Dive: The Conquest of Silver Eye

One of the most obscure adventure games ever made, Dive: The Conquest of Silver Eye is a pretty decent first-person Myst-lookalike adventure game with some interesting puzzles.

Although the game offers the same dead silent, unpopulated-but-pretty-to-look-at gameworld as Myst (it even says ?graphics compare with Myst? on the box!), the puzzles in Dive are integrated better into the storyline and you actually have an inventory, so that the game feels much less like a big logic puzzle-solving contest than an actual treasure-hunting quest. The plot is clich้ and minimal ? just enough to get you started on your quest for undersea treasure. The puzzles are the best thing about Dive. There?s a good mix of tradition puzzles (that require you to use items from your inventory), and board/logic puzzles similar to 7th Guest or Myst. Puzzles are quite interesting in general and some even quite clever, and in contrast to certain puzzles in Black Dahlia, no puzzle is overly frustrating. There are even some combat sequences thrown in (where you will need to kill some robots), but they are there mostly just to break the leisurely pace of your exploration. Unfortunately like most Myst games that fill up CD-ROM space with pretty-but-non-interactive graphics, Dive has its own share of static screens that you cannot interact with. This means trudging back and forth between locations can get annoying after a while. With a good variety of puzzles and longer-than-average gameplay that you?ll need more than a few hours to solve, Dive is definitely well worth a look. The original game came on 4 CD-ROMs, all packed with nice cinematics (which naturally have to be cut in this CD-rip version to save space) and eye-candy graphics. If you enjoy high-caliber Myst-style games like Jewels of the Oracle or Morpheus, give Dive a try. It may not draw you in with a strong story, but it?s got its own share of logical and fair puzzles that will satisfy old-school adventure fans. Above-average, but not a Top Dog.

Review By HOTUD