Rating: 
Summary: I HATED THIS GAME
Review: I bought this game from the "bargain bin" not realizing that there was a DVD version of the game - in the long run it probably would not have made a difference. With the CD-ROM details are fuzzy. I'm sure this game is beautiful with the DVD version since there are some spectacular colors even on the CD-ROM. In any case, this does not take away from the fact that I loathed this game.
In Schizm there are two characters - Sam and Hannah. At times you play Sam, other times Hannah. One of the difficulties is knowing who to play when. As we all know, there is a lot of running around in adventure games. That's just the nature of the genre and true to form, there's a lot of back and forth to various locations. That's OK but sometimes you have to do this with both characters - the exact same locations, essentially repeating all that running around. But that wasn't what did me in.
What did me in were the puzzles. I'm not big on puzzles that don't seem to have any relation to the story. In other words, finding clues, putting them together and solving the puzzle. No - some of these were random puzzles. Just keep on plugging in numbers over and over again until you come up with the right combination. The puzzle that truly tried my sanity was a maze-type puzzle - basically finding a route from one place to another while the game blocks your moves eventually cutting you off from reaching the end. The puzzle is random so it's a new route everytime. It's not as easy as it sounds. I probably attempted this puzzle 30-40 times until I got it right. But guess what...you don't have to do this one time, but twice and you have to get it right two times in a row. One walkthrough (I had to use three different ones) stated that if you kept track of your moves on the first successful attempt all you had to do was repeat the results on the second try - nope. Oh but guess what??? Once you are successful with this puzzle, you get to go to another location and do the exact same puzzle again. Sorry - not me. That's when I quit. I was able to finished 3/4 of this horrible game but I just couldn't go on.
I would only recommend this game if you are some kind of masochist.
Rating: 
Summary: Very difficult game, but rewarding in the end
Review: I bought Schizm: Mysterious Journey just solely on the graphics I saw on the package and this was one game I do not regret buying. I only have the CD-ROM version, but I understand it is only made better if you get the DVD-ROM. Even if the graphics on the CD-ROM isn't the sharpest, I was still very impressed with many of the surrealistic landscapes. Also, it's much better to have all five discs installed, as it would avoid you the hassle of having to swipe discs as you travel new places. It took me an hour to give all five discs installed on my system, but then you don't have to worry about that again, and it makes things so much easier never having to changes discs. This game originated in Poland, but for us North American users, was translated to English. As it turns out the comparisons to the MYST series can't be avoided. You have to solve many puzzles to get places, just as you do MYST. Some puzzles are random (like getting the fish-like balloon craft inflated and ready for flight). Yes, many of these puzzles are very difficult, and unless you're a rocket scientist, you're probably going to need a walkthrough. Be sure to write things down on paper as you go along. This game is not for novices, but for those wanting a challenge, go for Schizm.
Rating: 
Summary: ummm- does this make the slightest bit of sense
Review: While the gameplay was enjoyable, and the puzzles may have been difficult- I needed help and I had gotten through Riven and Myst III in 2 days a piece, I found that I could not get into the fun. The tasks seemed more laborious than puzzles, and the graphics were absolutely terrible. I found it difficult and annoying to change characters and disliked the funky camera angles. At some points, you seem 5 feet off the ground and at others about 8. The storyline was also terrible- I still do not completely understand what the logic is behind what happened where and who the heck the gatekeeper and Matia are. There are also no ways to fail- failure is an option in real life.
The main purpose for buying this game was to see great graphics, piece together a great storyline, and to tackle mediocre to hard puzzles. This game provided none of the above. Yuck
Rating: 
Summary: A good challenge - but buy the DVD
Review: First of all, the gameplay. The game is definitely difficult and some of the puzzles are potentially real stumpers. Some degree of mathematical insight is certainly required to solve them.One problem I have with the puzzles is that they are not logically arranged. For instance, after progressing some distance through the game you reach a point where you have to return one (and perhaps both) characters to the point where they started the game to obtain something necessary to continue the game that cannot be obtained at the beginning. There is also an object that can be obtained from the beginning that is not essential to progress beyond the start of the game, but becomes vital later on, and it would be easy to leave the beginning without obtaining it. Problems like that add to the difficulty of the game. Things are made easier, however, by a limited number of inventory items, and the fact that if you hold the right inventory item for performing a task the computer automatically selects it for you. Several of the puzzles are mathematically oriented. While I can usually work out mathematically related puzzles, I still can't determine the logic behind one of them (translating the old to new co-ordinates) as it seems that in the alien number system you carry numbers between some columns but not others. Another difficult mathematical puzzle, the triangle puzzle, was rendered impossible in my game by the graphics not being good enough to show the readings on the relevant instruments. This forced me to revert to a walkthrough to solve these puzzles, which was unsatisfying. The rest of the puzzles generally were solvable (although a lot of logic needs to be applied, including drawing up lookup tables to determine patterns etc) but often lacked a real logic to them in terms of game story (like the houses which you must enter twice but leave once). This is in contrast to the puzzles in the Myst series, which are closely ingrained with the storyline and make good sense in the context of the universes created. The puzzles in Schizm seem to be there purely for the sake of vexing and perplexing the visitor, which is unsatisfying in terms of storyline. The storyline also doesn't make an awful lot of sense (there is a very contrived explanation as to why your two characters can't see one another, even when standing next to each other), but what the heck. I also had a real problem with the acting, which is appalling. If you think the acting in most computer games is bad, you'll think it is Oscar material compared to that in Schizm. I understand that the actors are not natural English speakers, but the game makers could at least have cheaply hired a voice actor to overdub their lines. Now some technical points. I bought the CD version of this game. As many of the reviews below indicate, this game was initially designed for DVD, and has suffered in the translation to CD. The biggest problem is the graphics. The game has a lavish production design but the compression required to convert the game to CD has resulted in blurry and indistinct graphics at some points. Mostly this is merely an aesthetic problem, but when you can't read numbers on dials or key sets of co-ordinates, it's a much bigger issue. Were it not for walkthroughs I simply wouldn't have been able to solve one of the puzzles purely due to bad graphics. There are also some objects which were very hard to distinguish for the same reason. Unless you do a full install of all 5 CDs (which I would highly recommend, although you will need lots of disk space) you will need to change CDs frequently. One thing adding to the problem of swapping CDs is that you control two characters who must be moved independently - so when moving both characters from location A to location B you need to walk each character along the path one at a time. It would have assisted if the programmers had enabled you to move both characters together, and included a 'zip' mode as there is a lot of pacing back and forth through familiar territory. Finally, there are more quicktime movies containing hints that are on the DVD version but are not on the CD version. The DVD also has an additional puzzle. All in all - it's a difficult adventure, but if you want to be able to solve it yourself you may have big problems using the CD version, due to graphical problems.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck
Review: This might have been a great game: if it had been released about six years ago. This game is a Myst clone that came out about five years too late. "Clone" is a bit too much of a compliment. ... is a slightly better phrase, because this game falls short of the excellent series that it aspires to be. The graphics for the game are simply awful. The screen looks like a drenched comic book that just got pulled out of the gutter. Perhaps it is because the game is fixed at 640X480 resolution when most computers can go way higher. It looks like some effort was put into the artwork for the game, but it is spoiled by the smeared-out, grainy look that occupies every screen. "Riven" is much older and looks better. So does "Grim Fandango". The voice acting is abominable, and so is the acting for the game's in-game movies. I thought that we got rid of those years ago when everyone realized how cheesy they were. If the game had a good premise, then the poor production values wouldn't matter very much, but it doesn't. It's another "abandoned world full of weird machines" game. This time, it's an alien world. A good puzzle game has to have puzzles that fit into the virtual world. Unfortunately, "Schizm" has lots of contrived puzzles that don't make sense. Want to walk across a bridge? Figure out how to push a series of 20 buttons in the right order. Don't expect to just push one button. Apparently, aliens are extremely bored geniuses who have nothing better to do than build complicated contraptions that confuse Earthling scientists. I wonder if aliens have to push a series of color-coded buttons in a special order to operate a toothbrush. I'll give the game props for having good music and, yes, the puzzles are very difficult. If you are up for a challenge, they will definitely do that. It's hard to get interested in them though, since the game always constrains you along a tight path instead of letting you explore a 3D world. That's another big fault that this game has when you compare it to other adventure games. Here's a tip: skip this one unless you have played all other adventure games that you want to play first. I played "Myst", "Riven", "Sanitarium", and the "Syberia" demo, and they are all better than "Schizm".
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