Jewels of the Oracle

Puzzle Me This

A Review of Jewels of the Oracle

by Richard Roy

Legend tells of a civilization long before the Sumerians. People of

extraordinary intellect who delighted in the pursuits of the mind rather

than of conquering and fighting. They constructed a complex to hone and

practice their skills of logic and reason and built devices of incredible

ingenuity. Those who entered this complex and resolved all of the tasks

before them went on to greatness. Those who failed were lost forever.

This structure, lost to archaeological record, has been sought for millennia

but never found … until now!

So begins Jewels of the Oracle, a beautifully detailed 3D rendered

world of logic puzzles that will have you pulling your hair out within

half an hour of beginning play. This is, in fact, meant as a compliment

and not as a criticism of gameplay. A good puzzle game will not allow solutions

based on trial and error, but will force you to rely on the age-old skills

of logic and reason. Jewels of the Oracle accomplishes this in spades. While a

few of the puzzles are relatively straightforward (but by no means simple),

most are extremely difficult to even decipher what is required to attempt to

solve the puzzles. None of these puzzles are of the running clock type where

one is forced to react and not think. You are able to stay calm and use your

powers of observation and analysis.

Jewels begins by trapping you in a Well Room at the center of this

mysterious city. Encompassing this Well are stone blocks that when pushed

display a puzzle upon the reflecting water. By clicking on these reflections

you are magically transported to the rooms containing these puzzles. Each

puzzle room contains primitive machines and ancient devices that you can

touch, pull, push, and move. Your challenge is to figure out what to do

with all the mysterious pieces in each of the puzzle rooms. When you have

resolved the task set for that room a jewel is awarded. This jewel can then be taken

to the Oracle Room and placed on a map of the Well Room signifying that the

puzzle has been solved. Fortunately, you are not stranded if you cannot

resolve the puzzle as you are permitted to freely travel about between the

puzzle rooms and the Well Room. Solving all twenty-four puzzles and placing

their respective jewels in the Oracle Room is your ultimate goal.

A so-called “intelligent” cursor is your guide. All this means is that

when the cursor is placed on an object that is available to be interacted

with, the tip of the cursor will be highlighted. You simply click to

activate the mechanism. While this form of interface is nothing new, this is the

first time I’ve heard it called “intelligent”. There is also a second cursor

provided that is more animated but it slows down the game somewhat. The

choice is yours.

The atmosphere presented is marvelous. From the blending of music of

cultures past to the beautiful 256 color SVGA graphics, you really feel a

part of this forgotten civilization. In fact, some components that appear

in the ruins are actually taken from ancient civilizations such as Sumer and

Egypt. All in all, very impressive.

There is no limit to the number of saved games in Jewels. While most

people will probably use only one, you may want to have more saved games

going. Many of the puzzles have multiple solutions and some have random

set-ups so they begin differently each time you play. You also have the

option to choose between easy puzzles and hard puzzles at any time during

the game except while operating a puzzle.

After playing this game for awhile, it becomes apparent the great deal

of effort and planning that ELOI Productions put into this product. Most of

the game design elements are user-configurable. For example, if you are in

a hurry and do not want to fully immerse yourself in the 3D world, you can

select “Shaman Mode”, thereby turning off the video transition segments

between scenes. This allows the game to play much faster for those who do

not have the processing power to play the full motion game. Also, an option is

provided to decline a puzzle. You do, in fact, collect a jewel, but it isn’t

quite as valuable as one collected from a fully resolved puzzle. However,

you may go back at any time and resolve the declined puzzle. If you never do,

you may still progress to the end of the game, but will get a different ending

than someone who completed every task. You can even return to these locations as

often as you want whether or not you have completed the puzzle.

As mentioned earlier, Jewels is somewhat hardware hungry. Discis

Entertainment recommends a 66 MHz 486DX+ and 16MB RAM. However, it is very

playable on the same system with 8MB RAM. The load times are somewhat

annoying but since this is a Windows product, you should already be used to

that hourglass cursor on the screen.

Jewels of the Oracle is definitely not a ground breaking product that

will recruit new fans into the puzzle genre of gaming. That aside, this is

a puzzle game and what it does is extremely well done indeed. If you are a

puzzle fan, you will love this game. If not, why are you reading this

review?

The only downside to Jewels, and it’s a fault most puzzle games have, is that

once completed there is nothing to bring you back. Of course, you could

always show it to a friend to demonstrate your superior intellect!

Overall, a must for any puzzle fan!

Gamer’s Zone Scorecard

Product:	Jewels of the Oracle
Company:	DISCIS Entertainment

Cost:

n/a

PC or Macintosh OS, 8 MB RAM,
CD-ROM Drive, Mouse, and Sound Card.