The Sacred Amulet (previously published as Aztec)

Introduction:

	The latest Cryo game (as of November, 1999) is proof that
	Cryo is getting better and better at creating adventure
	games.  This game is an historical mystery, where you play
	the character of Little Serpent, a humble Aztec hunter.
	Little Serpent witnesses a murder, get accused of it, and
	must solve the mystery to prove his innocence.


Graphics (quality, animations, cut scenes):

	I mentioned in my review of Atlantis II that they had cured
	the worst of their excessively dark scenes.  In the Sacred
	Amulet, they have completely cured this problem.  The
	graphics are extremely good, and the Aztec world you find
	yourself in is a wonderful sight to behold.  The cut scenes
	are works of art in their own right.  Graphically, this game
	was perfect.

Sound (music, voices, special effects)

	The atmospheric music and sound effects were wonderful at
	all times, and sometimes even a bit too good.  The music
	that accompanied the action scenes made them much more tense
	than they would have been without any sound.  Since I am not
	a fan of "tense" when playing adventure games, this was
	perhaps the only problem I had with the game.  As I said,
	the music was actually too good.

	The voice acting was good at all times, and the recording
	quality and mixing was very well done.

Story (plot, theme, depth):

	The mystery story is a wonderful one, and it serves to drive
	the game without feeling awkward at any point.  The mystery
	starts out as a "whodunit", but changes gradually throughout
	the game into a story where the problem is to prove
	"whodunit" to everybody else.  Little Serpent is continually
	under threat of being discovered or killed, which helps keep
	the game moving along without feeling artificial or forced.


Characters (depth, development, interaction):

	Almost all the characters fit well within the game, but there
	was at least one exception.  One character seemed to just pop
	up whenever convenient, and the game would have been better
	if that character had been left out.  Otherwise, I enjoyed
	the characters throughout the game.

Puzzles (difficulty, uniqueness, suitability, ugliness, linearity):
	
	This was a fairly easy game, with no real stumpers for
	puzzles.  For those that would like comparisons, think of it
	as harder than Amerzone, but easier than Atlantis II.  All
	of the puzzles were fair, and all of them had some rationale
	behind their solution.  At no point did I feel the urge to
	yell at Cryo because of solutions which seemed to require
	the reading of their minds.

	I don't like real-time sequences, and this game definitely
	contained a few of them.  However, the game made it easy to
	get by them, and they fit into the story perfectly in all
	cases.  You could always restore to the start of the
	sequence and try a different method of solving the problem,
	and none of them required real hand-eye coordination to
	solve.  They were mental challenges more than physical
	challenges, and they seemed to "belong" in the game.

	I don't think you will ever need a walkthrough, since this
	game even had several built-in hint systems.  One was a
	diary of Little Serpent's thoughts, which could give you
	pointers as to what he thought you should do next.  Also, if
	you started wandering around a bit too far afield, up would
	pop a comment by Little Serpent which would hint as to what
	he needed to do.  Even other characters would chime in with
	helpful hints at times throughout the game.

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

	I thought that the game controls were perfect.  The game
	allowed full scrolling of the scene in all directions, and
	Cryo even installed a speed control to help reduce the
	sea-sickness effect that this can cause.  The auto-save
	feature was actually helpful, since it save the game at
	useful points within the game (like just before making a
	choice which would kill you).  You could also save manually
	at any desired point if you didn't trust the auto save
	feature.

	Cryo has also integrated an encyclopedia about the Aztecs
	with the game in an extremely elegant manner.  Besides just
	allowing you to browse the encyclopedia, various hot spots
	in the game were added to link directly to the related entry
	for instant look up.  It was a great way to get your
	historical facts fed to you one piece at a time, and only
	when you were interested in that item.  This game makes
	looking up information actually fun.

	I honestly cannot think of any flaws in the game with
	respect to the user controls.


Bugs or problems:

	None that I encountered.

Pros:

	Wonderful graphics and cut scenes.
	Good music and sound effects.
	Great story with a good resolution.
	Great user controls.
	Elegant encyclopedia hyperlinks from within the game.
	
Cons:

	One character that seemed a bit out of place and didn't fit
	within the story as well as the others.

	A few action scenes (but very mild and easily solved).

Conclusion:

	This game does it all, and about as good as I could ever
	expect.  Cryo could have even left out the entire
	encyclopedia portion of the game, and it still would have
	been wonderful.  If this game was a novel, I would have
	rated it as a first rate page turner.

	The Sacred Amulet goes into my top ten game list.