In the end, we all play games because of the entertainment factor. Whether or not you’ll like this game depends on how important difficulty and challenge are to your enjoyment.

Streko Graphics put great care into developing this little graphical gem and I feel that even with the frustrations I had with a few of its puzzles and the occasional cursor issue, I found Aura to be a thoroughly entertaining escape from the day to day humdrum of work and classes.

I don’t want to oversell this low-budget PS2 action/adventure. However, it does have a lot going for it: putting the player in a dangerous yet unusually real situation, meaningful story choices, and lots of replay value. You might be surprised how much you end up enjoying Raw Danger.

Even if the game is a bit frustrating due to the controls, it is still a great homage to Hans Christian Andersen.

You won’t find horror that creeps under your skin here, like you would in "Fatal Frame 2" or "Kuon" for example, but you will find a game with great and spooky atmosphere and a disturbing story.

The puzzles are a monotonous nightmare accompanied by hordes of zombies that make your finger numb by the repeated clicking on the left mouse button to kill them. Almost 85% of the puzzles involve finding a key to unlock a door, chest, or anything that could be locked.

In the final analysis though, Mata Hari the game is something that Mata Hari the person never was: boring and pedestrian.

It is truly a work of Art which stimulates the senses, evokes your emotions and leaves you thinking. But it has that one fatal flaw which mars the whole experience.

City Interaction’s talent – as well as an appreciation for the genre – is evident in the graphics, in the structure of the game and in the attention paid to puzzle construction, but it is lacking in the attention to small details that most often separate the ‘must play’ adventure titles from those soon to be languishing in the bargain bin.

It's just seems to be a misguided attempt, punctuated by moments of hilarity. Cut the arcade games in half, add a few more musical numbers and a few real puzzles and LCL:MCL would shine.

One big graphical and phonetic experience. If you like to solve logic-based puzzles and didn’t play hooky during your math lessons then this game really is a must. But be aware; besides your own calculation skills, this game requires quite some capacity from your computer and video card as well.

A great family game that gets everyone involved.

The interface is intuitive and smooth. The graphics, sound effects and music generally meet expectations. However, the game suffers greatly from the pixel hunting and the cumbersome inventory system.

The bonus crap isn’t worth it, unless you want to see a character through stages of weight loss or areas with Martha Stewart remodeling before they were added into the game.

So we have a very atmospheric game with good storyline and puzzles. And it is retailing for only US$10. If you don't mind the dark story elements, then this game deserves a place on your shelf.

No singing, no punch lines, no double entendres. Just rats, dark alleys, murderous thugs, and mysterious religious cults. Thank goodness Road to India is a short game or I may have sacrificed myself to an eight-armed deity just for the comedic relief.

Other than the “save” issue, I found this to be a very professionally produced and enjoyable game. If you enjoy puzzles, this game is for you, and given the relatively low MSRP, there’s a lot of bang for the buck.

ER does manage to capture the spirit of the TV show. If you are looking for a casual sim game or if you are a fan of the show, consider giving ER a chance. There is plenty of material here to interest you.

Despite its rough spots, GitS is a solid first outing for Cardboard Box Entertainment. By turns, it's quirky, funny, imaginative, macabre, silly (in a good way) and creepy, with a great showdown at the end. I mean, who could ask for anything more?

If you have read the book, you should still enjoy the game and appreciate both the faithfulness to its source material and the liberties taken with the material. If the game is your first exposure to MOTOE, then it is most likely inevitable that you will then want to read the book.

An occasionally amusing game that can at times be involving.

This is one piece of poultry that deserves a visit from the Colonel.

While it is great to see games like this made available to such a mass audience on the Wii, the game’s brevity combined with its limited participation make it a must play only for hardcore fans of the television series.

An okay game, marred mainly by its repetitiveness.

If the few minor annoyances were to be corrected - the 3D clipping, the languid music, the pixel hunting - then Watchmaker could possibly develop a devoted following especially in the wake of foreign upstarts like "The Longest Journey."

The game's story is not uninteresting, although it is perhaps a little too complex and it's not easy to keep track of who's who, especially at the beginning.

But if what you’re after is a good twisted mystery and a game that will creep you out, in deeper ways and beyond “boo, I jumped out of the closet”, then you should consider checking-out RoR.

Be a good parent and plop them down with a paperback version of The Hobbit and allow Middle-Earth to exist in their imagination rather than as a lesser version of "Super Mario World."

I walked away with a lacking plot, some silly graphics, and a less than satisfying gaming experience. While this game is not a turkey and definitely worth a look, The Far Realm proves that it is not all that far away from its original.

Its downsides lie on elements key to an adventure game and cannot be overlooked. Overall though, even though the style will not be everyone’s cup of tea, Frogwares has managed to prove that they can take the genre to new levels and build it around new technology without a need to hybridize it with other genres, and in my book that is highly commendable.

Although the engine and interface are quite antiquated and there’s no innovation here; for you Myst and Riven fans, I’d like to stress the positives. There are unbelievable opportunities for exploration. The game is truly gigantic. The many puzzles are varied and very challenging.

Those who love Evil Dead will enjoy the game and the one-liners. The ending alone is worth playing through the game for.

The gameplay is very repetitive and tedious as players will have to work with the manual and take notes about the sins apparitions are guilty of, the color they can be redeemed by and what their artifacts are. Designers should have thought of ways to make the game more intuitive and playable without consulting the manual every ten seconds.

The worst news is that, by the end of the game, the creators of Jack the Ripper betray their game’s best feature: its story. The game’s conclusion is a utter boondoggle, meaning all of the information you’ve so painstakingly gathered means absolutely nothing.

The bottom line is that this game started out incredibly strong with a lot of potential, then (technical issues aside) started to fizzle out about midway through.

It’s creepy, scary, dark, disturbing, gory and it oozes of atmosphere!... Unfortunately it lacks in gameplay. Everything is too simple, too easy.

Overall, I found Curse of the Ancient Temple to be somewhat easy, but novice or younger gamers should find it challenging.

Cards of Destiny, if you can ignore what the characters are yammering on about, provides a decent ten to fifteen hours of adventuring, and the usual dosage of nice eye candy, but it's a step backwards from City's last AG effort, Tree of Life.

The disappointment of the year for the adventure community. All of the fuss and hype was for nothing which is actually a shame, since its wonderful world was the perfectly fertile ground to create a fantastic exotic adventure, but unfortunately the opportunity was lost.

By game’s end, it almost seems as though the developers have gotten sick of the entire game and just want to get it over with.

AOPCT is missing something. Even on easy mode it is far too lethal preventing you from getting into the game without many failures and game restarts and reboots.

Imagine, a game that played like Gabriel Knight, but set in the world of "The X-Files."

The biggest mysteries to be solved in this game, however, are the technical problems. As great as it is to have beautiful graphics and realistic noises and other great miracles of technology, they are taxing on computers, and mine isn’t even three years old.

The developers put a lot of effort into the player experience and took a few risks trying to break the mold along the way.

The adventure chapters have a wonderfully classic feeling to them, and the action chapters are challenging and fun.

Still, it is fun exploring the island and piecing together the story, I just wish I had been ‘lost’ a little longer.

Those who love Evil Dead will enjoy the game and the one-liners. The ending alone is worth playing through the game for.

It is living proof (among many others) that in order to successfully top a sequel (or, in this case, an otherwise successful sequel), you have to work twice as hard. And that is something that the developers simply failed to do.

A game that has major highs – the plot, the graphics, the soundtrack - and major lows – the arcade sequences, twisty jungle mazes, lame dialogue and timed events.

Really, this is a cleverly designed and entertaining game.

Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion is better than other games of this ilk, but considering the talent involved it should be much better.

This is a classic adventure game. If you enjoy adventure games, then you will enjoy this one. The fact that it was created by a single person is just amazing.

There’s nothing really intellectually stimulating, the 2D graphic novel-style graphics leave things to be desired, and the concept tires quickly.

So what we have is a professionally made game with all the right pieces in all the right places, but with enough imperfection to prevent an “A” rating.

The game has little merit, as either an adventure or a story. The premise is ludicrous, the graphics are mostly pedestrian, the voice-overs distinctly amateurish, the puzzles unimaginative, and the ending quite unsatisfying.

Ultimately frustrating.

While The ABC Murders does not possess the depth of plot or crisp dialogue of the full-length Christie mysteries published by The Adventure Company (Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, And Then There Were None), it is an impressive opening salvo in what one hopes will be an ongoing series of games on the DS.

Despite some minor issues here and there, this is a MUST have for any adventure lovers.

The journey, however, can be fun if the meticulous style of information parsing doesn’t turn you off.

I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome which was a very unconventional ending – this one will leave you with your jaw dropped and mentally revising the interwoven parts of the story for a while.

I should also mention that Adam's Venture is intended to be the first in a series of games. Hopefully, the other characters will get more to do in future games.

For all its faults, Again is an innovative adventure game worth playing and a sequel – which is hinted at – would be more than welcome.

My recommendation is that you don't purchase this game unless you are bald, for you are sure to pull out all of your hair in frustration.

This game has replay value because of the alternate endings. Let’s hope I have an alternate ending of being able to play this game all the way through without frustration.

Though not long, I thought the game was of a satisfying length. The same is true of the difficulty. Not hard, but no walk in the park either.

Art of Murder gives it a decent try but doesn’t quite rise to the challenge. Poor Agent Bonnet has beauty but not brains.

I did enjoy playing MM. Beautiful graphics and music, pretty good puzzles, along with one of the best puzzles ever created, interaction with almost everything and a good story with unexpected twists make up for the poor dialogs and the bad voiceovers.

The game reminded me of a graphic animated adventure, had arena-style, turn-based combat, and an interesting exploration system.

If you're of a mind to revisit this singular game, having it in handheld form can be a fun way of re-experiencing it on the go. If you're all Myst-ed out, this port probably won't change your attitude.

Although I found the game enjoyable and challenging (you'll have a jigsaw puzzle to solve -arghhhhhhh), the game does not present much in the innovation department, and the storyline is a little weak. But, hey, this is the real deal - a good solid adventure yarn, and I recommend it.

Gameplay is linear, but refreshing in its use of locales and inventory. It is on the easy side so there is little frustration in playing.

So, this is a pretty ordinary game that has potential in some areas.

An RTS with a couple of interesting variations. It is written in a religious setting, but is not preachy nor does it condone violence against the heathens. If anything, it discourages violence and intolerance. The game was just too complicated for me to enjoy. But, to be fair, I am an Old Fart and the game was written for the young, gamers crowd.

Virtually unplayable.

I found this game to be a little on the slow side, as well as frustrating from time to time…hey, let’s face it…when you have been on the path for a while and fifty clicks later…ahhh look…more path! It can get a little tedious.

The more I played the game, the more I just sat there staring at my computer screen, shaking my head sadly.

Goodnight Larry. Sleep tight and may we never see your scrawny ass again.

Simply put, this really isn’t an adventure game. You don’t have to think, you don’t have to work, you don’t ever have to put pen to paper. The paths are literally laid out for you with neon signs, and you just have to follow them.

This is a solid adventure game with some other elements from the RPG genre, which will be embraced by all but the most traditional adventurer.

This is a perfect game for a Halloween scare or for taking care of your mother-in-law when your father-in-law is away on business! Despite some flaws, this independent game deserves an A.

It took much more effort to accomplish even simple tasks than was necessary. Effort that we would rather have used for strategizing.

Probably the most important aspect of this game is the theme. Because there is a quite unexpected reveal at the end of the game I will not reveal the theme. All I will say is that this game will challenge you and some people might not like it for this reason.

The line between casual and adventure game has been mightily blurred, if not almost entirely erased, and there’s no going back.

Overall, this is a pleasant and mostly simple game that is nevertheless entertaining and clever. The hunt-and-find part does get repetitive, as it is wont to do, but the mini-games and the storyline keep things interesting.

Great care has been taken to provide both a back-story and depth to the character. The music is appropriately eerie and the voice-actors excellent. The animated flashbacks and present-day scenes in the game are the final link that elevate TCM above casual status.

MumboJumbo Games has delivered another winning Samantha Swift adventure. If you are a fan of casual games and have not tried this series, I highly recommend starting now.

As hard as this game tries to break out of the mold of similar titles, it still falls into a repetitive cycle that eventually makes it boring. It’s simply not challenging enough to keep you captivated, and after hunting for the same items in the same environment for the third time, you’ll start longing for something more.

An innocuous game with each case taking from 1- 2 hours to complete. It stays true to the spirit of the show and the price is a steal at $9.99.

I really didn't like this game. This is no Tex Murphy game. I didn't think things gelled and with the ordinary acting and poorly-integrated puzzles, I found it confusing and boring to play.

I think the fact that the game still remained an enjoyable experience despite some frustrating shortcomings is a testament to how much talent the developers have and just how great they could be if they can tighten things up.

While Nancy Drew: The Model Mysteries might be fine for younger gamers, it is a shame more effort wasn’t made to engage the player’s intellect instead of dumping yet another generic and charmless casual game onto the shelves and at that, one that must leave those unfamiliar with Nancy Drew’s legacy without a clue as to how the heck she has prospered for eighty years.