Mini-review of Alida
Copyright October 10, 2004 by Murray Peterson

Introduction:

	Over the years, I have lost track of how many games that get
	branded as Myst clones.  I rarely agree with that
	characterization, since Myst-style navigation and mechanical
	puzzles don't make a game a clone of Myst.

	For me, Alida is the exception to this rule.  Alida is a Myst
	clone, in almost every aspect.  The navigation, the
	pre-rendered graphics, the puzzles, the story, and so on.  It
	is all there, and it is all so, so reminiscent of Myst.

	I suppose this could be a bad thing, but not for me (or my wife).
	We enjoyed Myst, and we very much enjoyed Alida.

	After saying this, it almost feels like I should stop right
	here.  Oh well, I do have a few more things to say about the
	game, so onwards.  Since I am calling the game a Myst clone,
	I'll try to compare it to Myst as I go.

Graphics (quality, animations, cut scenes):

	The graphics are first person viewpoint, and very good.  They
	aren't up to the best of the current crop of games, but the
	pre-rendered scens are very pretty.  The graphics are all
	displayed at 640x480 resolution through Quicktime, and there
	is lots of eye candy for the greedy adventurer.  Call them
	better than Myst (no small window), but perhaps not up to
	Riven quality.

Sound (music, voices, special effects)

	All of the sound was good throughout.  Birds, insects, big
	gears moving, some nice music.  Nothing as spectacular as the
	Myst soundtrack, but nothing out of place at any time.

Story (plot, theme, depth):

	As in Myst, the story is minimal.  On the downside, I founf
	it to be rather more abrupt and muddled than Myst, with some
	weird inconsistencies and plot holes towards the end.

Characters (depth, development, interaction):

	Basically, you get one character that speaks more than one or
	two sentences.  Sounds familiar somehow.

Puzzles (difficulty, uniqueness, suitability, ugliness, linearity):

	Here is where Alida shines.  The best puzzles are those that
	manage to make the gamer feel brilliant, and Alida succeeded
	admirably.  Hard enough to make you work, but elegant enough
	that they can be solved without devoting your life to the
	problem.  The worst failing of Alida is lack of feedback; you
	could complete a puzzle successfully, and there was no
	feedback whatsoever that the puzzle was completed.  This one
	one of the reasons why we looked at a walkthrough, only to
	find that we had done everything correctly.

	There are no timed sequences, no arcade sequences, no mazes.
	There are some audio puzzles, so hearing impaired people will
	need a walkthrough.

	One puzzle would kill you if you got it	wrong.

	The cursor didn't change when over a hotspot, which was the
	cause for another consultation with the walkthrough.

Controls (user interface, save/restore, sound/video adjustments):

	Movement was all Quicktime-based "click to move or rotate",
	with rotation options always being 90 degrees to the left or
	right, and 180 degrees (turn around).  There is no danger of
	becoming motion sick, but the 90 or 180 degree movement
	allowed you to become slightly lost at times.

	Alida included several nice features for getting around in a
	hurry.  One was "Rocket Mode", which allowed you to zap
	instantly to a location without hitting all the steps in the
	middle.  The other feature allowed you to skip animated
	sequences (such as elevator rides or tram rides); just hold
	down the alt key before clicking on the button or switch, and
	the entire animation would be skipped.  Both of these
	features allowed you to really get around in a hurry once you
	got bored with seeing the same animation or pathway too many
	times.

	Like all other games originally written for a Mac, I found
	the default gamma settings to be far too dark whenplayed on a
	PC.  There was no in-game gamma adjustment, but I quickly
	remembered to set the gamma before starting the game.

	Alida did not automatically adjust screen resolution.  You
	had to do this manually before starting game (640x480).

Bugs or problems:

	On my machine, Quicktime crashed during some animation
	sequences.  Strangely enough, I could move the error popup to
	on side and keep playing the game.  This "feature" allowed me
	to get through one particular animated sequence that just
	didn't want to work on my machine.  However, be sure to save
	fairly frequently; the first crash caught us unprepared, and
	we had to replay a substantial amount of the game.  The
	crashes never prevented us from completing the game, so I
	found them more of an annoyance than anything else.

Install/Uninstall:

	The install and uninstall is completely manual.  The manual
	just tells you which files to copy onto your hard drive, and
	after that, you just run the game executable to play the
	game.  The manual also gives instructions for doing a
	complete install, which involves copying the contents of all
	five CDs to your hard drive.  There was no copy protection,
	so a complete install to your hard drive allows you to play
	without ever putting or keeping a CD in the drive.

	Very simple, and very capable -- I liked the entire process.

Pros:

	Wonderful puzzles
	Great graphics with lots of "neat" places to explore
	Could be played entirely from the hard drive
    	No copy protection

Cons:

	Quicktime crashing
	Lack of feedback on some puzzles
	No cursor change over hotspots

Conclusion:

	If you enjoyed playing Myst, then I will recommend Alida.  If
	you didn't like Myst, then you aren't going to like Alida.