Art of Murder - The Secret Files
Art of Murder - The Secret Files
Game
Game2016
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Developer Frogwares
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 2003 point-and-click adventure game developed by Ukrainian studio Frogwares and published by Micro Application. It was distributed in the United States by Viva Media. The game is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne and follows photojournalist Ariane as the player character. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
69 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 9, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
34
Rotten
12 positive · 23 negative
95% range 21–51%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 12 | 23 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 5 | 2 | 25 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Negative
14 of 39 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
35% recommend · 13 yes, 24 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 37 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (39 of 82 positive).
Players are divided on this point-and-click adventure, with many citing bugs and missing content. [1][2][3] Some praise the story and atmosphere, calling it an enjoyable retro experience. [4][5][6] Others find the gameplay frustrating due to poor controls and cryptic puzzles. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
This was an absolute joy, an unexpected gem in the rough. Certainly has a Longest Journey vibe and the story was interesting enough to stick it through, with some tricky minigame puzzles. The only issues worth mentioning are 4 hotspots dont highlight, 1 audio puzzle isn't in the game despite the dialogue saying you have to do it. no log on what your tasks are, but thats minor since you can ask NPCs questions again …
- [6]
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic point-and-click adventure developed and published by Frogwares that draws inspiration from Jules Verne’s iconic novel while crafting its own original narrative set in a fantastical subterranean world. Originally released in the early 2000s and later brought to modern platforms, the game follows Ariane, a determined photojournalist who finds herself trapped beneath the …
- [1]
This is a new version of the game and it's actually worse than the one I used to play as a child. Puzzles have been removed, pathfinding is buggier than I remember it to be and you can't aqcuire a specific item at the beginning of the game. It's definitely not worth buying, even for nostalgia's sake.
- [13]
This point n' click is atrocious in every way possible, with its captivating storyline being the only thing preventing this game from being a total waste of your time. And even then it'll only be of some value to the most hardcore point n' click lovers. Whatever game design flaw one could imagine, this game has it. There's so many I've lost count: unskippable snail-speed terrain traversal which wastes your time, …
- [9]
You will quickly realise it is impossible to complete without cheating and looking at the guide. Random combinations of clicking items together and onto parts of the screen will yield various results. The story seems pretty good but mindless clicking and waiting forever for her to run around to get to places will make you give up with an hour. I guarantee it.
Summarised from 34 of the 71 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Journey to the Center of the Earth talk about engaging story and atmosphere; those who didn't talk about missing puzzles and cut content. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Jeux Video felt the game was "fun and original" and that it gave the player an opportunity to experience the "dreamlike underground world" described in Jules Verne's novel. IGN described it as a "decent title that keeps you gaming for cheap" but criticized its "clunky interface and unforgiving puzzles". GameSpy praised its puzzles and story and disliked the interface.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 69 · most liked firstThis is a new version of the game and it's actually worse than the one I used to play as a child. Puzzles have been removed, pathfinding is buggier than I remember it to be and you can't aqcuire a specific item at the beginning of the game. It's definitely not worth buying, even for nostalgia's sake.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New at the Video Game Soda Machine Project: I've just cataloged a Coke machine in Journey to the Center of the Earth, a text adventure from 1978! That makes it the earliest confirmed soda machine in a video game, a full five years before 1983's Catch-A-Coke! More on the discovery below...
neutral · AI labelView post →Today at the Video Game Soda Machine Project: Is Crystal Cave the first soda machine ever featured in a video game? Sources suggest the text adventure was released sometime between 1977 and 1980, potentially predating 1978's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Read more at the site...
neutral · AI labelView post →This game promised to be good, but did not follow through and therefore couldn't progress, things had been altered and left out. Like no puzzle to open cave door and no reference to Pills and the Horn so it wouldn't go any further. I only paid very small amount but it was a waste of time, I am sure the original should be better
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Happy WedNESday! Let's play one of the more unique, genre-bending games on the system: WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth! twitch.tv/auroralvisage youtube.com/auroralvisage
neutral · AI labelView post →I just finished the game and can easily say that this game is truly awful and is easily the stupidest game I have ever played (and I’ve been playing PC games since 1988). Why then did I even bother to finish? Very simple. I played several of the Frogwares studio Sherlock Holmes games some years ago and quite enjoyed them. And in anticipation of replaying all of the Holmes games I decided to play all the PC games made by Frogwares in order, I already played "Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrible documentation. No controls, no tutorial. I had to google for a walkthrough to even figure out how to open the inventory bar. Not Frogwares best work, but at this point into the game, I am enjoying it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Omygosh, I actually finished Journey to the Center of the Earth! I hate that freakin' game, but I actually finished it!
negative · AI labelView post →It's outdated and bugged.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly love talking to compulsive liars. Me: "I'm playing Journey to the Center of the Earth DOS" Guy: "I forgot that exists" Me: "Oh really?" Guy: "I beat it once" BS detector through the ROOF. Literally NOBODY will claim to beat that game without complaining about EVERYTHING.
negative · AI labelView post →Want to change up your omelet game? Try bauernfrühstück, a traditional German potato omelet! This recipe inspired by JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH includes diced ham and a sprinkling of fresh green onion: i.mtr.cool/ijfrgprytp 🍽️
neutral · AI labelView post →Am I an idiot for only just realizing Odyssey and Bananza are referencing Jules Verne books? "Around the World in 80 days" and now "Journey to the Center of the Earth" obviously their next game is about Wario's undersea adventures
neutral · AI labelView post →Also, if you enjoy drilling machines, purple caves, secret underground cities, bikinis and dinosaurs, why not check out underappreciated NES game WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth?
positive · AI labelView post →Morning coffee game was Journey to the Center of the Earth by Alberto Milan. Nice route building Flip and Write with some fun push your luck and survival elements.
positive · AI labelView post →Rating: 4/10 Pixel hunting horrible controls mediocre story mediocre voice acting except for main character.... she is good. with alot of fine tuning and tweaks... maybe a little better voice actors.... this could have been a 7/10 game I can not recommend this game for anyone else than point n click super freaks. I finished this game using a walkthrough guide for more than 50% of the time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →/6 When you have access to in-game assets it's really up to your imagination. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a favourite, so I recreated it in-game 😊. I don't think we will have this type of ability in player housing, but one day, you just never know! Thank you for being patient with my spam!
positive · AI labelView post →one of the most tedious, user-hostile, cryptic games I've ever played. a walking simulator where the character doesn't understand how to walk. IS THAT A TRICERATOPS?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This point n' click is atrocious in every way possible, with its captivating storyline being the only thing preventing this game from being a total waste of your time. And even then it'll only be of some value to the most hardcore point n' click lovers. Whatever game design flaw one could imagine, this game has it. There's so many I've lost count: unskippable snail-speed terrain traversal which wastes your time, non-sensical puzzles, pathetic graphical glitches, counter-intuitive and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For those keeping track of these things (i.e., me), the current contenders for the first video game to ever feature a soda machine are: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1978, confirmed) Crystal Cave (1977-1980?) Catch-a-Coke (1983, first graphical soda machine)
neutral · AI labelView post →Journey to the Center of the Earth is an epic adventure game, in which a journalist, after some unfortunate events, fall into the center of the world. The main objective of this game is to try to get back to the surface, and consequently, publishing this amazing adventure. However, what she did not expect is that she will be used in a conspiracy of some people that wants to make war with the surface. With a point-and-click system and gorgeous locations, this game has a nice plot and some good…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game. Frogwares made one of the better adventure series of all time: Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, they must have used all their money paying off the Doyle family because this game leaves a lot to be desired. First of all our main character is drawn like she's got a stick lodged firmly up her arse. She can run but only very very slowly. Her running is almost insultingly slow. There's a lot of ground to cover in this game and you need to be able to move faster than…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No clues, missing puzzles, and the character finally got stuck in a place behind a column from where it was impossible to move on. Very frustrating gameplay with a lot of backtracking and outdated mechanics.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, I'm just gonna run Journey to the Center of the Earth DOS allowing cycle speed changes during the run. We normally run the game at 2500 cycles/ms, but for the volcano escape at the end, if you want to match the Amiga speed, you have to lower it to about 200 cycles...
neutral · AI labelView post →unfinished game. Buggy and the textures are wrong. Also, the last puzzle of the game is unfinishable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is exactly up my alley, except early in the game, you must pick up a purplish-looking item (seals). It cannot be done, as one walk through says, on a downloaded game. Evidently this is just that, the downloaded game. It stops progress entirely. You can't play the game! This was my first thought. And it was totally logical. However, it appears someone knew this was the case and you do not need to obtain these seals. Simply ignore them and continue playing. It's actually a rather good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Getting ready for my Journey to the Center of the Earth speedrun in 50ish minutes over at @bigbadgameathon.bsky.social! Can I actually finish a single run this marathon?! www.twitch.tv/bigbadgameat...
neutral · AI labelView post →Anyway, Journey to the Center of the Earth is a fun find for the Video Game Soda Machine Project. It's not every day that you find a new "first ever" soda machine, much less beat the old record by a full five years!
positive · AI labelView post →Hello, decade-old review of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Ouch, this was harsh! I have no memory of watching this film, so no idea if it merited a response this scathing. Sentiments could probably be applicable to some other stuff out there now.
neutral · AI labelView post →We beat Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth for NES last night! What an interesting game with varied gameplay styles. A very amibitious game that is "almost good". Big thanks to stalwartturtle for the raid and everyone who hung out for this playthrough!
neutral · AI labelView post →This will be fun! 📖🦋🪐📚💙📚 V.I.P.E.R. On Basilisk Station Journey to the Center of the Earth The Sword of Attila Ender's Game Chindi Honour Guard
neutral · AI labelView post →This was an absolute joy, an unexpected gem in the rough. Certainly has a Longest Journey vibe and the story was interesting enough to stick it through, with some tricky minigame puzzles. The only issues worth mentioning are 4 hotspots dont highlight, 1 audio puzzle isn't in the game despite the dialogue saying you have to do it. no log on what your tasks are, but thats minor since you can ask NPCs questions again if needed. The issues aside the game is fantastic retro feeling…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No clues, missing puzzles, and the character finally got stuck in a place behind a column from where it was impossible to move on. Very frustrating gameplay with a lot of backtracking and outdated mechanics.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game follows the archaic point and click adventure formula of video games and is certainly past its time. The story and progression are not clear in the slightest and I have encountered many bugs while playing this game. Unless this game is free, steer clear of this title.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →✨LIVE NYEOW✨ Journey to the Center of the Earth with my Floppy Disk Son 💾 THIS GAME BETTER STICK THE LANDING BECAUSE IT'S BEEN A TRIP! 💥 🔴 twitch.tv/boisyn 🔴
neutral · AI labelView post →Suddenly, that game becomes a licensed video game based on that weird adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth that's actually a sequel to MST3K classic Alien from LA.
neutral · AI labelView post →Oh, I forgot to mention the not good movies that I watched over and over again on VHS in my childhood. Number one would be the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth where James Mason plays a Scotsman and doesn't even bother with an accent and Pat Boone also plays a Scotsman but gives up on the accent after about 10 minutes. The whole plot is moronic and the effects are terrible and I love every single minute of it. The only true compliment I can give it is that Bernard Herrmann's…
neutral · AI labelView post →Moving from one place/scene to another was, oftentimes, rather hard to do because of the pixel hunting and the cursor not always changing to indicate when you can exit a scene or nor. I actually even missed 2 scenes altogether due to this. There is also the ridiculous amount of back and forth walking from one scene to another in the game as well, with some being just scenery with nothing to really interact with (parts of the mushroom forest and the bridges for example). This is fine to expand…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Total garbage !!! Tried playing this a while ago and encountered many bugs so gave up. Just tried to replay it to see if now fixed, can't even get it to start properly. As there are no achievements there's no incentive to waste time trying to get it to work. In the bin it goes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You will quickly realise it is impossible to complete without cheating and looking at the guide. Random combinations of clicking items together and onto parts of the screen will yield various results. The story seems pretty good but mindless clicking and waiting forever for her to run around to get to places will make you give up with an hour. I guarantee it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately I had trouble from the beginning in navigation. There was no logical sequence of events because of the navigation issues and the way they use the laptop. I found that many puzzles are not included in the "download" version. Some characters are not appearing at all. Some areas end up closed. As a result, |I couldn't even get 1/5 of the game done.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful! The graphics are exceptional, although the characters' body movements are rather choppy, however when this game was released originally, in 2003, the stick man like movements were fine, as the visual graphics were so amazing at that time for this game that one might have been in a state of rapture, if you will. The game play is to this day exciting, thrilling, and makes one want to never stop playing it; or for some, that the story will never come to an end. I was this enthralled…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is broken. Too old... Devs modified it and deleted first puzzle for some reason? You have to follow the guide otherwise you go through the door and get softlocked from doing things in a wrong order. Mouse can't click on border of your screen therefore you can't go further than the city gates. Devs probably don't have the files to repair this old clunky game so don't even try later. You'd better try finding a working CD, a working 2000's computer and a slick CRT screen. Would probably not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of Frogwares' earliest games, this is an interesting, if flawed, game. Loosely based on Jules Verne's novel of the same name, this game allows a more modern take on the lands beneath the surface of the Earth.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth is a refreshingly entertaining #NES game that has several gameplay modes and a detailed storyline with cut scenes as you adventure along. The graphics are top notch for this console and the controls are great as well. Go play this game now if you can! 9/10
positive · AI labelView post →Little Orpheus Dec. 18th Kind of a stretch calling this a platformer. This is more of a walking sim but you move right. The DLC had more involved platforming and puzzles, even a proper boss fight! But otherwise it was a cute USSR-retelling of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Decent enough.
neutral · AI labelView post →Generally, the game is fun and has nice visual scenes. It works fine on Windows 11. But I can't recommend it as many hotspots for interacting with objects or changing scene are very hard to spot and hit, this makes the game very frustrating.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game doesn't work. Minimize in the tray everytime I launch it and stays there. Campatibility mode dosn't help. Greedy Steam doesn't want to return my money. 1 Jules Verne out of 10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →while i was mostly looking for old point and click games, i don't think this one is very good, controlling the character is just slow and much of the ineractable are so small that you do need to do a full sweep each time you pass an area if you do miss an item you might have to run across the world to get it, i managed to miss the one sand spot on the beach, and there is another item which would require and even longer trip some of the pathways are simply not visible due to the specific…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just watched a neat video on "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" for Commodore 64 and routing it for a speedrun. Never heard of the game but it seems pretty neat, and a bit ahead of it's time in some ways, metroidvania-ish enough for me. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8h...
neutral · AI labelView post →Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic point-and-click adventure developed and published by Frogwares that draws inspiration from Jules Verne’s iconic novel while crafting its own original narrative set in a fantastical subterranean world. Originally released in the early 2000s and later brought to modern platforms, the game follows Ariane, a determined photojournalist who finds herself trapped beneath the Earth’s surface after a sudden accident near a volcanic site. What begins as a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Today's video game for the Nintendo DS is Journey to the Center of the Earth, developed by Human Soft and published by THQ! It was released on June 30, 2008. #DS #Nintendo #Gaming
neutral · AI labelView post →A decent classic point & click adventure game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes! If you're going to make a retro-style game, why not make a spiritual successor to Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Magic of Scheherazade, or Fire Hawk: Thexder the Second Contact. Live a little!
neutral · AI labelView post →Title Screen Genres: Shooter, Platform, Action Summary: Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth is a game featuring multiple sequences. The player controls the VZR vehicle, and occasionally Captain Moby when she ventures out on foot in vertically and horizontally scrolling sequences as well as a…
neutral · AI labelView post →This current Steam version of the game is not the original version, it’s a cut version. The developers cut content, riddles out of the game, but they were not thorough enough. When they cut a riddle from the game, they did not always tie up all loose ends. This way it could happen that one character gave me instructions on how to solve the next riddle (the developers forgot to delete this info from the character’s dialogue) and when I got to that point, I started trying to solve the riddle by…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Has there ever been a Journey to the Center of The Earth RPG video game?
neutral · AI labelView post →All the books I read or reread in 2025. The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Disrupting The Game by Reggie Fils-Aime. A Movie Making Nerd by James Rolfe. A Journey To The Center of The Earth by Jules Verne.
neutral · AI labelView post →A pretty good adventure based on the novel of the same name.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Journey To The Center Of The Earth game (1989 Rainbow Arts) is a strange one. A basic strategy game overlaid on a literary narrative and very unlike the arcade and movie conversions topping the charts at the time. weirdly reminds me of a BBC educational game or something.
neutral · AI labelView post →Add Moby from "WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth". She was one of my early favorite main characters in a game to play.
neutral · AI labelView post →
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