Rating: 
Summary: Nearly impossible to play unless you're psychic
Review: This is a game with beautiful graphics and a really creative vision of another world. Good thing I enjoyed looking around as much as I did or I probably would have quit playing by Day 5, when I finally had to go search out a walkthrough because I couldn't move my characters out of their original locales. The puzzles in this game are ridiculously hard, but it's more than that. Half the time you don't even know if you have what it takes to complete the puzzle or not (like information, items, a solid grasp of math), and it is SO easy to miss an important clue or item that you'll need later on and will end up having to come back and find. No hints, nothing to tell you if you're completely on the wrong track. It's literally as if the game expects you to read its mind sometimes -- there are points where you have to do something a certain way just because that's how the game wants it, even if there appear to be other equally good options, and even if there's no real logic to it and no hints to send you down that path. If anyone could get through this thing without help in under six months, I'd be amazed. The acting is so-so, but it seems that a lot of the actors aren't native English speakers so that may explain some of it (the game was created by a Polish firm). The amount of running around you have to do at certain points in the game is way too much, and it's annoying that you can't skip through the video portions. Also, the resolution of the game is... well... sudden, I guess. I wanted more than I got at the end, and a clearer explanation of what had been going on. Overall, I actually enjoyed it -- largely because the world itself was interesting to look at. But the puzzles are crazy hard -- they make sense once you figure them out, but I didn't even know where to start for all but a few of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelieveably bad
Review: CDROM version. This game is horrible. The graphics [arn't very good], the gameplay is slow, it keeps crashing, and the game riddles are insanely difficult because there is no logical flow to them. I wanted a game that was like MYST and got a big piece of do-do. Stay away at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: I hated it. Nowhere near the quality of the Myst series.
Review: I felt compelled to buy Schizm a few days ago. I wanted my money back after a few minutes of playing. It's simply awful. First of all, the voice acting is terrible. I decided I could live with bad voice acting from other characters. Then I realized that my OWN character which I am supposed to be controlling is talking and make comments about the things infront of me. This is very annoying. It makes me feel like I have a very stupid sidekick with me at all times, and it really pulls me out of the game.
Also, none of the levels were designed with the Myst-node movement style in mind. There are very large areas, and you naturally want to be able to walk around freely and explore everything upclose. You can't. This doesn't sound annoying, but trust me, it is. VERY. I never appreciated how much effort went in to making Myst, Riven, and Exile playable until I met this game. Myst games never have wide open spaces. You're always on a path, so you never feel like there's somewhere you want to go but can't. Schizm has many wide-open spaces, and nodes which are placed almost randomly, and don't allow you to enjoy the area around you. It's like they're encouraging you to zip past everything and progress as quickly as possible. In Schizm, I found myself clicking at things over and over before realizing I couldn't walk to that strange decoration on the wall or that door.
Another thing that pulls you out of the game is the skipping of long animations. If I get into a maglev in Riven, it shows the entire ride from one island to another. In Schizm, it shows you departing, it does a crossfade to you going along, then another cross-fade of your landing (all in first person) and then you can get out. Note to developers: crossfades and cutting out parts of sequences to save time is anything BUT immersive. Perhaps one of the worst things of all in this game is the live-motion characters. It's not only they can't speak like a human, can't act, and can't even show up at sensical points in the game, they don't even LOOK like they things they're supposed to be. I'm supposed to rescuing scientists. Scientists are old guys in lab coats. In Schizm, scientists are 20-year-old college students with long hair and leather jackets.
I could rant on for hours about how horrible this game is. Just don't waste your money like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Schizm is full of bugs
Review: Had to contact their tech support, loaded 5 cdroms, but it NEVER worked without constantly swapping cd's over and over and over and over again! It might be an interesting game, but having to constantly reswap cdroms is really a big WASTE of time... ps: their tech support sent me a zip file supposedly that would fix the cdrom swapping problem, now, not only does it STILL have the same problem, but it also FREEZES and send error messages. No more games from these DreamCatcher, The UNAdventure Company! That's 4sure...:-(
Rating: 
Summary: If it is challenging--it is worth the effort
Review: I am a fan of the Myst series, and similar games that emphasize adventure and thoughtful exploration. I do not like mindlessly shooting pictures pictures of badguys and being shot at from behind a dark corner.
Schizm was extremely well thought out. Schizm involves solving a mystery, and in the process, figuring out an alien culture. There are very difficult situations, but all of them have solutions that are not hard if you let yourself understand the cultural setting. It teaches you to open your mind.
When you have finished Schizm, you will feel great and have learned to think better than before. It will be an amazing adventure along the way. Sure, this game requires some advanced thinking. We need games that are more difficult to go to afer we get the Myst, Riddle of the sphinx type games wired--otherwise, where is the challenge. If the game is not challenging, we stop getting better, and the game is just an exercise in pointing the cursor and clicking--just waiting for the graphics to stop so that we can click again---HOW BORING!!!
The acting in Schizm is definitly corny however, but rather than get stuck there, I enjoyed the remaining 98% of the show.
Rating:
Summary: Not even close to Riven or Myst III
Review: I'm not a "hard core" gamer and am pretty picky about what I want to spend my time on. I wanted a game like Riven or Myst III, both of which I enjoyed a great deal. I've played this game for only a few minutes and will be returning it immediately. First of all, just because I haven't purchased a DVD-ROM yet doesn't mean I should be punished with jumps, crappy graphics, and (from what I hear) less of a game. I have a nice system, far above the PII300 that they recommend. Myst III looks fabulous on my machine. ... Even worse though is the navigation. It's completely non-intuitive. You have to force the mouse to turn you in the correct direction -- and often end up spinning too much, you can't look up and down, you move in strange increments. Worse are the obvious game-plot-forced movement. In the very first location there are tons of cool things I want to look at and try, but can't get to them. This isn't exploring a mysterious new world... it's being told what to do by the system! I don't like being told what to do. I can't comment on the value, difficulty, or logic of the puzzles. I got so annoyed just walking around that I'm not even going to bother.
Rating: 
Summary: A superb game yet difficult...
Review: I must say that this game kinda surprised me since I saw it was published by Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher made my adventure gaming kind of boring and meaningless, as I played many of their games like: "The Messenger", "The Crystal Key", "Beyond Atlantis 2" and maybe another one I can't recall. Those adventure games were filled with beautiful graphics and lame gameplay and plots, so you better believe I was surprised when I picked up a copy of Schizm - Mysterious Journey. The game has absolutely stunning graphics, which although sometimes appeared blurry and color distorted, but at many scenes the graphics absolutely shined (I'd give the graphics a solid 4 stars). You can see the air ballons, the flying ships beautifully detailed. The gameplay kind of gave me mixed feelings since, there was a lot to tweak, a lot to look, a lot to use, but I regret not being able to sweep through the whole world in Schizm, and believe me there is a lot to sweep and explore in the Schizm world. Some people might call it "another" Myst-clone, but that's not the case here. You can play two characters by switching between them. Many people don't like the stranded/abandoned/lifeless worlds seen in Myst and in this game, people who love to interact and love the long dialogues with many characters should not try this game - go look for monkey island or discworld clones, but for people who love just to explore and see sheer beauty need to check this one out. Not to say that this game has no gameplay, it just concentrates more on the exploration side. Now for the part I love the most: the puzzles. I'm a long time adventure gamer (and I mean long..., from the days of the zork text adventures) and I've stumbled upon many difficult/brain cracking adventure games (just the way I love it) and I solved all of them without using a single hint, my hardest one up until now was Discworld 1 in which I blew my brains out until I solved it, the Myst-Riven games were hard also, but I got through them also, but Schizm was EXCEPTIONALLY hard, maybe the hardest adventure game ever... There are certain puzzles that unless you are a mathematics professor it will take you forever to solve. I've been on it for a couple of weeks and I am only half the way... To sum it up, this is a great game for the thinkers/brain busters types, definitely not for those hardcore Monkey Island fans. I recommend you all to buy it and try it out, but be ready to do some mind busting as the puzzles in this game will require the most of it...
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, but maybe a dash too challenging?
Review: If Einstein is on you cellphone's "friend" list, then you will have fun with this game. "Schizm" has a "I think I heard this one before" story plot. Alas! I do recall. Remember "Aliens", the movie, where the colony is mysteriously empty... The one where we send people to look for them, and they disappear too? So what do we do? SEND MORE! Yup, except for the excitement of aliens, you basically have the premise of "Schizm's" storyline. An empty planet-nobody around. "Schizm" IS beautiful. Remember when "Myst" came out and following it's success, every company released their own version of the game? Well, this is the latest. At least in "Myst's" defense, the puzzzles were well-thought through, made sense, and you got that great feeling in your tummy when you solved a major task. Forget it with this game. Only original concept: You actually play with two players..each landed at a different destination in the beginning storyline. You can switch back and forth between them. In order to solve many of the puzzles, you have to use the knowledge between the two players to complete each puzzle. If you are armed with a degree in Math and Engineering, you will work your way to the lousy ending. Not so fortunate? Join the other 90 percent of Schizm's players who admit they needed a walkthrough or a website with hints. Pass on this, unless you feel good about yourself incessantly cheating and feeling no reward for accomplishing a difficult game. I promise, there are better ones out there. A great anonymous quote I read online: "After playing this game, even the word "Schizm" gave me irritable goosebumps." To be fair, if I could, I would give it 2 1/2stars. I know there are people out there who love the ultimate challenge...If you are one of those people who never gets bored with impossible, countless, and meaningless puzzles...this could be the one for you.
Rating:
Summary: For Hard-Core Adventure Gamers Only (Get the DVD Version!)
Review: Usually I write a review to "gush" all over a product, but for me this game is the exception. In my opinion, some gushing and some caveat emptors are in order for Schizm: Mysterious Journey. First, a review I read before I purchased the game said it best: "Albert Einstein on his best day could not beat this game without a walkthrough!" Plain and simple, some of the the puzzles in Schizm are HARD--VERY, VERY HARD. Second, although other reviews I've read complain about the acting (it's really adequate for a computer game), one main reason I buy an adventure game is for the artwork, graphics, and atmospherics. In Schizm, these elements are "drop-dead gorgeous!" I have never seen an adventure game so beautifully rendered. Also, the music and sounds compliment the game perfectly. Finally, I strongly suggest that anyone purchasing this game buy the DVD version (presuming your computer is so equipped). I'm told that the DVD's graphics are far better than that of the CD-ROM version. So in sum--if it's easy puzzles, a great story line, and "award winning" acting that you want in an adventure game, keep looking. However, if you value REALLY HARD puzzles, a gripping plot, super graphics, marvelous sound and ethereal music, buy the DVD version of Schizm: Mysterious Journey. But beware: it's one for hard-core adventure gamers only.
Rating:
Summary: one of the better puzzle games
Review: I read a few reviews for this game and it seems most of the people are wrong about the game. if you say it has bad graphics than you probably have a crappy computer. and it DOES offer 360 degree view of a highly detailed enviroment. i just recently beat the game and it has a failry interesting ending, not what i expected to happen. the puzzles are fun because they're so freakin' hard! it sounds like most of the reviewers are lazy gamers who dont like challeges and go for the run-in-and-shoot games. the graphics are like an old movie, very realistic for a game. just for the record, the game did NOT freeze or stall at all for the month it took me to beat. a very good game.
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