Rating: 
Summary: Some problems with nagviation story ok. $9.99 at EBGames
Review: Anyway, I just wanted to shared that your local EBGames (or the online website) has the same game brand new at $9.99.
I got bored after a few hours of playing this game. There aren't too many places to see. You're stuck at the same place most of the time and you have to visit the same places time after time because most items are event activated meaning that they only get activated after some events occur.
There were some bugs with the animation engine. Sometimes there's no indication for the hotspots so you'll be stuck at some point wondering what to do next. And some of the puzzles can be challenging.
I got through with the help of a walkthrough.
Rating:
Summary: Some problems with nagviation story ok. $9.99 at EBGames
Review: Anyway, I just wanted to shared that your local EBGames (or the online website) has the same game brand new at $9.99.
I got bored after a few hours of playing this game. There aren't too many places to see. You're stuck at the same place most of the time and you have to visit the same places time after time because most items are event activated meaning that they only get activated after some events occur.
There were some bugs with the animation engine. Sometimes there's no indication for the hotspots so you'll be stuck at some point wondering what to do next. And some of the puzzles can be challenging.
I got through with the help of a walkthrough.
Rating: 
Summary: Aaggghh...the agony!
Review: Forget this one. This is a textbook example of a good idea that is poorly executed. It's a real shame, because the graphics are very nice and the story would be interesting...but I found myself purposely choosing the ending (of two choices) that would just end the agony rather than continue on with the story.
There are so many glitches in the game it is more frustrating than entertaining. There are puzzles in the game that have no earthly resemblance to the "alleged" clues and are virtually unsolveable without internet help. Often, the character is standing directly in front of (blocking) some object requiring interaction, and moving her is impossible. Also, it has far too much time-consuming repetition and LONG travel sequences. The clumsy glitch-ridden navigation drove me up the wall. There are even places in the game where your character can get physically stuck - not on purpose, but by faulty game design.
I'd love to replay this game if it were redone, but I wouldn't even sell my copy because it would be cruel and unusual punishment for the next buyer!
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging story, frustrating execution
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers that this game had potential, but the frustration level nearly outweighed any fun I experienced playing it. I love adventure games, so I tolerated the problems enough to finish it; but I can say I was glad when it was over.
The biggest problem was navigation--the cursor would indicate you could move off screen only 1/2 the time you actually could. This is misleading, and I don't enjoy games that force me to try things at random or run about aimlessly in order to determine exactly what they expect me to do. For example, at one point you need to pick up some sand. You're on a beach, so it's all around you. But of course you have to click in an exact spot to do it! Tedious.
I still think this game is worth playing, because of the engaging story (similar to Syberia 1 & 2), but be sure to have one or two walk-throughs handy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great buy!
Review: 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?
Rating: 
Summary: very enjoyable
Review: I have to say, I really enjoyed this game. I like games that have a nice mix of interaction, puzzles, and "visual candy." This is that game. It is a bit of a pain here and there with a couple of technical problems, but if you save the game a lot, it really isn't too much of a bother. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and I would love to find more games like this, as the technology gets better. If you like games more like Syberia than Myst, this game is worth the purchase.
Rating:
Summary: BORROW, RENT - DO NOT BUY
Review: 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 reduces the fun factor to a very generous 2 stars. Amazon - call a sale and dump your stock!
Rating:
Summary: BORROW, RENT - DO NOT BUY
Review: 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 reduces the fun factor to a very generous 2 stars. Amazon - call a sale and dump your stock!
Rating:
Summary: Do Not buy unless you love torture!
Review: I recently purchased Journey to the center of the earth. It is an inventory based game that I bought because of the promised beautiful graphics. This is a beautiful looking game that is extremely hard because it is extremely linear; if you forget to look at something or if you didn't do something in the exact order, you will not find your way to other screens. This game will be great for people who love inventory, who love to click on every single inch of the screen to find something, or find a way out of the screen. I feel the game play is outdated and the acting is babyish and the story and persons in it, illogical. The story would have made a lot of sense if she was in a coma or dreaming. I needed a walk through and the directions on the walk through were still wrong. If you like to pull your hair out and get a headache, get this game. I gave up half way because I was not enjoying the beautiful graphics. This was not fun at all.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Live Up to its Promise
Review: 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.
| 
