But meanwhile the adventure game genre is still languishing in relative obscurity, far from its heyday back in the 1980s and early 90s, when classic games like Monkey Island lit up the charts. Personally, I blame Myst.
First impressions are good.
Arcatera has the requisite epic fantasy plot, complete with an evil satanic cult trying to overthrow the rightful Prince of your fair city. It also has all the latest eye candy expected by 21st century gamers, with a mixture of highly detailed real time characters against a pre-rendered background, giving you the best of both worlds. And the game is likely to come on a veritable plethora of CDs, with two hundred seperate locations to explore, and 150 characters to talk to as you investigate the cult and try to put an end to their plotting. So far so good, but what really makes the game stand out from the crowd is that the storyline is refreshingly non-linear, with ten seperate endings possible, only a handful of which are happy. Add to this the possibility of different starting conditions each time you play the game, and a variety of ways to solve many of the puzzles, and it should make for plenty of replay potential.