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Vesuvius Rocks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 44 / 45
Date: December 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

PROS: (1) Spectacular graphics. Interior effects in the villas really highlight the Pompeiian genius with paint. Elaborate colonnades and open courts in the center of houses. A vineyard with a painted trellis. A large coliseum. Pompeii by moonlight. An authentic, unique, beautifully developed world.

(2) Fun, well-paced gameplay. Unusual story, with a romantic twist to it. Quirky, enjoyable characters. Good voice acting.

(3) You can access an encyclopedia mode any time that you might want a little more information about aspects of life in Pompeii. You won't need this to win the game. However, it is written in a lively, informative manner, and gives insight without becoming ponderous.

CONS: (1) I enjoyed this game so much, that I just wanted more of it. More reconstructed temples and villas. More interaction with Adrian and Sophia. A longer end-game movie showing Pompeii in its death throes -- I was disappointed not to encounter trampling animals, falling ash, screams of agony, etc.

(2) There are times when the characters in the game don't look completely realistic. Their mouths don't move much when they talk, for instance (if you activate the subtitles, this becomes less annoying). For some reason, a couple of the characters have unusually small heads. And when the women walk, instead of seeming graceful they look sort of serpentine.

(3) Sometimes hotspots don't appear until you trigger a certain dialogue response. If you get stuck, make sure you've talked completely to all the characters, and then when the dialogue is finished, look for hotspots nearby.

BOTTOM LINE: An extremely well-done historical adventure. A must-have if you like adventure games, or if you have ever been curious about Pompeii.

Wonderful interactive history lesson!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: March 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The first problem is getting it loaded. You can see the Dreamcatcher website for how to get past the little EULA bar. Once I got it loaded, and tried to play, it refused to save my game. Unlike Beyond Atlantis, you can be injured or killed, ending the game. So if you can't save, guess what. Also, I discovered that clicking on items in your inventory can simply close the game! I am patiently waiting for an answer from Dreamcatcher.

The graphics are gorgeous, and not so pixelated as Atlantis, but the people look even more like gumbys than they did in that game. Also, heavy cockney accents from people in Pompeii??!! Aside from the lousy voice acting, the soundtrack was wonderful! Beautiful mood music! (Some of the characters sounded so much alike, and they don't move their mouths, you can't tell who's talking. Be sure to play with subtitles on!)

The puzzles are typical, I suppose, from Dreamcatcher. Some make sense, others do not. (The first real puzzle is timed, and with slow responses from the mouse, you will find it hard to complete, even after you figure out what to do.)...

What is really great about the game, very innovative, and maybe worth buying it, is the fact that you can go through the buildings in the "visit" mode, and just look at everything without playing! Since it is historically accurate, and made with the cooperation of The Pompeii Museum, it is quite interesting to just wander through the reconstruction of the city, and marvel at the level of their civilization. (A pop up street map is even available!)

I'm giving it two stars for the tour feature...the game rates nothing!

Journey to boredom.......

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: April 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I really had high hopes for this game when I bought it, but after the first 2 hours I found myself getting really bored. The graphics were nice and the story was even entertaining. However, I really thought that many of the puzzles were tedious and at times I even got stuck with no way of figuring out what to do. In those instances I had to keep redoing steps over an over until I either came to my senses or figured out the puzzle by chance. There was too much distance traveling between items, characters, problem solving...etc. I did like the characters though, I just thought it could have been alot better.....

Not the greatest game but okay if you're bored

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Totally interested in the story of Pompeii, I bought this game with high expectations. I had an easy time installing it and an easy time running it but from then on, things got a little confusing.
The plot of the game revolves around Adrian, a British archaeologist cursed by the goddess Ishtar (we know her best as Aphrodite) and sent back to Pompeii and given four days to find his love, Sophia, and leave the city. Yep, you've got four days to make Sophia fall in love with you and leave with you before Mt. Vesuvius goes kaphooey. (Is it really possible to fall in love with someone in just four days? No wonder divorce rate is so high!)
The plot sounds interesting at first, but in actuality this game is a bit tedious. The puzzles aren't hard but some are timed, and death can come instantly. (So save often) And you can easily get lost in Pompeii (which is so vaccant in this game you'd think everybody already fled) because the streets and buildings look so much alike. There is a pop-up map, but it doesn't have a compass.
Another quirk in this game deals with the characters. Their lips don't move when they talk. (I guess the Pompeiians were great ventrilloquists) And almost all the characters speak with thick British accents. Oddly, the only characters who ARE British (Adrian and Sophia) have American accents!...
But the CD has one great feature that makes it worth buying: it contains an encyclopedia about life in Pompeii in the days of the ancient Roman Empire. But, then again, you probably won't need that unless you're working on a paper about the Romans for history class.
All in all, this game could have been a lot better. The order in which some of the puzzles and events are done in makes no sense at times, but if you've got the patience and have nothing else to do give this game a go.

Okay, not Great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

_Journey to Pompeii_ is a fairly interesting game but not one of the best. The premise is that you, an archaeologist, have managed to offend the Goddess, Ishtar, so she has kidnapped both you and your fiancee and transported you back to the city of Pompeii, three days before the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius. You have a limited time to discover the whereabouts of your sweetheart and get out of the city with her.

JTP offers the usual first person point of view interspersed with third person cut scenes. The graphics are a mixed bag. While the settings are beautifully rendered (and based on actual excavations), the characters are not so well done, but look and move like Gumbies. Voice acting verges on the annoying and sometimes the dialog is incomprehensible, so it's a good idea to keep the subtitles on.

As for the puzzles, they are mostly the "find and apply inventory" variety, with some timed activities. None is too challenging, although hotspots can be hard to find. This means that you can fail at the timed puzzles even when you know what to do, because you haven't clicked the exact right pixel. Failure inevitably means death, so save often.

There is a lot of running back and forth in this game and it's easy to get stuck because sometimes you have to find the exact right inventory item or have a particular conversation before the game will let you go farther. The game is divided into time blocks (like Gabriel Knight 3) and unless you've done every little thing the days won't end. I found this pretty frustrating, as often the progression of events didn't follow any kind of logic, so I found myself randomly visiting site after site hoping something would change. Also, sometimes you could suddenly go to places you couldn't go to before, and it got hard to keep track of what was accessible and what wasn't. I was always wondering if there were some new place to explore.

The encylopaedia of Pompeii was really interesting, and the culture and history were well presented.

I was disappointed in the ending. It seemed like Ishtar and the time travel set up got forgotten somewhere along the way; I would have liked to have seen more resolution of that.

All in all, JTP was pretty good but not great: worth playing if you don't expect too much and you have a high tolerance for frustration.

LOVE IT!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I loved almost everything about the game! The history, the graphics, the love-story, the plot, the intelligence.... a few little problems: The women move with far too little grace and the game is WAY TOO short! AND (*G*) where are the sequels that were promised on the package? I'm so sick of the "Go and kill"-Games, I want more lovely historical games like this! They can teach you and arouse interest! VIVA POMPEI!

Boring!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The puzzles didn't seem to mean anything with respect to the alleged story line and some of them solved themselves if you happened to stumble to the right place. There wasn't really anything to solve if you wandered around enough.The interface was lame, no compass of any kind so you could't tell which direction you were facing. I didn't even bother to finish the game

Dont waste your money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: September 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game today, spent about an hour trying to get it installed, then couldn't even get it to run. After finally getting it to work I played for about 10 minutes and was so bored I quit. The graphics are horrible compared to games out there now (ie. myst, riven, so on), and the mouse movement was Way to fast. You use the mouse to turn, but just slightly moving the mouse over to one side or the other I was doing circles so fast my head was spinning. And there is no way to adjust it, that I have found. The music was bland, and it just didn't appeal to me in any way. Thank God I only paid [a small amount of money] for this game, and it wasn't even worth that. Perhaps if someone likes older games with not so great graphics they would like this game, but I think most people will find it a great disappointment.

I have one problem with the game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I was so excited that I had recieved this game. After I installed it I started to play the game but I couldn't go anywhere. I was in the same room and I had no way to get out. I looked into the little booklet that the game came with. There was nothing in the TimeScapes guide telling me what to do and how to get out of the area. All I was able to do for an hour and a half was go around in a circle. I was not able to get out of the room where I had come from. There were doors but I couldn't get into them.
I think this game could be fun if i knew how to play it. The guide didn't help so if you wouldn't mind e-mailing me if you know what to do in the game at: ohenry_08@hotmail.com

Beautiful graphics, not the best fun score

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The very fist place that I started out in was a temple, and Istar(the goddess)explaining to me why I was there. I think that this is the first problem in the game. Not only does Istar explain this to me with just her voice, but the temple itself is your fist puzzle in the game. When I was listening to Istar, I didn't get much of a feeling for what was going on. It would have been much easier to understand if there were some pictures, or voice changes in Istar's dialogue. Going onto the temple, I was still confused about Istar's instructions. Where do I go? What do I do? I was lost in the temple the fist day I played the game. The 360 degree view was amazing though. I could even have a close look at the ceiling or floor, as if I was Adrian (the guy you are controling). Back to what I was saying, I finally found a way out, and three colorful characters began to converse with me. I knew that what they were saying was a bit humorous, and very important. I just couldn't make out what they were saying! Without the dialogue box, I would have been lost. The characters are so busy developing an accent, or swing to their character, that they forget about speaking clearly. I wont go into too much detail about the game, but if you are an adventure game expert, this game might be a little too easy for you. If you are just beginning, you might want to try another game because there are so many puzzles, and most are quite tricky (If you have a walkthrough close at hand, then I see no point in not buying the game because it is too hard). The game features beautiful graphics, like all Dreamcatcher/cryo games, but the 360 degree screen is annoying at first. You have to catch on, and then you feel as if you don't know what you would do without it.

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