This game requires a lot of patience. At the beginning, there were plenty of audio cutscenes where I listened to a ghost (?) talk, while the camera was frozen with me staring at a wall. I also really liked* the time I walked into a hallway and all my controls were frozen for 2 minutes; I eventually realized that this was to make sure I saw a spooky cutscene of all the lights in the hall slowly going out one by one. Far from being scary or atmospheric, this only served to make me annoyed with the game as I wanted to get back to exploring its creepiness without shackles.

*In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

The game isn't actually creepy, though, at least what little I saw of it. In the first area I found a high-tech surveillance camera (with crappy controls) that allowed me to look at a wall that I had already inspected visually. (I found nothing of interest both times. It's a wall.) I found a bathroom with three toilet stalls - the game wouldn't let me examine the first or second stalls, so when I clicked on the third one I wondered what I'd find. I found a toilet. I spent about a minute painstakingly dragging my cursor over the entire screen, looking for the clickable spot that gave me a reason to be there, but there was nothing.

This inconsistency and emptiness extends throughout the introductory sequence. I found a hat on a chair in a hotel room, and was able to click on it. My reward? A close-up view of a hat. Not interactive, not interesting, apparently meaningless. Yet there are many environmental objects that could not be examined even this closely. Did the hat matter? Was I supposed to care? There was no indication I should, yet ... close-up.

So, at first, I spent most of my time pixel hunting to try to figure out what was interactive - and then discovered that even the interactive objects are noninteractive!

My first tangible obstacle was a puzzle box. Getting it open, I found a secret compartment with a note containing a magical rune. I couldn't pick up the note. All I could do was look at it and walk away. Again, I spent a good couple minutes trying to do something with it, moving that beautiful cursor around trying to find a hotspot, but interaction is not allowed in this game.

The next puzzle I found was a simple jigsaw, a torn up note for me to reassemble which contained a clue to deciphering a nearby transposition code. I stepped away for a moment to look at the coded item, then came back to reexamine the note ... and it was torn to pieces again, necessitating that I re-reassemble it. Why?

On the positive side, I liked the voice acting. The performances are good. I did stick with it long enough to get an initial taste of the story as well, and it seems intriguing and well-written.

But that interest is gated behind a cumbersome interface, controls that freeze on you by design, and screen after screen of emptiness and boredom. The best word to describe my brief experience here is plodding. This looks like a 5 hour story that would take 20 hours to complete.

I guess this is for people who enjoy seeing a (hopefully good? Who knows?) story emerge gradually; so gradually that one barely notices anything is happening at all. There's satisfaction in that, I suppose. And maybe I'm being too harsh on a game that's 15 years old. But speaking for myself, I don't see enough value here for my time spent, and certainly nothing worth spending money on in today's game market. Refunded.

This game requires a [b]lot of patience[/b]. At the beginning, there were plenty of audio cutscenes where I listened to a ghost (?) talk, while the camera was frozen with me staring at a wall. I also really liked* the time I walked into a hallway and all my controls were frozen for 2 minutes; I eventually realized that this was to make sure I saw a spooky cutscene of all the lights in the hall slowly going out one by one. Far from being scary or atmospheric, this only served to make me annoyed with the game as I wanted to get back to exploring its creepiness without shackles. *In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. The game isn't actually creepy, though, at least what little I saw of it. In the first area I found a high-tech surveillance camera (with crappy controls) that allowed me to look at a wall that I had already inspected visually. (I found nothing of interest both times. It's a wall.) I found a bathroom with three toilet stalls - the game wouldn't let me examine the first or second stalls, so when I clicked on the third one I wondered what I'd find. I found a toilet. I spent about a minute painstakingly dragging my cursor over the entire screen, looking for the clickable spot that gave me a reason to be there, but there was nothing. This inconsistency and emptiness extends throughout the introductory sequence. I found a hat on a chair in a hotel room, and was able to click on it. My reward? A close-up view of a hat. Not interactive, not interesting, apparently meaningless. Yet there are many environmental objects that could [i]not[/i] be examined even this closely. Did the hat matter? Was I supposed to care? There was no indication I should, yet ... close-up. So, at first, I spent most of my time pixel hunting to try to figure out what was interactive - and then discovered that even the interactive objects are noninteractive! My first tangible obstacle was a puzzle box. Getting it open, I found a secret compartment with a note containing a magical rune. I couldn't pick up the note. All I could do was look at it and walk away. Again, I spent a good couple minutes trying to do something with it, moving that beautiful cursor around trying to find a hotspot, but interaction is not allowed in this game. The next puzzle I found was a simple jigsaw, a torn up note for me to reassemble which contained a clue to deciphering a nearby transposition code. I stepped away for a moment to look at the coded item, then came back to reexamine the note ... and it was torn to pieces again, necessitating that I [b]re[/b]-reassemble it. Why? On the positive side, I liked the voice acting. The performances are good. I did stick with it long enough to get an initial taste of the story as well, and it seems intriguing and well-written. But that interest is gated behind a cumbersome interface, controls that freeze on you by design, and screen after screen of emptiness and boredom. The best word to describe my brief experience here is [b]plodding[/b]. This looks like a 5 hour story that would take 20 hours to complete. I guess this is for people who enjoy seeing a (hopefully good? Who knows?) story emerge gradually; so gradually that one barely notices anything is happening at all. There's satisfaction in that, I suppose. And maybe I'm being too harsh on a game that's 15 years old. But speaking for myself, I don't see enough value here for my time spent, and certainly nothing worth spending money on in today's game market. Refunded.