For Sale: Includes large retail box, CD rom, liner notes, and jewel case.
Review
by Steve Honeywell
Jewels of the Oracle is sort of a mixed bag of a game. On the one hand, you have a large collection of ancient puzzles, all of which are pretty interesting. On the other hand, you 'd be hard-pressed to find a game that takes itself more seriously. It's not really an arrogance per se, but just an extreme desire to be mystical and other-wordly. And eventually, this is the downfall of the product.
The pomposity is pretty constant throughout the game. For instance, there are two difficulty levels. Easy and hard, right? Not in Jewels of the Oracle! Instead, your difficulty options are the Instruction Level and the Inspiration Level. Playing the game without the animation sequences is "Shaman Mode" instead of simply "No animation."
Essentially, the plot, such as it is, is a simple one. You have discovered the remains of an ancient civilization located in the Fertile Crescent. This civilization was apparently a great one, though it pre-dates the Sumerian civilizations of 5000 years ago. What you have discovered is something of a training ground. Scattered around the ruins are nearly two dozen puzzles of different varieties. There are some classic logic puzzles here, as well as a few new ones.
The problem is that there's no instructions anywhere for some of the puzzles! Sometimes, you simply have to play around with everything until you discover what you are supposed to do. You can click on the Oracle, who sits at the top of the screen in the middle, but most of the time, he's annoyingly cryptic.
The animation, while pretty, is very time consuming. It takes forever to move anywhere, even on a Pentium, and accessing the puzzles is painstakingly slow.
Another annoyance is the presence of the eponymous jewels. After you solve a puzzle, you will receive a jewel. Know what to do with it? Neither did I until I carefully combed though the manual. It wasn't there, either. So I went through the addendum to the manual and found a vague reference there--you're supposed to take them to the altar area, so the game can give you credit for solving the puzzle.
Unfortunately, once you leave the altar area and return to the room where you select your puzzles, there 's no indication of which puzzles you have solved. You'd better have a good memory, because it's entirely feasible to forget, go back to an old, already solved puzzle, and play it again.
Eventually, what it boils down to is that Jewels of the Oracle has wonderful puzzles that are housed in a ponderous and unforgiving shell of a game. The puzzles are well worth playing, and some are good enough to have to put up with the self-importance of the game and its difficult and awkward interface. Play it for these, not for the unrewarding game behind them.
Send your zip code for ship cost - should be between $4.99 and $6.99 if you are in the continental US (listed August 2013).
