INTRODUCTION: A mysterious
museum. Elegant puzzles. Doesn’t exactly sound revolutionary, does
it? So is THE CASSANDRA GALLERIES worth your time? Actually,
yes. . .

This
is a pleasant, breezy, pretty game that I enjoyed very much. It’s
not ground-breaking; it will start no new trends; it will be on very
few player’s Best I’ve Ever Played lists (mine, either). But I’m very
glad I played it.

The setup is very simple.
You’ve been invited to peruse a mysterious museum. The owner of the
museum, an rich eccentric widower named Cassandra, has disappeared
with his daughter. Apparently no one has a clue to their whereabouts.
Only you, the player, can solve the mystery. Hey, ain’t that always
the way it is?

The format of this game
is first person point-and-click. It’s mostly slide show with occasional
full motion movement, video sprites of characters, and some lovely
(if brief) flying cutscenes.

After an introductory conversation
with the caretaker of the museum, you are left to your own devices.
The building consists of two floors. The galleries, dining room and
kitchen are on the first floor, and the family’s bedrooms and a studio
are on the second floor. The first part of the game consist of simply
wandering around the building, enjoying the different-themed galleries
(modern, ancient, Chinese, medieval, etc.) and snooping around the
family’s bedrooms.

Then
it’s time to get on with the game. This is accomplished by heading
up the second floor studio. There are four different vases (Urns?
Give me a break, I’m just a boy), each in a different style. You pick
one, and try to find the gallery the vase belongs in which one.

This isn’t terribly difficult.
I don’t think I got one wrong on the first try.

Then the fun part starts.
When you identify the correct gallery, you place the vase on a pedestal
that’s waiting for it, and you are magically transported to a beautiful
new environment related to that gallery’s theme.

In each environment are
a group of puzzles to be completed. Each puzzle, when completed, gives
you a part of a big puzzle that must be completed before you can depart
from this environment.

Each of the environments
– a medieval castle, an incredible art deco palace, a wacky ultra-modern
house – are rendered in beautiful and eye-pleasing detail. The deco
area in particular was a visual feast.

The puzzles are, for the
most part, very very mild. Most of them relate to clues scattered
about the museum, so the game becomes an entertaining scavenger hunt,
as you roam around the place looking for . . . the Chinese zodiac
. . . the different kinds of oriental self-defense . . . the appropriate
shape of a particular puzzle, etc.

One
unique element some of these puzzles contain are a trivia element.
There is a television quiz that feels like you’re on a game show.
There are puzzles that relate to geography, music, and history. Some
of them have clues in the museum, and others did not. This will irritate
some players, as there seems to be an unwritten rule that games should
be self-contained; that is, all answers to all questions should be
somewhere IN the game. However, being a trivia buff and a game show
veteran myself, I loved this element to the game. And NONE of the
quizzes were that difficult. In fact, there is only one puzzle in
the game that I would call difficult (a stained glass window puzzle),
and that’s mostly because of a very vague clue.

I really enjoyed the offbeat
nature of the puzzles in this game – they were a real breath of fresh
air.

Now on to the bad bits.
The Cassandra Galleries suffers in three main areas, all having to
do with story. First of all, the story is anemic, had no development,
and no follow-through whatsoever. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t
mind games with thin stories that are merely excuses for stringing
a bunch of fun puzzles together – not at all. But it does become irritating
in a game like Cassandra. Why? Because the game PRETENDS the story
is important. It asks you to pay attention to all sorts of details
and elements from the backstory when it has nothing to do with finishing
the game.

Second, the game is periodically
interrupted by long, tedious reminisces by various characters that
wander into the frame and ramble on and on about the Cassandras. Now,
it would be different if the acting was good (like in Temujin). However,
the most irritating thing about these interruptions is that, once
again, the game is pretending that you’re getting important information
to help you solve “the mystery” of the Cassandras’ disappearance.

Nothing
could be further from the truth. You don’t solve any mystery at all
You just solve the puzzles and the game is over. Which brings us to
the third, and worst problem with this game. The ending. This game
has to have the worst, lamest ending I’ve ever seen in a game.

Luckily, I had been adequately
warned about this non-ending, and so I was ready for it. Therefore,
I really enjoyed playing The Cassandra Galleries. But if were to innocently
play this game and expect some terrific payoff regarding the Amazing
Disappearing Cassandras, you’d be extremely disappointed – angry,
even. This is yet another game that feels like it lost its budget
toward the end.

Nevertheless, if you enjoy
it for its lovely atmosphere and graphics, and its unusual puzzles,
you’ll have a good time playing The Cassandra Galleries.

PROS: Beautiful graphics,
enjoyable and off-the-wall puzzles.

CONS: Anemic story, annoying
character monologues, truly terrible ending.

CONCLUSION: A nice, mild
romp, but not a genre-definer by any stretch of the imagination.

Just
Adventure Assigned Grade: B

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Minimum system: IMB 486DX/66,
Windows 3.1, 8Mb RAM, 26Mb Hard Drive Space, 640×480, 256 color graphics,
2xCD ROM, mouse.

Recommended: Pentium P60,
Windows 95, 16Mb RAM.

Sound Support: 8-bit SoundBlaster
or 100% compatible sound card.