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One of the last great point & click adventures serves as a cumulative summary of every lesson learned from prior successes by Sierra and LucasArts, without breaking any molds, but with a bigger budget and stronger production values than anything before it. The story, of which many have observed parallels to The Da Vinci Code (some even accuse Dan Brown of plagiarism), sees American tourist George Stobbart mixed up in a murder investigation in Paris, which soon spans several countries in western Europe and the middle-east, and becomes linked to centuries-old legends, conspiracies, and secret societies. SVGA artwork and animation, hand-drawn by accomplished comic book and animation studios, are top-notch, with every location filled with fine, painterly detail and polish, and the orchestrated score completes a lush, cinematic flair. Everything else is simply competent if formulaic adventure design; the plot is interesting and well paced despite some cliches, interactive dialog is engaging and reasonably well acted, investigative work is rewarding and sensible, inventory-based puzzles are logical if a tad easy, and characters are well written, though Stobbart is a bit wooden and certainly no Gabriel Knight or Guybrush Threepwood.
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| Avoid the re-released "Director's Cut," as its added content is unwelcome; an unnecessary prologue ruins the impact of the story's opening chapter, some segments are needlessly dumbed-down, and the new segments are plagued with cheap, Flash-like animation and vapid iOS-style puzzles, like solving a sliding tile puzzle to enter a locked catacomb. Fortunately, the GOG release comes with the original edition as a bonus download, which you should absolutely play instead.
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