Chemicus :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Intelligent

2007-04-03
I have a good time playing this game and got frustrated many times. I used to be good in Chemistry in school, but after so many years without it, I had to really pay attention to see the point. Although it has a computer with all the information you will need. It's like a library you can rely on anytime. The story is intelligent and well done. And you feel like you are in a classroom inside a simulator. Really good. It's a family game. And if you are good in Chemistry, you are my hero, because you will be able to solve the game faster than me. If you are not, just give it a try. It's very cultural and fun.

Chemicus

2005-08-06
While the game is not one of my favorites it is not bad. You definitely need a guide to play this. (In today's games, who wouldn't?) There is a lot of inventory and it is sometimes cumbersome to perform a task. I would recommend this to anyone who likes science or just for relaxation.
Ed

Much Better Than Physicus, But...

2003-06-18
My wife and I are avid adventure gamers and, to help pass the time until "URU: Ages Beyond Myst" is released later this year, we decided to try "Chemicus". We played "Physicus" a couple years ago and, while we enjoyed it, we both thought that it could have been a much better game if it had tied into Physics a little deeper and if more effort was put into the adventure game design (look for my earlier review).

We just completed "Chemicus" and I can honestly say that this was a MUCH better overall attempt. Nearly all of the puzzles of the game are chemistry-related ranging from the fairly easy and logical to the pretty hard and requiring a hint or two (we peeked into the included walkthrough only a couple of times to get us unstuck).

The greatest improvement over "Physicus", however, was on the game design side. Like "Physicus" the graphics and music are lush and inviting. But, the scope of the game is where "Chemicus" shines over its predecessor. "Physicus" was just a singular environment or location to explore with very few cut-scenes and conveyances to enjoy along the way; both popular elements to a successful adventure game. In "Chemicus", even though the "subway" system was a little on the cheesy and repetitive side, at least it felt like we were transporting between unique locations (thank goodness the space bar forwards you through the animations). Plus, after solving some particularly difficult puzzles, we were rewarded with some nice cut-scenes; the balloon ride over the city being the best one. It wasn't on the same level as the bigger games like Riven and Schizm, but still an improvement.

One thing that "Physicus" did get right and that "Chemicus" fails on, is its link into the "Brain Center", the included chemistry text book. The content of the chemistry text is impressive, although, it looks as if the inclusion of animation and narration of some of the experiments and topics went by the wayside probably due to the added scope of the underlying game. What really annoyed us was the fact that we couldn't follow a link from the particular puzzle we were working on into the appropriate chapters or topics of the textbook. Along the way, you pick up "Knowledge Chips" that add chapters to your Brain Center and I suppose, if you kept up with the reading along the way, the new topics would relate to the new puzzles in the area. But, later on, when we were still working on the puzzle, it was very difficult to find those same topics in the textbook again. Like "Physicus", a link to just the appropriate topics would have been very useful.

Other than that, the game was very well written and designed. The user interface was very intuitive and easy to use. Could have done without the gratuitous, politically-correct diatribes on "greenhouse gasses" and "socially responsible science" that we have come to expect in these games (easy to ignore, though). We just started on "Bioscopia", but it looks as if that one more closely resembles "Physicus" in design and scope, bummer. I hear they are working on a "Chemicus II" game, so once we finish with URU, we will probably give it a go, too.

Education and confusion come together in Chemicus 2003-04-01
Okay, okay, I had fun. But I was also incredibly frustrated by the set up and "logic" (or I should say lack of logic) of this game and that truly detracted from my enjoyment. I wanted to learn something from this game, but I didn't get the connections half the time!
This game has so much potential for teaching chemistry, but the set up was lacking logic - you don't know what you are supposed to be doing, and you have to go back and forth between the various "stops", never knowing if you have really done what needs to be done. And because you have to go back and forth so much, you have to wait for each area to load when you go to another stop. I tried skipping the animation of the transport zooming through the tube, but it still took a long time for the stop to load. And you want to scream when you click on the wrong button and have to wait twice!!
One example of frustration for us is that you have to melt the ingredients for solder someplace other than the melting furnace before you put it into the melting furnace... How does that make sense? The logic behind why some ingredients are placed in certain places is very foggy, and sometimes you just don't have enough (understandable) information to figure something out, or the information is there but so obscure that you have to be a rocket scientist to understand it.
So you look for help, and all you are given is a walkthrough, when hints would be so much better... and would help you learn why you are doing things. I have thought of making my own hints to pass on to someone who would like to learn something from the game.
I ran Chemicus on a mac running OSX. It had to run on classic, so there were many times when it lagged. Don't know how it runs on a PC.

Not bad for edutainment! 2003-03-21
This is great game but it is NOT easily solved. It has Myst like elements where you find puzzles and solve them to move around. The game has a twist where you keep an inventory of items you will need in other areas of the game. The hints that came with the game were helpful..I hated to use them but after getting stuck and not making progress after a few hours I had to take a quick peek to continue. At first I thought it was too easy but then it got hard. If anyone writes otherwise they are not being truthful. I took many chem classes in college and not everything is intuitive in the game. Infact, sometimes you know what to do but the game only lets you do things in order to perform a task and you think that you are wrong (but you're not). You only switch CD's once ever and then you are done. I copied the help file to my computer so I would not have to reference it off of the disk. The only part I did not like was the navigation. If it had not been for that I would have given it 5 stars. . All in all I have zero regrets getting this game. I had just finished playing Myst III and I wanted another same type game. great buy

Very Challenging and Quite Lovely 2003-02-12
Journey to the other side of reality, to a virtual city shrouded in secrecy. Welcome to Chemicus, a land where scientific knowledge from the beginning of time is protected and wields sacred powers. You play as an accidental intruder transported to Chemicus by an ancient amulet. Your unintended presence has threatened the tranquility of this virtual city, and it's up to you--if you dare--to restore harmony before it's too late.

In Chemicus: Journey to the Other Side players gain knowledge and use their intelligence to solve challenging riddles and unlock the city's darkest secrets. Take up the quest for ancient science truths and discover powerful tools; explore science facts and gather essential resources; experiment with chemical elements and discover the ultimate power. Chemicus awaits your return with stunning 3-D movies, riveting animation, more than 2,000 3-D images, exotic landscapes, and mysterious interiors.

I love a challenge! 2003-01-31
Beautiful graphics, and really hard. This game is not easy, and that's the way I like it! (If you aren't like me, the makers of the game put a walkthrough on one of the CD-ROMs in case you get stuck.) This game is a first-person point & click in the style of Myst. There is a lot of area to cover and a lot of hard puzzles. It ran smoothly, and was hours of fun. For the length of time this game will take you it's also a really good value for the price. I liked it more than it's two predecessors (also good!), Physicus and Bioscopia.

So cool 2003-01-30
The graphics are so cool and the game is totally addictive. Nice.

Interesting concept but has problems 2002-12-28
Concept, 3D animation and graphics on this game are very good, but there are some aspects to the structure that really could use some improvement.

I found a major problem to be the navigation options, which are very limited and frustrating! The participant has to be turned in exactly the right position to navigate to a given section, instead of being able to point the cursor at the area you want to get to and being there.

Another problem is the help document, which gives a step-by-step run-through of the game, but gives no rationale for the actions. The result is, if you need help to figure something out, you have no real idea why you have to do what you're doing, so you have no clue as to how to proceed to solve future riddles. In addition, some of the actions are completely random, so the game doesn't stick to any one set of logic parameters, making it more confusing (IMHO) than necessary. The science is hard enough to understand!

Another point about the help doc: you have to close down the game every time you want to access the help information. Seems like that should have been designed to be accessible through the communicator and available as clues relating to aspects of the science involved in the specific actions.

One last point: there is no option to skip the introduction, so if you want to start a new game you have to sit through the whole boring - and poorly acted - scenario again.

As someone who would like to get more involved in this type of game, but is a relative novice to gaming and not well-versed in science, Chemicus seems difficult to get into and understand, unnecessarily confusing and hard to navigate. Maybe this just isn't my type of game, but it seems like the developers would want to make this as accessible to as many people as possible.

Wow!! 2002-11-05
This game was challenging, I enjoyed it almost as much as myst. There were no glitches, the graphics were intense!! I would recommend this to everybody!