range from the incredibly simple-minded to the abysmally incoherent. Most are typical third-person inventory puzzles--give so-and-so this item so that he gives you something you need to give to someone else. These were the easy ones, although it was difficult not to become irritated at all these characters just sitting around letting Ariane do their chores for them. Except for a few, the NPC's were without personality, so it was a little hard to feel sympathy for them.

Conversational puzzles were more difficult, usually because the alleged conversational clues didn't actually contribute anything, or were actually misleading. There were several places where you were given deliberately wrong information, which I find unforgiveable. But that wasn't so bad as the several mechanical puzzles. I usually can get through anything without a hint or walkthrough, but the puzzles in JTTCOE were so abstract and incoherent that even WITH a WT they didn't make sense. Plus, often solving a puzzle meant running around through the entire gameworld--which was huge--looking for some unlikely inventory item in some unlikely place. The world was so big and the navigation was so bad and time-consuming, that it was easier just to get the answer and not waste your time.

Did I say navigation was bad? It's about the worst thing about this game. There is no warp function and there are lots and lots of screens to move through, some of which don't have much other purpose. Sometimes your movement cursor doesn't appear, so you have to kind of randomly search for it. Sometimes you simply can't get there from here and have to go around, and sometimes Ariane evinces a kind of virtual Tourette's syndrome, where she twitches and shuffles around in place for no apparent reason. This was really irritating, the more so because it could have been corrected with a little attention.

JTTCOE has two endings. This in itself is not unusual, but one of them occurs substantially earlier than the other (I suppose in case the player just can't take any more) and provides quite a different outcome. You're given plenty of warning what's coming, so it's easy to save in the right place and go back and view the other ending later. If you choose the extended ending, the game actually picks up and the puzzles make a little more sense--or maybe it's just that by that point you know what to expect, I'm not sure.

It took me about 25 hours to get through JTTCOE and that was with several WT consultations when I couldn't take it any more. I didn't find it absorbing; in fact there were times when I got through a puzzle and thought, "I don't want to do this any more." I ended up being pretty disappointed in it. I think I would have done better to wait for the jewel case release, or trade someone for this game; it just didn't live up to its promise.

Oh, my head

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: January 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a flawed game that could have been a great one if only the developer had put more effort into it. Instead, it's so buggy that the first time I played it, I could scarcely believe it had been Beta tested. I was tempted to keep a can of Raid handy as I doggedly pursued the game's conclusion (or conclusions, actually -- there are two of them).

Where to start? It would be way too time-consuming for me to list all of the glitches I encountered, so I'll just mention some of the highlights:

~Choppy cut scenes

~So many crashes I felt as though I might be playing Demolition Racer by mistake

~A difficult-to-control protagonist (Ariane). For example, I'd click on a hot spot and she'd head in the opposite direction; she'd run into/walk through solid objects (posts, walls, furniture, other characters, etc.), get stuck behind things, disappear and reappear, spin around like a whirling dervish rather than move in a forward direction, walk on water, go sailing completely off the screen while continuing to recite dialog; overshoot her mark and, for instance, end up behind and facing away from characters with whom she was speaking (ultimately becoming frozen there); she'd also open doors and/or pick up objects that were behind her, and obscure my view of items needing attention by standing precisely in my line of sight.

~Erratic display of icons indicating items to be picked up, interacted with, and/or signifying directions in which Ariane is able to move. Icons would appear where there were no hot spots, and not appear where hot spots were present. Also, some hot spots are downright microscopic and easy to miss.

~Inconsistency of a type I've never seen before in a computer game. For example, a character who's supposed to give a specific item to Ariane might give it to her over and over, but this doesn't always happen with the same item at the same point in the game. I was also able to get Ariane to do something she wasn't supposed to be able to do (I realize this is vague, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers)

~Out-of-synch events; for example, a thing that's supposed to happen only after something else has occurred will take place *before* the prerequisite event (again, I'm being intentionally vague)

~An inventory system that, if left open, can obscure items that are essential to advancing the game

~Extremely difficult puzzles, some of which made little sense to me

~Problems both installing and uninstalling the software, including error messages that weren't accurate or legitimate

~Negative impact on the performance of some of my other games

The computer on which all of the above occurred exceeds the minimum system requirements for this game, as provided by the developer.

To be fair, I actually did like a few things about the game. The music, ambient sounds and quality of graphics are simply outstanding. Also, being a hard-core gamer, I've played the thing more than a few times and it's grown on me. Once I'd become accustomed to the game's shortcomings and knew what to expect, I enjoyed it a lot more.

I realize, however, that some folks are probably reluctant to work as hard as I did just to appreciate a computer game. Further, I wouldn't recommend this game to an adventure gaming novice, as it could drive such a person away from the genre altogether. That would be a shame, considering the excellent adventure games that have been released in the past few years.

In my opinion, Journey to the Center of the Earth has a lot of potential. Rather than creating a "budget" game at the expense of quality, I'd have preferred it if the developers had spent more time and effort trying to get things right. Performance-wise, this is the worst game I've ever played. I would have gladly paid twice the price for a glitch-free (or at least glitch-minimal) version.

If you decide to try this game, I suggest that you bring lots of patience as well as any anti-frustration devices you might have. A good walkthrough wouldn't hurt, either.

Painful To Navigate

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: August 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to like this game, the story line is decent and the graphics are good but navigating the screens is painful. They have taken what could have been a good game and ruined it by not paying attention to some basic navigation problems. The cursor indicates that you can move in a direction by showing shoe prints when you hold the cursor over a hot spot. But in this game the hot spots are tiny or in a lot of cases missing. This makes something that should be simple, moving around the screens, very frustrating. In one screen after 5 minutes of searching I couldn't find any hot spots that would allow me to move forward into the market area, even though it was evident that it was where I needed to go. So I gave up and started randomly clicking in the screen, which eventually allowed me to move forward, but again, no hot spots to indicate where I could move to from that position. So more random clicking to try to get to one of the booths in the market. After having to do this to move several times the screen finally changed to show the market from a different angle and at that point I had navigational hot spots again. The tiny hot spots also caused a problem with figuring out what items I was supposed to pick up or look at. It caused me to miss several items in certain screens. And in a few cases the hot spot was completely off the item altogether, causing some confusion as to which item I was to pick up or look at. Another annoying problem was that often my character would stand right in front of what I needed to look at or touch. So I had to keep clicking the screen around her to try to move her out of the way in order to get to the item in question. So unless you have an infinite amount of time and patience, try some other game.

BORROW, RENT - DO NOT BUY

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 16 / 21
Date: March 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I love adventure games. I love third person adventure games. They are the only ones I buy. This game promised so much and delivered so much - crap that is. The story is good, the graphics are good, the mood music is good. The acting is terrible. This I can forgive easily.

What I cannot forgive is having to reboot my computer, which FAR exceeds the minimum requirements on average every 4 moves or so. No lie. EVERY FOUR MOVES!

I have disabled my antivirus software. I took off complex shadows from the options. Nothing helped/helps.

There was one time I got something from someone before I was to get it. Alas and alack! I couldn't move forward. Why, because he was supposed to tell me something else, and refused to tell me because he had already given me the thing. Inconceivable!

She stops, she flips between scenes, she freezes my computer. Talk about a high maintenance woman. The glitches are regrettable and reduce the fun factor to a very generous 2 stars. Amazon - call a sale and dump your stock!

Avoid this one!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a big adventure game fan - thought this one might be along the lines of Syberia - WRONG! This game had an interesting premise but was absolutely painful to play even when consulting a walkthrough every other minute. The character was hard to navigate, the puzzles completely non-intuitive (who would think to get rid of a t-rex, you had to mix a leaf, twine, paint, and blackened pear to make fireworks which then you had to launch out of a hollow log???) AHHHHHHH! Also because of the super rigid gameplay, you would be unable to do one thing without completing some other menial task, so you would be hunting like crazy for the one little thing you didn't do - and this is after following the walkthrough verbatim. Please play only in the event of a pandemic and you are trapped in your house for weeks and have no other means of entertainment.

Wanted to play it through, but....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because the title and genre intriqued me. However, I found it to be a challenge, too much so, for my taste.
Even with the "Walkthroughs" to help me, I still had problems with getting from one puzzle to the next, and Im not a brainiac,
but Ive been playing computer games enough to know, this one is too perplexing to finish. Im not a fan of point and click, and I wish more people would clearly state in theyre reviews wether or not a game is, but the graphics and idea of this game won me over. Controlling the game was another issue. The keys I was to
push over certain items would not budge the item, and I have 4 computers, so it wasnt my keyboard!

Not worth the time... or money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There were a few things I liked about this game. But honestly, there were SO MANY things that I didn't like, it really overshadowed them.

It seems obvious that the manufacturer was rushed to production, because I've never seen such a glitch-filled, bug-ridden game in my life. Here are a few examples:

1. The main character often stands in front of vital items with which you are expected to interact, and moving her away from them (once you've cheated and found out from some walkthrough that they even *exist*), is nearly impossible.

2. Going along with that, navigation was haphazard at best, and at some points nearly impossible. The main character was constantly getting into some position that should could not get out of!! Several times I had to quit my game and reload an older saved game and just avoid the place where I'd become trapped. The hints system I used tried to give advice for these situations, but often had weird instructions like, "...quickly click at the end of the tables straight ahead and quickly again between the tables and wait."

3. Stupid dialogue. Instead of just having the conversation and allowing you to replay anything you wanted to hear again, the game forced you to manually start each topic point, even though it was necessary to go through each topic. I became very irritated by this after a while.

4. "Hot spots," or cursor indicators which show you where the character can walk, or what she can interact with, were often missing or wrong. I became completely stuck at one point because there were NO hot spots on the screen at all. I just had to methodically click my way around the screen until I found a direction she could go in. Other times, there was a "hot spot" cursor, but when I clicked on it, she went walking off in some other direction! Also, "hot spots" that were used earlier in the game would not go away, and I was often unsure whether there was something else I needed to do.

5. System crashes. Often times, when trying to do something out of order, the game just gave up and shut itself down.

The game had potential, but even forgiving the numerous glitches and bugs, it was difficult, confusing, and sometimes completely nonsensical. I didn't like the third-person approach, but that may be just a personal preference. All games I've played up to now have been first-person, and lately, they all have 360 degree panning. Being tied down to a "movie" type format with a character to direct felt clumsy to me, and probably accounted for some of my navigational problems.

But that wasn't the only problem. At one point, after trying for hours to work out a puzzle, I went to a hint web site, only to be told, "Ignore the clues. The don't make sense. Just do it this way."

I would NOT recommend this game for anyone. Even at bargain prices, it's no bargain, just a hassle.

Should have been a good game BUT.......

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love adventure games like Syberia, The Longest Journey, Aura, Return to Mysterious Island, etc....and had thought this game would be close in perspective. Actually, the story line is good, the graphics ok, the scenery and music alright....but this game has so many BUGS, HOT SPOT errors, and programming problems that it makes it extremely aggravating to play. It's a true shame because the game had promising appeal, some fun characters, and a nice feel to it overall. Still, this game will leave you plundering so many times, that you'll have to use constant hints or walk throughs to find out why you seem stuck. Most of the time, it's because you cannot navigate to find something, or haven't found a hot spot that isn't indicated at all (it was left out of the programming). For example, to get to the Pharmacy, you have to go off to the left side of the screen in order to move right, and it may flash to the pharmacy or may not sometimes. Also, the hardest puzzle is the totem pole sound puzzle, because if you make ANY error, the game does not reset. So this game has to be saved prior to that puzzle even being started. There are other buggy things, like near the end when you're supposed to have a certain item and you actually have it but it's not seen until you speak with a character that has nothing to do with that item at all. All in all, it's a shame the game was not tested thoroughly before dispersing to the public. If they had made the fixes, it would have been a great game and possibly rated between 8.5 and 7.5. Right now, it's a low rating at 3 just because of the errors.

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