By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
July 2002

Game Overview

The Mystery of the Nautilus is a new adventure game from the premier computer adventure game company, DreamCatcher Games. In this neat game, you play the game as a marine researcher, exploring a strange undersea vessel. Inspired by Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," this neat adventure game places you inside the Nautilus, Verne's wildly imagined vessel created by Captain Nemo.

You start out deployed on the USS Shark, a military submarine fitted with the latest advances in sonar technology. You are searching the depths of the sea looking for submerged ruins, long forgotten shipwrecks, and any other traces of civilization that may have been left by previous generations. You are a specialist in marine archaeology, but you are hindered by the USS Shark's captain, a man obsessed by safety regulations and procedures.

When the sonar returns an echo from a large-scale metal object, you are convinced that you have stumbled on the discovery of a lifetime. Disobeying the captain's orders, you take a small deep sea submersible and set out on a journey of discovery, armed with only your pocket recorder and your courage. You berth alongside the mysterious vessel, and by forcing open a small hatch, you enter the vessel. The hatch closes and locks behind you, sealing you in the craft.

Upon exploring the craft, you discover that Captain Nemo (the missing Captain) has designed a form of artificial intelligence (AI) onboard the vessel. This AI mistakenly greets you as the Captain, and begins to interact with what you do during the game. Once the AI discovers that you not the Captain, this spurs the AI into a high security, Intruder Watch mode. The race then begins as you and the vastly superior form of AI begin a deadly game of trying to outsmart one another for control of the Nautilus.

The adventure involves trying to figure out what happened to the Nautilus as you avoid the attempt by the AI to rid you from the ship, and you frequently come across hologram reports from Captain Nemo that slowly reveals the whole story. As the story unfolds as you play the game, you learn more about the Artificial Intelligence invented by Nemo, and you become the target of the AI as it attempts to destroy you. Your mission is to restore power and oxygen to the ship, eliminate the AI, and find a way off to return to the surface.

The background and layouts are all well designed, and add to the moody, mysterious environment of the ship. In keeping with what it would likely be like on this dark ship, the ship's environments are also all very dark and the details are many times difficult to discern. This can present difficulties in some situations, as this makes it many times very hard to find the required objects you have to pick up and later do something with. However, the design of the ship does succeed in realistically portraying what Captain Nemo's ship must have looked like, at least in Jules Verne's imagination.

While the puzzles in the game are not the most difficult or devious I’ve ever run across, and some are actually quite entertaining, nevertheless these are quite complex and may force many gamers to either give up or turn to the walkthrough guide in order to know what to do. The game adds the element of timed sequences, which adds tension in the game. The time allowed usually is enough, once you know where to go, what objects to find, and what to do with these objects in later scenes.

However, with the difficulty many times in being able to see these objects, this can quickly eat up the time, and may result in having to try these timed sequences again. So, remember to save, save, save your game, so you can start these timed sequences over again at the beginning. Even with the official walkthrough guide, I had to work through these timed sequences more than once, because even though the guide told me which object to find and activate, it was still difficult to actually find the mapped hot spot that represented the objects.

The game contains no purposefully devious puzzles, such as those mind-numbing slider puzzles, or connect-the-dots puzzles that require you to pre-plan about a gazillion moves in advance, before making even the first move, in order to open a door or a box in order to get access to another area in the game or an object. The puzzles have been well integrated into the game and the environment of the Nautilus, but the objects you need can be hard to find and it will take a few tries before you figure what to do with these objects.

The save feature is also super, as you can save your game at any place in the game at any time. The Esc key is used to invoke the main menu, to let you save games or load saved games.

The interface is totally driven by the use of the mouse, and the game uses classic DreamCatcher Games icon shapes to indicate where you may click to turn and move, or to pick up objects, and to place objects on other objects. This simplifies the problem of figuring out just exactly where to place a certain object on another object or location, thus helping to speed up the game. However, finding these mapped hot spots, that pop up these mouse icon shapes, can many times be quite difficult.

In the genre of adventure games, The Mystery of the Nautilus is one of the more challenging and interesting of adventure games, but it may prove to be too complex for some gamers. The atmosphere of the game and the attention to the lush display, plus the many timed sequences, all add up to a definitely difficult, but entertaining adventure game. In the case of this particular game, I found the official walkthrough strategy guide essential, especially in order to complete the timed sequences.

Features

Original storyline inspired by "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
Exciting adventure filled with suspense
Original score
Immersive ambient sounds
Stunningly graphical detail
Engaging and challenging puzzles throughout
Adventure captures the imagination
Game of investigation, intrigue and tense, timed maneuvers
Environments and settings created in full detail
Eerie and well designed Nautilus vessel
Recreated settings realized in detail
Beautiful backgrounds and objects
Inventory interface for objects to use
Timed sequences ratchet up the tension level
 
Game Play

The Mystery of the Nautilus is a classic adventure game, and it works with classic adventure game features. You move around with the mouse, by pointing and clicking, watching the game activate the movement of the character after you have clicked on a desired direction. You mostly play in the first-person viewpoint, and the game frequently takes over and runs the video files from the third-person perspective.

The use of the 3D card mainly adds depth and distance to the scenes, and especially helps in adding realism when moving throughout the vessel. Once you click to move, the game's video motion then takes over to move you to the next screen. You also have full, 360 degree movement at each screen, which greatly adds realism to the rich, fully developed backgrounds and layout. In some situations, you must use this spherical movement in order to find or perform action on objects above, below, or behind you.

You carry around a backpack that holds all inventory items. With the full motion movement activated by moving around the mouse cursor, this can at times be distracting, since when you move the mouse to point and click on the backpack you may also be moving your perspective. You have to really zip the mouse very quickly down to the backpack in order to keep your present view while you open the backpack.

You also have a handy PDA device that provides storage of memory of each stage of the game. Using the PDA, you can review the game. You click on the PDA to access the notebook that records your notes, vocal transcriptions to listen to the sound recordings heard in the game, book extracts that review the book passages read in the game, and the calculator that is necessary during a certain part of the game.

The PDA also provides access to the sketch that shows an overhead view of the areas you visit, the programmer that is necessary in a certain part of the game to determine a code to open a door, and the load/save game.

Note that as in most all adventure games, you really have to be diligent in looking all around you, up and down, left and right, as you move around in the game. You will also need to remember to look behind you, after you click to move forward, in order to not miss objects that are necessary in the game. There are no unnecessary objects in the game, and as is the case in most all adventure games, without the right object you will not be able to advance the game any further.

Thankfully, the game is designed to show you an object use type of cursor, when you move the mouse over areas of the screen. This type of cursor shape means you are supposed to place some type of object from your inventory on the selected area of the screen, or perform some sort of action here with another item. However, in many of these situations, these cursor shapes are hard to find, and you have to be careful to move the mouse very slowly in order to not miss these. In addition, in many situations, you might easily miss objects that need to be picked up, as these are hard to see and the special object cursor shape will be very hard to see.

Further challenging gameplay, in the frequent timed sequences you will need to find and do something with a lot of objects, but since these are so often hard to find, you may find yourself running out of time simply because you are taking too long to find stuff. Without the walkthrough guide, I wonder how often other gamers will be able to successfully complete this game, because of these numerous very small "hot spots."

You will come across different types of puzzles, including the need to collect and often combine objects, discover ways to unlock doors, find parts to fix broken equipment, and figure out how to turn on or control machinery. As you solve puzzles you will gain access to more and more areas of the Nautilus. Some challenges are logical, such as having to wear a pair of rubber boots to pass through an electrified security system, while others make little sense, such as having to connect a rope to a copy of the chemical periodic table in order to open up another area. Still others are just very tedious, such as figuring out which pieces of rubber hose pipe to apply in which location.

The focus in The Mystery of the Nautilus is on typical adventure game design, with an emphasis on finding all the right objects, using the right objects in the right places, and especially doing the right things with the right objects in the allotted amount of time.

About The Walkthrough Solution Guides

I suggest anyone interested in this neat game to also consider getting a copy of the solutions guide that is priced right and will just help you move through the game more quickly. With this game, because of the dark environments and the timed sequences, I think the walkthrough guide may be essential in helping gamers complete the game.

In my case, I always work with adventure games with the official walkthrough, because I just do not have all the extra time to try and puzzle out the correct combinations of either objects or puzzle solutions. I just have too many other things to do.

However, many adventure gamers choose to play without a solutions guide, as they prefer to reason out the game on their own. In these situations I also think they probably have far more available hours to devote to playing the game than I do.

In my situation, playing with a walkthrough means I can concentrate on moving the game plot along, and most importantly, open up all the wonderful scenes and action that the coders have worked so hard to include in the game. Without a walkthrough, I just feel I am not getting my money's worth out of the game. Also, I always appreciate having the help to get through the game so I can savor all the impressive screens and animated cut-scenes, as was the intent of the game creators.

There is a certain degree of frustration with being stuck in an adventure game that varies from one gamer to another, and in my case, with all the other things I have to do, I just do not have the luxury of working endlessly for hours and hours on end to try and figure out what's not working in order to advance to another key plot point. So, my perspective about walkthrough guides is that these help make adventure games more fun. Not being able to decipher a puzzle or having the right object at the right time is not my idea of fun with an adventure game. 

What makes this issue even more relevant here is that DreamCatcher seems to realize this, as evidenced by their always wise price points for their games and their solution guides. The Mystery of the Nautilus is so reasonably priced that this makes buying the additional solutions guide (also very smartly priced) a no-brainer. You end up with a total investment that means you will be better assured you can get through the entire game and not end up spending an excessive amount of time with the game. So, no, I don't think using a walkthrough solution guide is any indication of any lack of skill or abilities, but instead, a more appropriate way to invest minimal time with an adventure game, that ends up much more likely to be a fun experience.

Game Saves

You can save your game at any point, a feature always appreciated by adventure gamers. In this game, you really should save often, because you can indeed "die" in the game. So, you may want to make a point to always save a game before you begin a new puzzle, especially the timed sequences.

Targeted Customers

The Mystery of the Nautilus is a definite must have for any fan of computer adventure games. For those new to computer games, The Mystery of the Nautilus may not be the first adventure game to start out with. However, with the walkthrough guide, novice gamers should enjoy the game's finer points.

Install and Setup

The game should install and set up with no problems. The game comes on one CD ROM disc and there is no disc swapping. The game will need DirectX files, and these are included on the discs, if you do not have at least the version needed by the game. The game is also not one of the more complex game programs now on the market, and the system requirements are relatively moderate. This means the game is likely to play on far more machines than newer, state-of-the-art first-person shooter games that demand at least the newest 64MB 3D board now on the market.
 
Uninstalling the game involves the use of the games uninstall feature in its folder on the Start, Programs menu.

I loaded the game on a Win 98 SE machine (P III-850, 256MB SDRAM) that had a Creative Labs Annihilator 2, 32MB video card (an nVidia GeForce 2 GTS board), and a Creative Labs Live X Gamer! sound board, and the latest drivers for each. An HP CD RW 9200 drive served as the CD ROM drive, and I had a 12X DVD ROM drive for the DVD ROM version. The mouse and keyboard were both USB connections. I also had already installed the DirectX 8.1 files, and did not need to install the DirectX files that came with the game. My machine also had an internal Zip 250 drive, standard floppy, MPEG 2 decoder card, two 8-port USB hubs, a Logitech Wingman Extreme joystick, standard microphone, Cambridge Soundworks DTS 2000 speaker system, and a NIC board connected to SW Bell's DSL modem.

Price

$19.99 both CD ROM and DVD ROM version
$  9.99 the official strategy & solutions guide (a great bargain also)

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

Pentium II 300 MHz processor
Windows 98, 98 ME, XP
64MB RAM
12 x CD-ROM Drive
DirectX 8.0 Compatible Video Card
DirectX 8.0 Compatible Sound Card

At the time of this writing, no patches for this game had yet been released.

At the time of this writing, DreamCatcher also sells games for Mac machines, with more soon to be available also for the Mac. No other information was available on the future continued support of their software for Apple machines. I am guessing this support is very likely to continue.

The above system configuration requirements indicate the minimum system configuration requirements, and as any experienced gamer knows, you just don't ever want to load and run any computer game on minimally configured systems. Computer games are notorious for taking over machines, and this is why users will need to be sure and close out all their other open files, before playing this and any computer game.

About DreamCatcher

In 1996, DreamCatcher Interactive launched their first title and since then, they have become a very successful publisher in the computer game entertainment software industry. In my opinion, one of this company's strongest assets is their dedication to provide customers with high quality entertainment software at very affordable prices. Some of the best interactive computer games now on the market come from DreamCatcher.

Bringing to market titles that are affordable, without jeopardizing content quality, is another significant factor that helps distinguish this company from the many that flood the market with countless game titles. DreamCatcher thrives on innovative marketing strategies, solid retail and developer partnerships, and on providing excellent customer support that is well above industry standards.

A new partnership with Her Interactive has enabled DreamCatcher to now sell the super games in the Nancy Drew series, including Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill, Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger, and Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion. Check this link to read a review of these Nancy Drew Interactive Mystery Adventure Games.

Dracula: The Resurrection and In Cold Blood are two current games for the PC that will soon be released for the Playstation, and DreamCatcher also plans to release more games in the future for the Playstation 2 and the GameBoy Color platforms.

Necronomicon ($19.99) and The Legend of the Prophet and the Assassin ($19.99) are two of DreamCatcher's newer games that should also prove to be successful titles in their long list of super adventure games.

Other super games from DreamCatcher Interactive include Traitor's Gate, The Messenger, Riddle of the Sphinx, Jewels of the Oracle, Jewels II, Egypt 1156 B.C., Odyssey, TimeScape, Ancient Conquest, Beyond Time, Beyond Atlantis, Lightbringer, Legend of Lotus Spring, Nightlong, Seven Games of the Soul (also sold in Europe as Faust), SafeCracker, The Forgotten, The Sacred Amulet, and Time Machine.

All these are similarly designed adventure games, and all are priced very reasonably, the most expensive being $29.99 (In Cold Blood), with most around $14.99, and many even priced at $9.99, which I think are super prices for these super games. At the time of this writing, I have purchased and played nearly all these games, and these reasonable price points have always gotten my attention.

I think these affordable price points represent a very important strategy of DreamCatcher that has helped them achieve their success. When you consider the very expensive proposition to invest in the coding and other very expensive costs to develop and produce a computer game today, I think it is quite remarkable that this company markets their products at such a reasonable price.

I also think it is important to remember that DreamCatcher is still very much in the business of producing quality computer games, something many other companies can no longer attest to since they have gone out of business. What is even more remarkable, in my opinion, is that at the time of this writing, DreamCatcher Interactive remains wholly owned and self-sufficient, and has not yet been absorbed by a larger company.

So, with the easy on the pocket-book price of the game, and the also minimal price of the solution guides, you have the makings of a winner in the hotly contested battle for our limited disposable income and free time to invest in playing computer games. DreamCatcher Interactive is certainly a company worth watching and supporting.

Contact Information

DreamCatcher
The Adventure Company
5000 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T5
info@dreamcatchergames.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.