Mysterious Journey II
| Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon (Schizm II: Chameleon) | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Detalion |
| Publisher(s) | The Adventure Company |
| Series | Schizm |
| Engine |
Lithtech Jupiter (heavily modified) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Mysterious Journey II, also known as Schizm II: Chameleon, is an adventure game developed by Detalion, published by The Adventure Company, powered by Lithtech: Jupiter, and the sequel to Schizm: Mysterious Journey. Like the earlier game, the plotline was authored by acclaimed Australian science fiction writer Terry Dowling. While Schizm utilized 360 degree panoramas, Mysterious Journey II uses a first-person shooter interface.
Story
The game begins on a derelict space station. Sen Geder, whom the player controls, awakens from a cryogenic stasis pod, and is interrogated by a pre-recorded holo-message of a mysterious man named Tensa, 214 years after Sen was placed in stasis. Tensa explains that there is no escape, as all non-essential machinery is destroyed, every door and bulkhead is sealed, and the station will fall from its decaying orbit in 16 days. The hologram device is blown up, and it turns out that a "companion" named "Talen" attempted to find a power source (the hologram unit). Talen also gives Sen flight skills and "Chameleon Tech" to disguise his identity. With that, Sen boards a shuttle and enters the planet itself, discovering that the inhabitants have formed two tribes: The "Trasai" and "Ansala". According to Talen, the Transai believe that science is the only answer for survival, while the Ansala profess love of nature, natural methods, and even mental powers to control the environment. Hidden is a nomad named Arko, who refused to take sides with either tribe, and instead is friends of the Companions.
Arko explains that in the past there was a great city. Then an alien starship appeared, two young scientists, Sen Geder, a Transai astrophysicist, and Chemay Tars, an Ansala astronomer, both tried to have the aliens intervene, but missiles downed the ship, and a war broke out, lasting over 200 years, turning the planet into a single valley and Sen and Chemay to blame, captured by the Ansala. The Companions were alien machines aided by the Transai, but destroyed or downgraded by the Ansala.
After Sen explored Touchstone the Transai domain disguised as an engineer named Jano, and discovering the crashed ship, Lyra; he wandered into the Ansala hometown, Brada Coe disguised as Triga and explores the so-called "Galleas Wrecks". However, Sen is discovered a spy, but manages to escape. Another trip through Touchstone reveals that the "Oracle" which the Transai Council leaders Mokri and Usef honor is a fake, but is intelligent regardless. The real Transai Oracle turns out to be hidden on Lyra, so he can do his job. After taking a trip back to the Galleas, this time on the surface, he discovers the Ansala Oracle hidden there.
Arko, Carluen (the Transai Oracle's custodian) and Lorrean (who helped Sen through Brada Coe) explain that this planet was never civilized. The crew set up an automated terraforming network on the planet. In orbit around the planet was the space station with a supervising watch crew and a colony ship with thousands of humans in suspended animation. The Oracles were formerly the central coordination units for the system, while the Companions as planetary engines for processing nitrogen. However, the watch crew made factions, for those who were dedicated to the terraforming and those who wanted to leave the planet mostly untouched. The "hands-off" group – Ansala – carried out a desperate plan despite being outnumbered. They were able to lock one of the Oracles out of the network and commandeer it for their own ends, then they tried to get to the other and lock that out too and reprogram it to sabotage the program. The hands-on group caught the other before doing so and sent down armed shuttles of their own to secure both installations. A fight broke out that eventually downed the Colony ship, resulting in the creation of Lyra. Missiles were shot at the rebel shuttles that created the Galleas Wrecks. All this resulted in the crippling of the terraforming network, and everyone on the planet had to live with the knowledge of what they did. Fortunately, the Oracles saw the desperate situation, and both were in contact with each other, despite being locked in manual override, and mind-wiped the population, giving them a false history of a glorious past to live with instead of being stranded far from home. Finally, the Oracles took over the mind-scanning and made sure that nothing of the real truth was revealed. Sen and Chemay were tasked with keeping the Transai from securing their oracle, and if not, destroy the station altogether.
It turns out that Talen was the one who removed Sen's memories because he didn't know that the Oracles found ways to work together despite restrictions, and worried that Sen would be scanned. Talen makes no mention of this, saying, "I'm only a Companion, Sen; Luckier than the rest, here to assist my human friends. I do not know."
When the Ansala gutted the station and left Chemay and Sen behind, they left a reconnection override to use the terraform network for their own purposes. Sen rides a shuttle prepared by the Oracle back to the station to rescue Chemay and turn on the Override system. At that moment, Carluen and Lorrean will manually reset their respective Oracles while Arko will lower the flickering environment protection force-field which is designed to prevent all external command signals from reaching the planet. Using the Numbers of Power Arko and the Oracles talk about, A strange recurring symbol of a broad circle and a semi-circular strip with fifteen dots (which is really an upside-down version of the override system control panel), and the Base 12 numbering system of the Transai, Sen manages to start the override and send a laser signal to the planet. Both tribes unite at the valley's beach with Talen happy as a lark on the planet with Sen and Chemay, The oracles ominously announce that all fighting has ended and there is only one tribe, the "Transala", and will receive instructions from those of them who serve the inhabitants. However, this results in the space station's total destruction as a pyrotechnic meteor shower, but Sen explains that they no longer need it, as their home is now Saarpedon.