Gamers the world over would thrill to play a soup-to-nuts remake of X-COM, updated with modern tech but otherwise essentially the same. In trying to mimic X-COM but also leverage original ideas, Altar's UFO series has succeeded only in highlighting its shortcomings - shortcomings particularly egregious in this disappointing installment.

Overall, Heretic Kingdoms is fun, fun, fun and destined to be a sleeper hit. The few niggles never really affected my enjoyment of the game. With its engaging story and completely different skill system, it's definitely worth your while to pick it up and play.

Atmosphere. Jonathan Boakes is a master at creating atmosphere. With lovely yet creepy visual settings, a story with secrets and ghosts, spine-tingling ambient sounds, The Lost Crown presents a tale sure to attract and basically please most adventure game players. But is a spooky atmosphere enough?

I always appreciate it when a game treats its players as if they were intelligent adults, and Post Mortem does that in spades.

For the moment, Nosferatu is a terrific idea, beautifully realized, that is a just a patch or two away from greatness.

Trace Memory is a cracker-jack adventure game developed and beautifully suited for the DS system. It's not at the level and complexity of the best adventure titles for the PC, but it's not reasonable to expect that from a handheld title. What it does bring to the table is an engaging, wonderfully done and integrated story with facilitating puzzles.

Though it pains me to do it, the best rating I can give this, the 14th entry in the Nancy Drew series, is "average." It's a good-looking game with some enjoyable challenges, but the two stories it tells have nothing to do with each other, effectively denying players one of the basic satisfactions of mystery fiction.

One of the best adventure games of 2004 and likely the best ever to deal with a futuristic, Orwellian theme of corruption and conspiracy. Story, dialogue, character development, settings, artwork, acting, and music are all superb.

The simulation, viewed on its own, is quite compelling. Offered in a different context, its analytical depth would reward hours of study. Unfortunately, Traffic has framed it with all of the taste and restraint of a tatty traveling shooting gallery.

It is so much like Rhem 2 that it feels like the same game in a slightly different setting, which is exactly what it is. The faults I found grating but forgivable in Rhem 2 were magnified by their reappearance in Rhem 3. Some people won't see the lack of story and the ancient game engine as faults. Great news for them. But my time with Rhem 3 was split between interest and frustration.

I would recommend this game for the good story line and the beautiful graphics, but if you want a game that has more adventuring, look for another.

As breathtaking as Clock Tower 3 is to look at, the gameplay is somewhat ... blah. I think it was the sameness of it all—find an item, return said item to its owner, watch incredibly gorgeous cutscene, meet up with mentally unbalanced mini-boss, destroy him/her ... lather, rinse, repeat.

The measure of a puzzle game is not, of course, how pretty it looks or how convincing it sounds. The measure is how well it plays. I am happy to report that Safecracker 2006 plays beautifully. There are some familiar puzzles, some unfamiliar puzzles, and some very clever twists on the whole idea of what constitutes a puzzle.

Initially, the game impresses with attractive settings, decent voice acting and the promise of a thoughtful mystery to be solved. Unfortunately, this becomes bogged down by static scenes, poor character movement control, obscure pixel-hunting and the wearying need to redo conversations.

It's hard to envision a better first adventure game for a preteen person—girl or boy. The story is "safe," interesting, and in a wide-open western setting replete with legends, romance and novel characters.

Despite all my griping, Dark Fall really is an impressive first effort for the one-person design team and is actually better than some recent big-company releases. I'm not sorry I played it but neither am I gaga over it. How's that for decisiveness?

An exciting and diverse experience, easy on the beginner yet providing harder modes for the more experienced player.

So often during the game, I wished for direct control of Lea instead of being saddled with this novel but frequently frustrating secondary approach. Instead of cluttering the monitor with multiple screens, let Lea do it herself!

And Then There Were None is, as the developers hoped, a "loving tribute" to the classic Agatha Christie novel on which it is based. With a sterling script, fascinating characters, superb voice acting, beautifully detailed graphics, and sensibly practical puzzles, it ranks among the best adventure games of the last couple of years.

I will say this: those who love “X-Com” will like this game. Those who love strategy will like this game. But no one will ever love this game.

With an original concept and less cliché-mongering, we could be bearing witness to a rising star. For now, though, it flickers with dim promise on the horizon, catching our eye but not holding us long enough to do much more than raise a finger and point.

But the fact is "X-Com" is twelve years old, and memory has a way of polishing off the burrs and nits that flaw a game, leaving you with only the hard candy shell of perfection. UFO: Aftershock cannot measure up any more than "UFO: Aftermath" did, but it hits a lot closer to the mark.

Seriously scary and atmospheric without being horrifying, more of an elegant Vincent Price scare than an 80s slasher movie. Think Goth Disney, and you've got the right idea.

Still, as I indicated above, Riddle is a nice little game (much less than 10 hours long) but not at a first-tier level. It's too short, too easy, and too lifeless. Like Secrets of Da Vinci (a better game), it emphasizes puzzles over people contact.

A fine game for the adult adventurer who enjoys dark spy novels and also is willing to tolerate a bit of "consolitis" in her/his gaming experience.

Runaway 2 improves on its predecessor in every way. It's bigger, more colorful, even more wacky. Locations and characters are outlandish, as is the storyline. Obscure puzzles and hot spots, as well as occasional repetitiveness, still plague this release. But I would still give The Dream of the Turtle a hearty recommendation, especially if you enjoyed "Runaway 1."

Culpa Innata is one of the finest adventure games of 2007. Although not without flaws (graphics, pathfinding, wordiness), it offers a solid police procedural within an engrossing futuristic setting.

There are some gameplay merits of The New Nightmare—including two distinct and interwoven styles of play, an eerie atmosphere, an interesting underlying narrative, and generally more cerebral than monster-bashing activities (except for the last quarter). These strengths are diluted, unfortunately, by the multiplatform limitations imposed on the PC version by the developer.