The Digest: Sometimes you just want to play a game that challenges your mind more than your reaction time. Not only will this strategic adventure game keep you entertained from start to finish but it will also have you wishing the developer would finish Episode 3 so you can feed your Indie game addiction.THE FACT SHEET
RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2010PUBLISHER: Domain of the Infinite
DEVELOPER: Travis Rogers
PRICE: 240 MS Points
GENRE: Action & Adventure
PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
Your mission in Episode 2 is to find the coveted Dream Guide in order to answers all your questions from Episode 1 and take one step closer to understanding the purpose of the Mind’s Eye of Jupiter. Use your logic and reasoning skills to guide Alice thorough a series of levels and puzzles to meet up with the highly regarded oracle, the Dream Guide.
PRODUCT FEATURES:
- 3D Gameplay
- Smooth Fame Rate Transitioning
- Hilarious Captions
- Addictive Story Line
Mind’s Eye of Jupiter Episode 02 is the second installment of the 3D single player adventure game about a women who travels back in time. The woman, Alice Renee, finds a time portal under some ancient ruins of a Roman Temple back in Episode 1 and is instantly transformed to the past. She meets up with a strange looking creature and two Roman guards that instruct her to find the Dream Guide oracle in order to understand her purpose here in the past.
We fast forward to Episode 2 as Alice continues her journey to find the coveted Dream Guide as instructed. The game starts out in what seems to be her bedroom of the future, as Alice is reminded of her task to find the creature from Episode 1. We exit her room and are taken down a large hall way with vaulted ceilings and design work that will have you remembering the good old days of James Bond on Nintendo 64. You reach the end of the large hallway to be greeted by an odd looking spinning disc on the floor with a button placed about eye level to the right of it. You press the button on the wall to the right of the spinning disc which reveals another button to deploy what seems to be an elevator. You take a deep breath and push the button for the elevator. You are instantly sent speeding downward to the level below and your quest for the magnificent Dream Guide has just begun.
At first glance this game doesn’t seem to be anything special outside of some unique renderings and some creative 3D Studio Max work.
And I couldn’t have been more wrong by my initial reactions…
It’s not until you start progressing through the story line and through each level that you begin to realize the true awesomeness of this game. The story line is what makes this game enjoyable to play. From meeting alien-like creatures, to Roman soldiers, to finding out why Alice jumped through the Mind’s Eye of Jupiter time portal, is quite addictive. I found myself wondering what will happen next as I came across a new character or a new section of the game.
Yes your character may move slower than molasses at the first but once Alice gets her “sea legs” or should I say “back-in-time legs,” she’s good to go. At times it can also be bothersome that she has zero jumping ability and only one walking speed, but you seem to forget all about it as you become enwrapped in the story line.
The audio in the game is isn’t spectacular but it certainly conveys the mood of the levels and serves it purpose well. You may find yourself turning up the volume at times looking for some type of sound outside of Alice’s’ footsteps but won’t hear anything. The quiet game play helps set the mood rather than hurt it in the long run. The story is supposed to envelope the gamer into a strange underworld of the past and to clutter the game with pointless music would only hurt the self contained mood the game provides.
While Episode 2 provides much enjoyment during the hour or so you are playing I do have a few issues with the difficulty of the puzzles and the lack of extra features. I understand this is only a small part of a much large game but the puzzles are just too easy to complete. For the hefty price of 240 Microsoft points for essentially one go around I would hope to have some puzzles that may take 10-15 minutes to complete rather than the standard 2-3 minutes here. I also had a problem with the lack of extra features that are missing from the game such as a difficult setting or achievement unlocks. It would be nice to comb through the episode after beating it the first time to find hidden easter eggs or some type of extras to justify replaying the episode outside of pure enjoyment.
Conclusion: I really liked this game by Domain of the Infinite and Travis Rogers, but for the 240 Microsoft points to basically play the episode once is a high price tag to put on an otherwise successful game. The cliff hanger at the end will undoubtedly force you to buy Episode 3 if you had the slightest bit of enjoyment from this Episode but the price tag is something that may force you to reconsider. It is by all means worth your trial download but if Microsoft Points are hard to come by you might want to wait until the developer finishes the series to lock up the discount, assuming this becomes an option.
| PROS | CONS |
| - Awesome Story Line - 3D Interactive Adventure - Well Designed | - 240 MS Points for One Episode - Limited Character Movements - No Replay Value |
Single Player: 3/5 | Multi-Player: N/A
Special thanks to Domain of the Infinite for providing us with a copy of the game for review.
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