Eleven years ago, Myst came out and rocked the adventure genre by combining a compelling world, a great story and challenging puzzles.  Now from developer DejaVu Worlds comes Alida, an adventure game originally released on the Mac about two years ago that’s just now seeing the light of day on the PC.  In terms of gameplay mechanics, Alida more than falls within the same vein as Myst.  Unfortunately, the story is nowhere near as engaging as that in Myst, and the game’s technical shortcomings are glaringly major.

Alida drops you (rather nonchalantly) into a giant guitar-shaped island theme park by the name of, uh, Alida.  The incomplete park on the island was created by a musical group also known as Alida.  You come to find right through a woman’s voiceover at the very start of the game that you are there to find her missing husband, Arin.  You have no idea who he is, or who the woman is for that matter.  You must then try to unlock the mysteries of the island by solving puzzles (some with an obvious guitar influence) and finding clues left by the band members and Arin himself.

Unfortunately, Alida fails to provide an interesting story and gives the gamer little reason to progress through the puzzles. These puzzles are awkwardly presented; oftentimes you won’t know whether or not you’ve completed a puzzle or whether you should be working on it in the first place.  However, these puzzles are challenging and it’s pretty cool how they often relate to the working pieces of a guitar.

Alida’s interface is point and click, like most of the older titles in the genre.  You have a little on-screen reticule that will change to indicate whether or not you can interact with a background object and begin a puzzle.  Adventure gamers should feel right at home pointing and clicking their way through the game’s puzzles.

Alida’s graphics look fairly decent, and had this game hit the scene seven or eight years ago, I’d say they were downright good.  However, considering what PCs are currently capable of, Alida just doesn’t cut the mustard.  The entire play screen takes up less than half of your monitor, surrounded by a big, black border.  The game uses static images, like Myst, and occasional full-motion video sequences.  Sometimes the static image screens will have little motion details, like flickering lamps or waves in the ocean, that look good (and remind you that you are playing a game and not just starting at a JPEG image).

The sound front is restricted to ambient noises and some limited music.  You are given the option to choose which you would prefer to hear, although neither one is very deep.

If Alida’s internal problems weren’t enough, the game has a very confounding physical problem: it is pressed on five discs and requires you to swap them out as you play.  Granted, you can try to copy the last four discs to your hard drive, but the game lacks a formal installation program, making this an unnecessary pain.

Alida offers a barebones, old school adventure game with some very difficult puzzles.  Unfortunately, this game is quite dated, and even the hardest of the hardcore adventure fans will find it cliché and old hat.

Gameplay: 4.5
Alida’s gameplay is very old school.  You progress through the game solving puzzles and learning little bits about the island and the band behind it.  However, the adventure game aspect of Alida is very weak.  The story is not compelling, and the puzzles are awkwardly presented, often leaving you unsure whether or not you’ve even finished them.

Graphics: 5.0 
Graphically, Alida is among the best of its competition, but that’s not that impressive considering that most of them came out over seven years ago.  The game screen is a small box with well-rendered static images.  Sometimes these images will have little bits of activity going on, like rippling waves in the ocean, flickering lights and so on.  While the game does portray some nice pictures and quality QuickTime videos, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done many years ago.

Sound: 4.0
The sound effects are limited to ambient noise and occasional bouts of music, but nothing extraordinary (kind of curious for a game about a rock band).

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Concept: 4.0 
As David Spade might say: “Hey, Alida, I liked you the first time I played you, when you were called Myst.”

Overall: 4.5
With a weak story, awkward puzzles and a cliché environment, Alida makes for one weak adventure game experience.  Not only that, but everything here has been done (and much better) a decade ago.