QL | Celtica (1998) a Myst clone with a bad Design
1A yes , the 90s ... when all Adventure games, wanted to be like Myst ... here is one of those clones , Celtica from 1998... that for the time, had good visual standards what it wanted to push... a 2D rendered picture game... but then, all those clones, never ever wanted to excel Myst ... but make the lest effort to be similar to Myst...
So what ruins those "Myst Clones" : the gui and its movement, from one location to the other...
The Graphical Interface (GUI), even if it makes sense for the dev ... it has to make sense for the player ... and here well , its a disaster ... since if you have to use a Manual (quick and dirty solution, if your GUI is broken) to know this means "Pick UP", this "Use" and this "Move" , those gloving things means you have to collect 5 of those to have the MAGIC ITEM... you failed at designing ... same can be said about , using found notes and the HINT BOOK ... that's right , the big book you pick up is the HINT BOOK ... but it visual art, fails to show , it has pages you can turn ... ouch
And now lets jump, on the Moving from one location to the other issue... that , makes or brakes a game like this ... when you have to look around . like a idiot, on every screen... just to find the next hot spot, on that ONE location , that enables you to move to the next... you failed at design ... imagine a straight line that has 6 locations you can move on it , each has 4 to 6 pictures that shows your head movement (up , down ,left, right , straight , backwards ) ... you can move Up , and go back ... in that line , but to go to a next location in this EMPTY FIELD (that in reality, you could move in any spot), you have to find a specific picture, and on it a specific hot spot , you can move to the next location ... this is not good game design, this is padding ... sometimes done to save space on the medium , but even then you do a graphical fix like a WORLD MAP with marked locations you where, where you can move, marks exits... the lulz is , this game has a world map , but its at tiny thing on the Cross , the left box... then be a normal Map
For those interested here is the Full LP :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kagOAWkzCHQ
and here are the missing Ending Video from Mark Mitchell , responsible for Sound\Music of this game (his credits https://www.mobygames.com/person/32746/mark-mitchell/credits/ ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1saRLXkt1ac
This Video is a part of my Cynical Games Review Site : https://gbacklog.blogspot.com/
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