Mind’s Eye of Jupiter – 01 is the first in an episodic series for Xbox Live Indie Games. The gameplay resembles Myst, which some of you may have played on the PC. While Myst was plot-heavy, in this first episode, your goal is to discover the location of the Mind’s Eye. While reading, keep in mind that I am terrible at these games, so what took me ages to figure out, may take you a fraction of the time.
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The game starts you beside your car in a large area with some old ruins nearby, and other key points. From here, you basically walk around in first person view, and when you encounter key objects, you’ll see your menu. The menu allows for 4 options: Interact, Look, Talk, and Use Equipped Item – more often than not, you’ll be interacting with objects, when you actually find them.
There are almost no hints in Mind’s Eye of Jupiter, so you have to rely on your adventure gaming skills, and maybe toss in some luck. When you are near a key artefact that’s required to progress, you’ll get a box of yellow text on-screen. Get even closer it becomes red, in which case you’re probably standing on it (hint, hint!). Unfortunately, to be considered close, you have to be with an inch or two, so it may take you awhile to figure things out at the start.
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Once you get further into the game, it comes slightly easier, and you’ll grasp the concept of where you have to go and what has to be done. Unfortunately, by this time, you’ll unexpectedly hit the end of the first episode, and instead of a loading screen, you’re back at the main menu.
The graphics aren’t too bad, and they resemble older PC games when 3d became a known concept in videogames. The game pulls off the grass and rocky textures fairly well. Level designs are very basic themselves, where each primary area is a large square, and key areas are usually marked by some sort of fixtures. It’s nothing fantastic, but it’s defining, and you can easily determine what everything is around you.
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In terms of sound, you’ll hear the light howling of the wind when you start in the outdoor ruins area. In other areas, you’ll hear a slight hum, attempting to make the game sound eerie, which didn’t really work for me. Sound effects only occur during interaction or item usage, and there’s nothing special about them. It’s meant to be a quiet adventure game, so it pulls this off as well as can be expected.
In the end, I spent about 2 hours with it, and it was over. Unless Episode 02 is under a different title on the marketplace, it was never added. Seeing as this is nearly one year old, I’m doubtful that it’ll be continued. After knowing what I had to do, I ran through the game again, and was completed in under 10 minutes. Rather disappointing, and I can’t recommend this title without any confirmation of a continuation of its story. However, should you feel the need to own this, it will set you back 240 :MSPoints:.
For more information, and to grab the demo, check out the Marketplace.
Review by Bryan Tremblay.
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