Reviewed: April 10, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
The Adventure Company
Developer
Omni Adventures
Released: March 18, 2003
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
8
8
7
8
8.7
System Requirements
Recommended System
The Omega Stone is the sequel to the Riddle of the Sphinx, which I never played but have heard plenty about and it apparently was a fine game in its own right. After playing The Omega Stone I certainly have no reason to disbelieve any of those reports since this is one of the finest adventure games I have played in a long, long time.
This particular adventure has you traveling the world to all of the most exotic and mystical locations like the Giza Plateau, Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, Stonehenge, Easter Island, and even the Devil’s Triangle. Piece together clues in each of these locations to discover an ancient link to the lost city of Atlantis. I was amazed at the amount of factual knowledge contained in this game about each of these locations. I came away entertained and educated.
The Omega Stone rivals any adventure game I have played in recent memory. It has all the visual flair of those old Cryo games like Atlantis but manages to incorporate an exciting story with clever puzzles worthy of a Sierra or LucasArts adventure.
Basically, you are met at the Sphinx by a colleague who informs you that a scroll has been discovered that prophesies the end of the world. This prediction is reinforced by additional events that unfold as you travel the world, creating a very tense mood throughout the game.
The Omega Stone plays like every other 3D adventure game. You navigate 3D panning screens and click on portals that take you to new locations or interact with items to obtain clues and solve puzzles. This is all done with the mouse and every ounce of logic and puzzle solving skills you can muster.
The rest of the interface is seamlessly integrated into the game design. You have a magnifying glass that allows you to zoom in on certain areas or an item, and anything you pick-up goes in your pack for easy access later in the game. You can also take pictures of just about anything in this game using the camera. These can be pictures of items, locations, or anything you want.
Prepare to read a lot in this game. You will uncover books, journals, notes, and maps. Unless you plan on using a walkthrough to cheat don’t even think about skimming over these texts. The information contained in each is usually relevant to some puzzle.
Puzzles are exceedingly difficult and there are plenty of them to figure out in this 4-disc adventure. The good news is that they are all logical and integrated nicely into the story and environments; the bad news (depending on how you look at it) is that some of these puzzles are very long, very difficult, and contain multi-stage solutions that often incorporate other smaller puzzles. I’ll let you know right now there is a maze puzzle. It’s not a horrible maze but I know a lot of gamers have issues with mazes in games.
Puzzles also span multiple locations, which means you will be doing a lot of traveling. Changing locations often means swapping discs, so I cannot recommend enough that you simply resolve yourself to the full install assuming you have the 2.7gb to spare for a week or so. Each location you visit is like turning the page in a National Geographic encyclopedia, not so much for just the visuals but for the overall experience and feeling that you are really there and learning about these places.
The Omega Stone is simply breathtaking with computer-generated graphics combined with live video of actors overlaid on the rendered backgrounds. It’s certainly not a new concept, but one that has certainly been lying dormant for several years, at least since the last Tex Murphy game.
Each world location you travel to and explore is painstakingly recreated in stunning detail. Some scenes are so realistic you would swear they are photos. There are some excellent special effects like lighting and underwater effects that really help sell the locations.
The sound presentation is certainly above average for an adventure game. The voice acting is excellent despite the wavering accent of Sir Gil. Other characters like Hump create a humorous diversion and I can’t think of a single character that was acted poorly.
The music and sound effects are also of the finest quality and suit the tone and theme of the game perfectly. Each area has plenty of ambient noises that compliment the visuals to create an authentic real-world environment.
The Omega Stone is going to take experienced gamers between 30-40 hours to finish. It really is a huge game and a difficult game. Some of the puzzles will keep you thinking and traveling back to previous locations in search of clues for hours. As long as you remember that all clues and solutions are hidden somewhere in the game you should be able to resist the temptation to seek out a walkthrough.
There are a few areas in the game where death is waiting just around that next wrong turn. It would be advisable to save your game before making any dangerous move or attempting a puzzle with possible life-threatening consequences.
You can tell that the designers really knew their “stuff” when they made this game and this attention to detail comes through in just about every aspect of The Omega Stone including the puzzles. I learned, I had fun, and I had a great sense of accomplishment when I finally won this game.
The Omega Stone was truly a labor of love and that makes this a wonderful game to simply sit back and treasure the experience. The bar has now been set to a new level and I anxiously await the game that dares to challenge this stunning achievement in adventure gaming.