Macintosh

The Crystal Key

Let me just get this out of the way right at the very beginning. The Crystal Key is my cup of tea. In fact, I'd like to coin a new term that dim-witted shooter fanatics who have no concept of what an adventure game comprises can start calling the games I love (so they can avoid having to go there and think for a change) ... "Riven clone." I guess this sort of articulates where I stand as far as my allegiance to the graphic interface adventures popularized in the last five years. This is just a good, old-fashioned, inventory-based adventure game, with some really pleasing and appealing graphics. The farther I went into the game, the more I enjoyed it.

I don't mean to make The Crystal Key a victim of my current dissafection with adventure games: it is, on the whole, a solid offering, and if Myst/Riven-style of gameplay is still something that turns you on, you will get your twenty dollars' worth out of this title. But if you are looking for innovation and surprise, you won't find them here: the game adheres strictly to the same familiar conventions, and despite some pretty graphics and preplexing puzzles, it lacks any distinctive character of its own.

Despite its faults and my preconceptions, The Crystal Key became one of those games that kept me up well past my bedtime. The puzzles (the ones that made sense, anyway) were intriguing enough to keep me at them, and the worlds were so attractively designed that before I quit the game I always had to explore just beyond those trees. Now inside that cave. Now over by that building.

So, I'm sorry to have to say that I found the Crystal Key rather disappointing. Some of the puzzles are quite interesting in themselves, and the graphics are good if not exceptional. To be fair, if this is the sort of game that you really enjoy then it'll undoubtedly keep you occupied for a reasonable length of time. I just feel that it's way behind the times, and less well conceived than it ought to be. It's fine as far as it goes (and at least there aren't any annoying distractions like the irritating robot in the Journeyman Project 3), but other games have already done very similar things much better. My overall impression is that, in terms of approach and general style, the Crystal Key is trying hard to be another Myst or Riven. Unfortunately it doesn't succeed.

On remarquera toutefois la qualité du travail d’Alsyd, qui a adapté le jeu en version française. On soulignera la formidable prestation des doubleurs, qui ont réalisé un sans faute. Les dialogues et les monologues sont parfaitements cohérents, collent à l’action et surtout le « dynamise ». l est rare dans l’industrie du jeu vidéo, d’un tel souci pour le doublage. On félicitera Alsyd et on espérera qu’ils poursuivront une si bonne voie… Reste que Crystal Key est loin d’être une merveille. Produit tout public par sa facile prise en main et son caractère ludique, il n’en reste pas moins pénible, classique et moche. Crystal Key est un Myst-like, Crystal-Key est même la copie conforme de Myst. Pour un jeu sorti 6 ans plus tard, c’est navrant…