Customer Reviews

Physicus (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fantastic Myst clone that, on top of everything, is "gladdened" with a load of physical minutiae which, naturally, lends the game its name. Now I find all matter of educational things to be a compelling incentive to wanting to solve the puzzle. This does not move me to finish the game, however. This, perhaps, is the greatest shortcoming for an adventure game. There is no plot as you know it. Yes, you need to achieve a goal and save the world from a global cataclysm. We've saved the world before, and it has been none too grateful getting into some sticky predicament time and time again. But WHO are you saving? Is it the disembodied voice in the introductory video? This is where the plot begins and ends. There are some marginal hints at a story involving a telescope lens thief, but these are clearly there to facilitate the puzzles. Yet, for a game that makes clear its ambition to create a giant puzzle, Physicus superbly succeeds to render the puzzles built on physical laws maximally enjoyable.

The physics information, like in all the games of this series, is presented in a kind of a very pretty virtual textbook which offers extensive interpretation of the physical concepts in optics, mechanics, electricity, fluid dynamics and several others. The textbook, if you choose not to strain your eyes, is read aloud by a throaty Englishman with a little interaction. There are interesting animations and illustrations on most pages; there are even some formulas which you would use in the game. Despite my enthusiasm, reading even one topic in a sitting is tiresome. On the other hand, if you follow the game's suggestions to read the topic in key scenes, you will miss on much of the textbook's info and that is annoying if you do like that sort of thing. In some cases the formulas come short in an attempt to make the game less mathematical. I had to intuit one puzzle because of the lack of one formula variable. Toward the end of the game there is perhaps too much simple-equation math regarding electricity generator transformers that needs to be muddled through to see the closing credits. Despite of how daunting it sounds here, all of this gruntwork was very enjoyable to me.

The graphics are faultless, but nothing inspired after seeing Myst. The music is equally insipid: good for a while, but nothing to write home about. I had to engage in a little bit of pixel-hunting in the beginning of the game. The game was on the short side unless you got stuck on a puzzle. It took me about 10 hours to finish it, and I did get stuck.

Overall, a great educational title; a good puzzle; an average adventure game. "A" for the effort.

This is an enjoyable game, & educational as well. For the price, it's worth buying. The puzzles aren't difficult, but challenging enough to keep it interesting. The game reminded me of an easier version of Myst. You don't need to have prior knowledge of physics - a handy reference guide is available as part of the gameplay. The only drawback was that the screen was small. Maybe that could have been fixed, but I didn't want to mess with the setup since some games can be finicky on XP.

The story is kind of out of reality, but the puzzles are very good. I am bad in the subject so I had to get help from the game brain all the time. It's really easy to go around, because it's not a free moving game. And the screen resolution, even after you change it, it's still very small, but I enjoyed. Something the whole family can play. No violence, no bad ideas behind the peaceful scenario. And a lot of information. It feels like a nice classroom with better view. Be patience and if you get tired, better stop and play another time.

This game helped teach my kids elementary physicis in an entertaining way. I've looked for other games like it for years, and its really the best thing out there.

it is a pretty fun game with a few quirks here and there. Some of them include the anoying "click button" interface, and a few problems that are just a random guess to solve. Other than that, it has very good graphics and a very addictive storyline.

Physicus is a Myst-like game with a vague plot, no dialog, lots of solitude, no dying, and a bunch of great puzzles. In short, it's just what I like. I don't know if it's really a five-star - more like 4.5 - but it's one of the best games I have played in recent memory.

***Navigation
First-person, clumsy slideshow navigation, with lots of going forward several clicks until you can turn around. You can click pretty fast through it, though, so it's not a real big hardship.

****Graphics
Nice fantastical setting, although not what you'd expect of a world that isn't revolving.

***Sound
Some ambient sounds are missing, like jiggling door handles, but most of the sound is appropriate and not annoying. Music is not bad, but there isn't a lot of it, and I am not going to look for the soundtrack. There aren't many voices - just a narration at the beginning and the end, and the narration of the "laptop" study guide - but they were pleasingly British.

-----Story
Not really applicable. There is not much to it, which is great for me, but other gamers seem to like a more involved plot.

******Puzzles
Sensible, logical, not too hard, and all are solvable if you study your "laptop" and pay attention to the clues, which are not hard to find. Some light math is required (love it).

***Gameplay
This game is awfully linear, and I did get stuck wondering where to go next, so I found a no-spoiler walkthrough that only told you what order to do things. This saved a lot of running around. [Thanks, Lora]

*****Performance
I had trouble at first, with the disk spinning up all the time. Everything on the web said that this was a two-disk game with a full-install option. Well... mine came on one disk and had no such options. I ended up using Daemon Tools to mount an image to my hard drive and everything went well after that. The screen settings offered a full screen option, and all was well.

This will be a good game for fans of Myst and Schizm. Syberia fans will not like it as much.

Well, I got this game expecting an action-packed story that had puzzles that taught physics, and I got a rather boring game with some really challenging puzzles.

Story-It actually is a rather cheesy story line. A meteor has hit the earth, stopping its rotation, and plunging half of the earth into winter and the other half into summer. Your goal is to activate 3 machines that activate an invention which is supposed to start the earth revolving again.

Gameplay-You know your goal is to start three machines, but you are pretty much just let go into a world with no explanation of what to do. Think Myst. You really are just forced to explore as you search for puzzles to solve.

Graphics-They weren't that good, I'm afraid. They were a bit like Myst, as they looked a little like oil paintings rather than actual computer animations.

Sound-I absolutely loved the music in this game. It wasn't constant, but when it came on, it matched the scene perfectly. Fabulous!

Fun-Unfortunately, the game wasn't fun. The puzzles are all physics based, but in order to solve them, you have to listen to a man (or you can just turn his voice off and read) talk about each individual subject. It was exactly like science class. It was boring, and I found myself skimming over the material to find the answer. Some answers I couldn't even find, and I was forced to resort to Google and walkthroughs.

Length-It's not that long of a game, but, frankly, I was ready for it to end. It lasted maybe 6 hours.

Overall, a fun game, but it didn't do what I was hoping it would do. It didn't make Physics any more fun than science class.

game is interesting to say the least. I did get stuck several times. For some of the challenges there were multiple solutions, many of the challenges there is only 1 single solution and it has to be exactly precise or it fails. In the mode i tried i got stuck on 1 about half way thru, even thou i found a website that showed the solution for each problem, and i set it up that way, it never triggered that i correctly solved the game, and since i couldnt finish that puzzle it never let me move on to the next problem.