The Crystal Key

Your planet, whose origins are never specified, has intercepted a space-radio transmission warning of the impending arrival of an alien master of evil: Ozgar. The transmission reveals that the only people to have ever thwarted Ozgar's fiendish advances live on the mysterious planet Arkonia. Soon after your planet decodes the message, Ozgar arrives and starts doing his evil overlord thing, disrupting the ecosystem, changing the tides, and throwing the planet into tectonic upheaval with superpowerful magnetic satellites. The only way you can save your world is by finding the Arkonians.

Your search leads you through various worlds, reachable by use of a Crystal Key artifact and mysterious Arkonian Portal Technology. Finely detailed puzzles and limited character interaction drive the adventure forward, climaxing in the inevitable battle-of-wits encounter with the malevolent Ozgar.

Crystal Key's puzzles are inventive, but the sparse QuickTime video sequences are buggy, as is the game in general--be sure to save often. Gameplay is often incredibly slow, a result of sluggish load times and random lockups. But if you can tolerate these technical annoyances, you'll discover Crystal Key unlocks an engaging adventure. --Madeleine Miller

Pros:

• Myst-like gameplay
• Cool space-rover rides
• Challenging puzzles

• Nonreliable software and graphics
• Simplistic story line