Customer Reviews

Amber: Journeys Beyond (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

There's a ton of first-person adventure games out there thanks to Myst, but there's nothing wrong with that! What matters is if the game is enjoyable to play, and in the case of Amber I'd most definately say yes.

Amber: Journeys Beyond is a first person adventure game with somewhat simple graphics and animation... but at the same time the plot and story hold your interest. The premise is that you are 'checking up as a favor to a friend' on a woman who bought a haunted house so she could study the paranormal. She uses a headset called the Amber device so she can observe the ghosts and actually travel in the spirit realm. When you find her she's in a catatonic state, trapped outside of her body with no way of geting back.

Your job is to help your friend by guiding the other spirits in the house to their final rewards by either helping them realize that they're dead, finding an item that they lost, or helping them finish something they never completed in life. There's three people you need to aid before you can help your friend, and no particular order in which to do it.

Although the game is only on one CD, and the graphics are simplistic Amber is still an impressive game for the value. It has enough ambiance to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up more than once (imagine walking into the bathroom and seeing words write themselves on the mirror). Amber can scare you, but it does it in a subtle way instead of shoving a bucketload of gore in your face. The gameplay is a bit short, but still much more than you'd normally expect in a single CD game.

If you want an inexpensive yet interesting adventure this is the game for you.

This game is the best adventure game ever. Prior to this, Myst was my favorite adventure game. AMBER surpasses Myst in many ways...

Foremost, the puzzles are actually integrated into the storyline. In fact, the stories actually advance the story. In Myst, the puzzles were wonderful, but abstract and unconnected to the story.

Another area where AMBER excelled was the music and sound. The sound effects were wonderful and remarkably restrained. At one point, the subtle sounds of footsteps creaking on floorboards, were amazingly effective at making my hair stand on end. And the music -- particularly the jazzy hip guitar riffs in Brice's world -- were fantastic; likewise, the big band music in Margaret's world was perfect. I only wish I could find the soundtrack to this game.

The graphics in Myst were gorgeous, but in a fantasy sort of way. AMBER's graphics are so realistic and "normal" that I was able to completely forget I was playing a computer gamer.

And finally, the story. This is an area where AMBER *really* excels. If you're at all interested in the supernatural, you owe it to yourself to play this game. The theories presented about ghosts in this game are extremely compelling. This game offers some of the most lucid and believable theories about the paranormal that I've ever seen in a work of fiction.

Kudos to Hue Forest for this modern classic. I can't wait to try out their future efforts.

I have not been able to get this game to run. I've tried contacting someone for technical support - no response. I've searched the internet and finally found today that apparently the game won't run on Windows XP. So if you've got XP, don't buy this game.

Amber is different than most games you've been playing. There are no puzzles to solve. That's right! No tricks, no frustration. Amber is the name of a paranormal psychic energy -measuring device that leads your friend Roxy to utilize the new equipment in an old haunted house. Something goes awry and you travel to this home to see what happenned to Roxy and her new equipment. Sound fun? It is.

Mysteries. Mysteries. Why is Roxy unconscious wearing the Amber head gear in the garage, of all places? Should you experiment with the equipment? Sure. Beware as you follow in your friend's footsteps while trying to figure what happened to her. This PC game is fun. It takes you through portals of time to uncover the secret of the hauntings. I found the game to be quite thrilling. Things really do go bump in the night!

So why only three stars? While the idea of mystery puzzles vs. physical ones seems original and fun, the game is easy. A young high schooler could figure the "moves" out. You are given a place, a circumstance, and an enviroment with tools. Everything you need to solve the mystery is staring you in the face. Go ahead and give it a go. The plot, first-person scenario, and all the truly frightening hauntings make this an easy going game. A perfect breather to play in between the usual brain-frying choices.

Be aware that this game does not run on Windows XP

I really enjoyed playing AMBER. The graphics are good, the sound effects are great, and the storyline dealing with paranormal research makes the most of what draws me to the adventure genre.

To have the best experience with this game, you really need to be patient and pay more attention to exploring your surroundings rather than just want to get through it. There were several times that I missed necessary items or possibilitites for interaction the first time through a room. But there are no really difficult puzzles, so rather than run to a walkthrough if you can't find something it's a good idea to just keep looking. Everything is pretty much in the open. Also, there are a number of optional activities that a walkthrough might not tell you about, but that it would be a shame to miss. This is one of those games where the rule is, pick up everything you can and interact with everything you can. Doing so can only heighten your experience.

The first half of the game is truly spooky, with numerous close encounters of the ectoplasmic kind and lots of paranormal activity showing up on your equipment. One such encounter actually made my heart stop for a minute, even though I was expecting it. Another that I wasn't expecting made me afraid to go back to the game for a minute. The atmosphere of weirdness is aided by the sound effects which are used subtly and with great skill. You're always thinking you're about to stumble on something unexpected and sometimes you do. Nothing is very grotesque or frightening in and of itself, but the atmosphere of suspense makes even the ordinary seem hair-raising.

The second half of the game is much quieter. Entering the three actual ghost "worlds" is almost mundane and somewhat anticlimactic. When things are spooky, it's more because you're experiencing the reality of a person who is himself creepy, than because the actual events are scary. I found this both a disappointment and a relief, after the excitement of the initial half of the game.

AMBER is a slide show game in the style of MYST, but I didn't miss the 3-d presentation or 360 degree vision of more recent games. Navigation was generally pretty easy, although there were one or two places where I had a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. One ghost world utilised a special diagonal cursor that was very hard to understand; another featured a view of the world that was pretty distorted (in more ways than one). Again, in these spots patience was necessary. Also, the screen size is small. Setting my monitor to 640 X 480 helped some, but I, at least, found I had to do that manually before playing; the game doesn't do it for you as most do.

My main complaint with AMBER is that it was too short (I finished it in under 10 hours). You spent a lot of time setting up, and very little actually accomplishing anything. Also, the few real puzzles were very easy. Sometimes I felt like I had barely begun to look at them before I accidentally solved them. The ending was also a little abrupt. I wanted more.

If you like games with lots of atmosphere, you will probably like AMBER. If you like lots of challenging puzzles, you might not. Still, at under ten bucks it's a worthwhile way to spend a rainy afternoon or two.

I have to say, the first time I finished Amber - three days after I started it! - I felt a bit disappointed, particularly since I didn't have another game on the backburner, it was only Friday, and I was down with a cold and looking at a long, sniffly weekend with little or no real-world interaction. But notice that I said "the first time I finished Amber." This, IMHO, is what makes Amber worth the investment. It's short, atmospheric, and NOT full of puzzles with long, complicated solutions; it has an interesting premise, great graphics and a nice, creepy feel. All of these factors combine to create - are you ready for this? - an adventure game that you can PLAY MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR. I went through it, start to finish, three times this weekend; by Monday, I was thinking of it more as an interactive movie or a re-readable book than a game. Obviously, the second time through, there were no surprises, but it was still enjoyable. No, it's not Myst or Riven or Monkey Island or whatever; it's not going to consume your entire waking life. It will, however, keep you entertained for three or four hours - and then again for three or four hours some other day. If you're between game fixes, it beats Internet Hearts any day of the week.

I've been reading these reviews. People have complained that the display is small, that the puzzles are difficult - and yet it's also been said that the game is good for kids. Yes, the display is small. The puzzles are difficult and often very frustrating, but that's part of playing the game. It's NOT an easy game, especially if you don't do things in the correct order. It can get very frustrating.

But here's what's really important. I don't play many computer games, because they don't interest me. AMBER: Journeys Beyond ranks among my favorites because of its incredible attention to detail, beautifully eerie ghost worlds, and direct realism to actual paranormal investigation despite its sci-fi/fantasy nature. Each setting is complete, different, and in some way unusual. Going through Roxy's house at the beginning, if you're playing it in the dark and paying attention, will definitely give you a few frights - that is, if you believe in ghosts and have experienced some similar things. Margaret's world is mournful and nostalgic. Brice's realm is fantastical and beautiful, with a definite hint of psychosis - everything is slightly warped. Young Edwin's world is childishly delicate and painfully sad. Each setting has alarmingly creepy moments that will make you jump if you're not prepared.

If you're into the paranormal and the stories of the dead, then the game should be more enjoyable for you. If you're a hardcore game player looking for action and adventure, this isn't where you'll find it. With this game, the play is almost less important than the story. If it's frustrating, find a walkthrough of the game and play it that way - which is normally unethical, but the experience of the story will be greater.

My only problems with the game are - yes, the display is small, but one can look past that; one might have to replay a section of the game over and over in order to get a certain clue because sometimes you can't go back to it more than once; and that it doesn't exist for Macintosh. Newer versions for Mac and Windows should be released to compensate for the better systems.

I recommend this game for the ghost-hunters, the ones who live in haunted houses, the ones who use ouija boards, the ones who experiment with EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) - you're the ones who will find it the most realistic, even though there are so many elements of science fiction. I recommend this game to the storytellers, the writers, the readers - you'll get sucked in. I don't recommend this game for someone just looking for action and difficult puzzles to solve, people that don't care about story or atmosphere. This game isn't for them. This game is for the rest of us. :)

Whomever wrote that a Compatibality of Win 95/98 will run Amber then please let me know how you got it to run. It will load in XP, but when trying to run the game there is an error in the MOVUTILS file and an error of Script Handler -Both which shuts down the game.

I suggest that if you are "really" tired of the games out now to train our future generation of professional soilders, then keep an old computer on hand so you can play the really good entertainment and thought provoking games like AMBER Journeys Beyond.

I did enjoy "AMBER Journeys Beyond" up to a point. The puzzles varied in their difficulty from amazingly simple to frustrating and illogical. The storyline was less than I imagined it to be, but still interesting. The atmosphere was enthralling, but the display was far too small for comfort. I would recommend this game for a busy time in your life, because if you play it nonstop then you will be dissatisfied. The game is TOO SHORT! I expected much more play time, and was quite disappointed by its speedy ending. Don't get me wrong, this game has many good points. The graphics are very realistic, and scene movement is smooth. The voice acting is flawless, which is very nice seen as how it is important to game-play. I greatly enjoyed the storyline, and I'll state again that the atmosphere was spectacular. It has a unique eerie quality that I have not seen anywhere else. This game is a good buy for [$], and I would recommend it to bored adventure game players, who have limited experience in this genre.