User Reviews (1 - 11 of 13)

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Very Difficult But Worth It

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This one took me a while, and humbly I admit, it would've taken a lot longer without help from hints/walkthroughs. The puzzles don't always appear logical, and many require a lot of running around and trial and error. I just finished it, and was pleased with the storyline and ending(s). This one required more observation and note taking than I've ever done, and even then at times I had no idea what to do with all the info I'd gathered! This is the most difficult game I've played so far. I had plenty of frustrating moments since many of the solved puzzles never gave indication that it was solved, I only had to move on to the next, and the next, etc. to finally get some kind of pay off down the line (or go back and try to figure out where I went wrong). But that's what kind of game I like- challenging and beautiful graphically.

Amazing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really liked as much as the Original Myst! The place is so real and beautiful. The story is amazing and you will have fun with the puzzles, they are not difficult, but you need to find them out and finish all of them to see the end. And you will have a choice of ends. Really cool. You will have a lot to do. A lot to see. A lot to think. That's what I like when playing a game. I don't like fighting or knowing my life is in risk if I don't do something in time. I don't play games to be agitated. I love the challenge, though. And the sensation of fear around but not real. You will enjoy the scenario. It's a big game. Takes space on your PC. You like Myst, you will like Alida. A lot.

guitar? island? Who would of guessed?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For me this game has been difficult. Difficulty feels so good when you solve the game. Really like this one. It has a little bit of everything in it. Guess who-guess what and how.

Stupid puzzles, more annoying than challenging.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I play lots of adventure games. I'm smarter than your average bear. The puzzles were just stupid.

Here is an example. You look in a window, and an old lamp is flickering. You are supposed to count the flickers, they are a code. A code to what? Another, totally unrelated puzzle far away. How do you know this? You cheat and use a walkthrough.

The puzzles are so random. When you read the solution, you don't go "ah ha!" you go "What the heck?". With every adventure game, you sometimes have to go to a walkthrough to get unstuck. This game requires walkthrough help all the way through.

Too bad, the graphics were kind of cool, the idea had potential, it's just the puzzles that failed this game.

Alida - A Myst like experience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having gone through all of the Myst series, I was looking for a game that was similar to Myst. Alida has much of the look and feel of the earlier Myst series like Riven. I enjoy working hard puzzles, and Alida certainly has some very difficult puzzles.

The environment was complete with good sounds, some music, and excellent graphic rendering. The graphic rendering is not a real time 3d rendering, walk anywhere, do anything but is done in the slide show style.

There is a story line to Alida that explains why Alida exists and reveals the various protagonists. There is some limited interaction with people but they certainly make up the minority of the game play. For the most part, you are on your own to explore, discover, and figure out the mystery of Alida. I did get stuck a couple of times and resorted to some on line walkthroughs. One of the walkthroughs missed the logic point behind the solution and simply told you what to do . . . found another one that pointed me at the proper logical approach. All of the puzzle solutions were solvable in the end through proper use of clues. None needed to be done by trial an error.

Overall - I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed the Myst type games, wants to get away from people for awhile, be in a beautiful virtual environment, and enjoys a good challenge.

Alida was, well, puzzeling, but fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: May 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love to explore and solve mechanical puzzels. Alida offered most everything I could want. I liked riven much more, however at a time when myst has been brought to a close and shoot/kill/drive games are at an all time its great to find some more myst like adventure where I can learn about a strange nwew world and discover keys to unlocking mechanical things. The sound was very well done. I choose 4 stars for the game, but just because this was made by one person (a stick in the game houses eyes) I give it a five! I hope the see another game released.

Riven wannabe that falls short.....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was hoping this game was going to be more exciting like Riven but it fell short.
First of all, the music is almost non existent which hurts the game and when it is cued, it's not that good.
Second, the puzzles, while some of them are good, the rest are very tedious work of going back and forth moving parts which takes a long time and gets very boring.
Third, you keep waiting for something to happen in this game that never does.
Some of the puzzles are very hard, but I like that....
There are parts in the story that make no sense.
It's tries so hard to be like riven that sometimes during the game, I wondered how they didn't get sued by Ubisoft by the blatant rip-offs in scenery and machinery and storyline.
If you like Riven, Myst games, give it a whirl, just don't expect much...

Didn't Like It and Got Bored

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't like this game. I play games as a way to relax between work, a way to escape, a way to keep my mind stimulated. Alida didn't do this for me. Most of the time I wasn't quite sure why I was running back and forth doing things, and I never could figure out the whole logic (or whatever) with setting the planets in those covered trays and had to do them all trial and error (and must have done them wrong since there was no indication when you got them right--the other segments had some means of letting you know when things were set correctly). When I finally go to the part where all the various items had been fiddled with and the lost chord should have played to open the vaults, nothing happened. I sat there for a minute thinking about what was probably off and decided that whatever the ending, it had to be pretty sucky since the beginning premise was pretty lame--and I decided it wasn't worth going back and refiguring anything. I just uninstalled it, took the game to work for someone else to try (for free). There was no initial reason for me (as the hero) to want to go find whatever-the-woman's-name-was boyfriend (I'm rather sick of someone telling me something needs to be done, I've gotten to the point where I'm going, "why can't you do it yourself you lazy bum???") and since adjusting all those gizmos didn't give me any incentive, I didn't feel any need to successfully complete the game. I seriously could not think of anything good (or interesting) happening if I'd just go back and correct my wrong setting--so I uninstalled. It wasn't fun, the graphics were just okay by today's high standard, a little more incentive would have gone a long way to encourage this player to want to find the final solution.

One of the best adventure games!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: November 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me describe the kinds of adventure games that I like, so you'll know how far to trust my review. I prefer first-person over third-person, and I like mechanical puzzles that involve figuring out machinery and that follow some sort of logic. I do not like inventory puzzles, nor do I care for puzzles that take too long to finish (i.e., once you've figured it out, it should be easy enough to do; that's not to say that I don't like puzzles that stump me for days before I figure them out).

Now, having said that, I can say that Alida is exactly the type of game that I like. It is first-person, there is very little character interaction ("lonely world" experience, which I like) and there is no inventory. Nearly all of the puzzles involve figuring out machinery and operating the devices on the island.

Story: Yes, there is a story, despite what some reviewers have said. No, it is not as involved as a game like Syberia, but then again that's the third-person/first-person difference coming through. You will find out enough in Alida to keep you going, but if you like the very interactive, dialogue-driven game, this is not it.

Gameplay: First person slide-show presentation like the original Myst. But it is more like Riven in that the entire game takes place on one island, as opposed to multiple "ages." This also means that many of the puzzles are connected.

Puzzles: This is what I care about most. I don't need a big story, as long as the puzzles are good. And the puzzles in Alida are *excellent*! Every one of them makes logical sense. They can be very difficult at times, but if you consult a walkthrough, you will not have that "Oh, I would never have figured that out" feeling. Everything makes sense.

Something that had me hesitant about purchasing this game was the guitar theme park setting. I was afraid that the game would feel too contemporary, and not have that "other worldly" feel like the Myst games do. But that is not the case at all. Aside from the fact that there is a giant guitar on the island, this game feels more like Myst than the last two Myst games!

Another note: I've read several times that people don't like how some puzzles do not give you feedback after you've finished them. Having played the whole game, I'm actually confused about what they are referring to. Every puzzle that gives you immediate access to something new will have feedback that shows you where you can go next. There are three or four "big" things (that are connected to a larger puzzle) that you need to do that do not give immediate feedback, but the fact that you did them in the first place means that you did them right. If you happened to have made a mistake, you'll know exactly where to go to fix it.

One final note: This game was created by one person (Cos Russo), and he is great about supporting the game. You can email him directly for hints (if the hints at his website aren't enough), and he's a great guy to communicate with. Fantastic support.

Anyway, I highly recommend this game. This is simply one of the best (if not *the* best) adventure game I've ever played. If you enjoy first-person, exploratory adventures with a lot of puzzles, then this game is exactly what you need.

Fun but awfully complicated

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: August 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I never actually finished this game. It was fun to begin with but it seemed like there was no logic to a lot of the puzzles. Or, maybe I should say, there was logic, but you had to know the end of the story before you realized what you were looking for.
If you are a brain or play this kind of game constantly, you will probably do fine. I'm an intelligent human being, but I don't play a lot of these games and don't really care if I get through them, so it was a little more complicated than what I like. Probably, it depends more on your gaming style.

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