Title: Profound waste of money.
Product review: All right, so it's going to be a while before we find something equal to Myst and Riven. I can accept that. In fact, I was expecting that. However, even without those two comparisons, The Crystal Key falls flat. The graphics, while beautiful, are confusing and overdone. It seems like if they spend countless hours designing these environments, you should have more freedom to explore them. No such luck. If it's nonessential you can't go anywhere near it, and if it's essential, it's too dark to see even with my monitor's brightness turned all the way up. The puzzles have a faint logic to them, sure, but it's convoluted logic at best. I had to resort to a walkthrough site at the beginning of the second world, and for almost every puzzle after that. The recorded messages make sense only in the context of someone there to tell you what's going on. All in all, it's either too set up or not set up enough, and not worth playing even at the low price.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
