Visit Atlantis, Shangri-La and El Dorado In This Great Time Travelling Adventure Game (The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time (PS))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time (PS)
Date:	13/02/02 (51 review reads)
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1992 saw the release of The Journeyman Project on various platforms which was met with mixed responses. People got all excited over the graphics and the live animations which were highly advanced for the time and then realise that 4 hours after shoving the CD in the drive the game was over. PC users also realised that their version was unplayable because as the game was originally written for the Mac system, the conversions which took place in-game to make it work with Windows made the whole thing lag so badly that you dozed off between loads and animated sequences. Learning from their mistakes, The Journeyman Project 2 came along and blew its predecessor out of the water. Beautiful graphics again here, but also solid gameplay, and excellent storyline and intuitive puzzles, coupled with an attention to detail which turned the game into an interactive history lesson - but without detracting from the fun and never losing sight of its `game` status. The Journeyman Project 3 draws those two titles together to round off the trilogy in another solid, very playable and very enjoyable game. Its also a highly under-rated one which many seem to have ignored sadly after some poor media reviews.

As I said, this title attempts to pull together the prevous two titles and round of the series. You play time travelling investigator Gage Blackwood again whose job it is to prevent the manipulation of history for foul means. The original story saw you battling across time to prevent an evil bloke from turning peaceful relations with our newfound alien friends into a full scale war, the second saw you trying to prevent your future self from being framed by a mysterious woman for attempting to alter history yourself, and the third has you jumping across the ages again looking for the three pieces of an alien artifact which will prevent a war between outselves and two powerful alien races. You visit the ancient civilisations of Atlantis, Shangri-La and El Dorado, witnessing their
destruction at the hands of alien races and then again in the time previous to this to recover the artifacts, the plot thickening as the game progresses.

The Journeyman Project is a trilogy which is very heavy on its plot line and weaves a great story as it progresses. In some instances you can argue that there is way too much plot and not enough actual game so it feels like a walkthrough of ancient civilisations but I think that is a little unfair. Yes, the game isn`t the toughest in the world, and the inbuilt help system which comes in the form of your suit computer is a little too prone to giving a `hint` which is little more than a full solution at times but there is still enough here to keep most adventurers interested. Whilst the puzzles may not be the toughest in the world, they are balanced by the type of puzzles seen here. In games such as this, puzzles usually come in the format of pulling some levers, manipulating the scenery somehow or finding an object to progress further into the game and agan that is seen here. However, along side these puzzles there are also human interaction puzzles which are something of a rarity where you actually have to communicate with the non-player characters in order to progress, solving oral puzzles and the like. This is achieved often by the use of your now updated suit computer which has the ability to record a person seen elsewhere in the game and then allow you to replicate yourself as that character, pretending to be them to get what you want from other player characters. Its a great idea and it works brilliantly.

One thing which these games have always had is awesome graphics, pushing the boundaries of the time in the previous two incarnations. That isn`t the case here because they do not attempt to use 3D technology but instead remain with the new generation Zork 2D style also seen in games like Myst, but they are still pretty spectacular nonetheless. FMV sequences are plentifull and really help d
raw you into the story and all the characters in game are played by real actors...adly, but by real actors nonetheless. You get a real feel of being in the game due to the quality of the graphics and the ability to not only turn through 360 degrees but to also look up and down to solve puzzles really immerses you in the adventure. Perhaps it is a little too real because much time is spent wandering through areas which look all very interesting but in fact have no bearing on the game whatsoever other than to take you from one hotspot to the next. You can waste plenty of time hunting aorund an alleyway for stuff only to find that there was nothing there and it was simply a route through to the next part where something interesting is. Most games just skim you through these bits, The Journey Project 3 makes you walk through them all as if you were really there. Its timewasting but it does make it more realistic.

The attention to detail here is again awesome with much time spent researching into the time periods in question. Your suit computer(you spend the game inside a space suit which morphs you in the eyes of those looking into a figure befitting the time period) Alfred fills you in on various customs and aspects of the culture as you progress so that it becomes like an interactive history lesson at times. Of course, this means that you may actually LEARN something by playing this game which is something of a first...and gives you an excuse to keep playing when there are better things to be done elsewhere or course. Of course, with 3 ancient cities to visit as well as hopping around in your own time period of the 24th century you can imagine that there are multiple CDs here - 4 in this case. Fortunately there shouldn`t be too much of that annoying disc swapping business because eachcity comes on one CD, so pop it in, wander around and only swap to another when you change time periods. Unless you keep jumpoing backwards and forwards(yes you can do this as th
e game is non-linear in format) you won`t find yourself swapping CDs too often. Also, the makers have learnt from previous versions when it comes to sudden deaths. There are very few occasions here where you can come to a sudden and unavoidable death, so you dont spend half your time saving the game just in case death awaits around the next corner. This makes for a game which flows far better and is more enjoyable.

Overall then, if you like adventure games, or have never played one and like the idea of an introduction which isn`t overly challenging and has a good storyline then this, or its predecessor is a great place to start. Actually, you can find the trilogy on one game pack now too, so thats well worth looking into as well. Its a little too easy, but its still great fun to play and still far more fun than something like Riven which was inexplicably popular and consisted of little more than lever pulling! Recommended in particular to fans of games like Gabriel Knight, Zork(the later versions) and Myst.

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