The Crystal Key 2: The Far Realm

I know many people didn't like CK1. I, however, did, despite its problems. If you didn't, though, that's no reason you shouldn't play CK2. It's a very different game. Instead of being straight 1st person, it includes many 3rd person cutscenes, for instance. There are also characters with whom you can interact. The conversations are not participatory--that is, when you approach someone, the conversation just rolls on without your input (you don't have to choose topics, etc.) You still have to pay attention, because there are several conversational clues to what you need to do. The puzzles are generally inventory-based. There were pros and cons about this. One thing I liked about CK1 was that many of the puzzles were very intuitive--finding clues, the significance of which was not immediately obvious, to codes and locks and such. That kind of puzzle was conspicuously absent here, and I found the game very easy. On the other hand, the inventory was handled well. It wasn't unwieldy, and items vanished once you had used them up. There was relatively little pixel hunting, but you do have to look around each area carefully. Most of the solutions made at least some kind of sense, although I did a fair amount of randomly trying inventory to see if anything worked.

This is a beautiful, beautiful game with many locations to visit. Some of the back and forthing got to be a bit of a pain, and I thought that in several locations there wasn't enough to do--one in particular seemed completely unnecessary. The music and f/x are for the most part understated (tho' the jazz in the spaceport bar made me laugh every time). There are unlimited saves, no timed puzzles, and you can't die.

There are, however, a few bugs. This game fully installs to your hard drive and you don't need the disc in the drive to play. It doesn't tell you this anywhere in the manual or readme. And if you leave the disc in the drive, it can interfer with gameplay--make your inventory disappear, etc. There are also a couple other bugs I've heard of but did not experience--not being able to get back to a necessary location after forgetting to collect an inventory item was one. I haven't heard of any patches, so the solution at this point seems to be frequent saving.

CK2 was pretty short (15 hours, maybe) and pretty easy. The ending, although not as abrupt as its predecessor's, was still pretty abrupt, leaving me wondering if I had missed something. Still, I enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who likes adventure games.


A below-par generic adventure game   April 20, 2004
Doug Urquhart (Southport, CT USA)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

Sturgeon's law states that 95% of everything is crap. I think he was optimistic - for every Hamlet, there are bezillions of sitcoms; For every Ring Cycle, there are several cubic yards of mindless MTV pap.

And for every Myst, or Syberia, there are far too many games like Crystal Key 2.

Crude and muddy graphics, pointless story line, endless exposition, and illogical puzzles based on the tried and trusted technique of 'search everywhere until you are frustrated; talk to everyone many times over; try everything in your inventory, in combination if necessary'

No redeeming features, as far as I can see....


Not worth the wait...   March 15, 2004
thomasbc (Kents Store, VA USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

After berating the game makers for being over five months late in releasing this game and then belittling them for dropping the price to a bargain-bin amount of 20 bucks even before it hit the shelves, my pre-review for this game concluded by saying:

"Being such a hard-core adventure game fanatic, if and when it finally does come out, I'll gladly play it. Like the saying goes, 'there's no such thing as bad chocolate'. But, at this point, I'm not holding my breath for some Godiva-like quality with this one."

Well, the game did finally arrive and after playing it for a couple of hours last night, I can honestly say that this game is actually like the product "Mocklate" in the 'Friends' episode where Monica is hired to cheerfully promote the faux-product. It looks just like chocolate, but it leaves a really BAD taste in your mouth!

My wife and I really love to play adventure games, it is the only game genre we play. If you've seen some of our other game reviews, you will know this is true. While the initial episode of Crystal Key was inexplicably a strong seller, the game itself was not exactly earth-shattering. We've played a lot of adventure games and 'The Crystal Key' ranks well down on our list of favorites (but, by all means, not at the bottom). It was just a good, solid, average adventure game. When they announced a sequel, we figured that they probably learned from the competition, grown along with the technology of gaming, and created a new chapter of the story that matches or exceeds the original.

Boy, could that NOT be further from the truth. This game is truly awful! With the delays and price-chopping factored in, we had set our expectations exceedingly low. But, some how, they managed to sink even well below that level. The pre-released screen shots and trailer for the game cannot prepare you for how bad the actual gameplay really is. Here are just a few of the CONs to the game (there are no PROs):

-The graphics are even worse than the original game (which is almost five years old now). Like the first game, they are pre-rendered, 360 degree panning shots that you are forced to navigate from point to point. However, the textures and details of these graphics are far worse than in game one. Every scene looks washed out and out of focus. Plus, the cylindrical views actually "jumped and popped" as we turned which got exceedingly annoying after a while.

-The music soundtrack, I am not kidding, sounds like it was dubbed from a porno movie! I think they meant to give the game a "hipper" beat but, oh my, I don't think they intended to make THAT association.

-The characters of the game are immovable, pixilated add-ins that show absolutely no emotion. The voice-over acting is adequate, but the dialog is sophomoric at best.

This drivel looks like it was created by a twelve-year-old, indy game developer using an old 386 computer. Unfortunately, the list of credits for this game includes many members of a professional creative team! I would have been much more lenient with my review had it actually been an independent creation. ...


perfectly awful   May 4, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I waited for months and months for this game to be released.

When I first started the game I wrote off the absolutely abysmal character voice overs as "something I could deal with" and anxiously looked forward to the puzzles. What a complete disappointment. The dialog was difficult to listen to, again and again. If you went back to see if something was new.. and it wasn't.. you got the whole original speil again. The puzzles were either way too easy.. or not intuitive at all.. a bunch of try everything until it works. They also had to be done somewhat in a particular order. If you guessed that you needed something early etc, you couldn't do it until the game was ready. I was all ready to finally get to a "new" place when I realized I had finished the game. Even if this game is in the "bargain basement" box for $2.. forget it, it isn't worth it.
This is a perfect example of everything *not* to do for a game of this type..

Oh.. there were a couple really neat graphics.. but look on any review site and you can see the couple that are worth bothering to see.. and you can't traverse them so what you see there is what your going to get in the game


Disappointing....   July 25, 2004
Marylou (Ontario Canada)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I anxiously pre-ordered the game from the Adventure Company ($20) since I totally enjoyed the first Crystal Key (that game got me hooked on PC games).

What a disappointment! I had technical difficulties to start with and the game play was awful. I will admit the graphics are good and the story line is so-so, but the jumping back-and-forth to locations and trying to figure out the next steps is extremely tedious.

Eventually I finished the game, but only because I hate giving up on something (even if it is bad!).

Not worth the money.