Science saves the world
Taking its inspiration from the likes of adventures such as Myst, this little known title is a largely successful one which combines superb visuals with enthralling puzzling to great effect. The narrative around which the game is based is an intriguing one, and tells how a mysterious meteorite has fallen to Earth and sent it plunging into the depths of a permanent winter. It thus falls to the player to step in to save the day but in an interesting twist, the puzzles on display here largely take a scientific view and require manipulation of heat, acoustics, physics and other such things in order to complete successfully. The game plays out in similar fashion to Myst or The 7th Guest, with the player exploring a series of richly detailed environments as the story unfolds, with each location offering up a new and challenging set of puzzles. Although these are science-based, this is no stuffy school lesson and instead the serious aspects are wrapped up in a fun and inventive shell which never feels like the player is being preached to or that a serious lesson is being imparted. Instead, the game treats the player with intelligence and charges them with actually using their brain in order to progress and it testament to the game's quality that it manages to entertain on such a high level. The visuals are equally impressive with plenty of beautiful and richly detailed environments to explore and which are backed up by some nicely atmospheric audio. If you like your puzzlers slow-paced but enthralling and mentally stimulating, then this is one which is well worth seeking out.
