Windows

MISSING

This is a very curious, intelligent and ambitious game. In these chilly latter days of adventure games, it’s a very encouraging game to come across. I think its format should be used as the basis for a series of adventures. Go buy the game, and together maybe we can make that happen!

On ironista, että Feeniksin häiriintynyt mieli on voinut suunnitella ja toteuttaa näin kiehtovan kokonaisuuden. Istuin Suuren Teoksen parissa kuin naulittuna - ja vilkuilen edelleen olkani yli.

Missing: Since January is part puzzle collection, part adventure game and part hybrid. The game was released last year in the UK under a different title. It was called In Memoriam and it received rave reviews due in part to the refreshing change of pace it boasts in contrast to other recent adventure titles.

In Memoriam pousse le concept du jeu vidéo un peu plus loin. La frontière entre fiction et réalité s’efface presque complètement avec cette enquête passionnante dans un univers glauque et parfois malsain. Je m’interroge tout de même sur l’avenir de tels jeux. Il ne faudrait pas que le net soit envahi de sites relayant de fausses infos dans le seul but de servir notre âme de joueur. Déjà qu’il est délicat de repérer le vrai du faux sur la toile actuelle, je n’ose imaginer ce que cela pourrait donner si de nombreux éditeurs s’engouffraient eux aussi dans cette nouvelle voie de divertissement. (Pour ceux que cela intéresse, In Memoriam est également disponible sur Mac)

Jack Lorski et sa compagne Karen Gijman ont mystérieusement disparu depuis quelques temps, alors qu’ils enquêtaient sur une affaire étrange. Leur kidnappeur présumé, qui se fait appeler le Phénix, adresse une espèce de jeu de piste macabre sur un support CD-Rom à l’agence employeuse du journaliste, SKL Network. Celle-ci, en face de la complexité des énigmes proposées et dans le souci de mettre le maximum de chances de son côté, décide de dupliquer le CD et de le faire parvenir à toute personne de bonne volonté pensant pouvoir, grâce à ses connaissances et sa perspicacité, résoudre tous les pièges tendus et permettre de retrouver le couple vivant. C’est ainsi que le CD-Rom atterrit dans vos mains fébriles et que le jeu commence.

The adventure company is quickly becoming known for its quirky, yet thought provoking puzzle games. Missing is no different from it’s mind boggling predecessors in that respect, aside from presenting a whole new kind of game play. Missing, tells the story of two photo journalist who have turned up…well Missing, ‘a la Blair Witch style. Your job, along with a few other NPCS whom you’ll correspond with via email, is to figure out what happened to them. SKL, the fictional company that has hired you to take on this task, provides you with a CD (your actual game) that has all the pieces of the puzzle that you have to put together. Ah, but the plot thickens. Whilst reviewing the video footage of the missing female journalist you stumble upon what they stumbled upon. A twisted plot to conceal a murder. Elementary, my dear Watson, it is not.

'In Memoriam' gehört zu den innovativsten Spielen, die mir bisher begegnet sind. Das Spiel unterscheidet sich deutlich von allen anderen Adventures und gehört doch irgendwie dem Genre an. Einzeln betrachtet können zwar nicht alle Rätsel überzeugen, das Gesamtbild weiß aber durchaus zu gefallen. Einige Fragen wirft das Spielkonzept aber doch auf. Was passiert, wenn die Webseiten die im Spiel angesteuert werden müssen nicht mehr richtig gewartet werden und deshalb in den Suchmaschinen zurückfallen? Wird man nicht irgendwann ohne es zu wollen schneller auf Komplettlösungen des Spiels stoßen, als auf die richtigen Seiten? Ich hoffe jedenfalls, dass sich Ubisoft noch lange um einen sauberen Support des Spiels kümmert, damit diese Probleme niemals auftreten.

Un jeu avec un concept original, une histoire prenante et le design qui va avec, le tout accessible au grand public. Le "vrai gamer" méprisera ouvertement In Memoriam avant d'y jouer en cachette. Une grande réussite !

After watching a movie like Silence of the Lambs, or infinitely less-classic films like Se7en, I sometimes wonder what it'd be like squaring off against a serial killer. I'm nowhere near qualified, seeing as my low tolerance for *real* gore and less than perfect eyesight will forever bar me from carrying an FBI badge. But there's always a digital alternative to everything in real life, right? Games like Missing: Since January offer would-be investigators a chance to track down a killer.

With all of the advancements in technology today, it’s strange that more of the games we play don’t try to engage us in ways other than the primary software. There have been some forays “outside the box,” with Electronic Art’s defunct Majestic being the most notable. Even though Majestic’s implementation stumbled, other developers have failed to explore the possibilities it opened up - until now. Trying to succeed where Majestic failed, French developer Lexis Numerique brings us the murder mystery, Missing: Since January.

Let me start right out with a caveat here: this game is NOT yet available in North America, and UbiSoft has no plans to market it in the US anytime soon. However, given the large international readership of Adventure Gamers, I'm fortunate to be one of few US-based reviewers blessed with a review copy of In Memoriam.

Für mich war In Memoriam eine mehr als willkommene Abwechslung. Von den schwersten Bugs bin ich verschont geblieben und sogar die Geschicklichkeitsspiele haben mir Spaß gemacht. Ich habe mich auf jeden neuen Bildschirm gefreut und mich gefragt, was da wieder zu erledigen sein wird.

Despite certain problems, viewed as a whole, Missing is still a commendable achievement. It is clear that a great deal of work has gone into creating a unique experience with various distinct elements to make players feel as though they are part of the investigation. The game does feature a good number of creative puzzles. Some of the presentation is quite effective. Some of the video clips, a number of the challenges, and the sound effects all combine to deliver a suspenseful atmosphere. The game is most certainly not without its flaws. The sheer number of mini-games featured can be frustrating, the video clips do not always add much to the story, and players may feel a bit left out of the story. However, unless you find the very idea of using a search engine to solve puzzles repulsive, consider giving Missing a try. It may not be perfect, but it is still an entertaining and unusual experience that can maintain your interest.

Missing, the latest game imported from Europe (there known as “In Memoriam”), introduces a unique way to play an adventure game by combining personal email and internet research with unusual puzzle-based gameplay. Many things about the game work well, but the game has its share of minor flaws.

Die düstere Atmosphäre, E-Mails, die Sie tatsächlich erhalten, und die Internetseiten, die Sie aufsuchen , werden Ihnen einen Schauer über den Rücken jagen. Die Geschichte ist spannend und die Rätsel machen Laune. Der Wiederspielbarkeitswert ist allerdings gleich null. Wer auf Thriller steht, sollte sich dieses Spiel ansehen. Eins müssen Sie sich dabei aber immer vor Augen halten: Es ist nur ein Spiel! Oder doch nicht?

It comes down to this... Missing: Since January is something completely different; it is an original, innovative, interesting and witty game with a bunch of highly intelligent puzzles. The gaming market today is definitely not crowded with titles like this (the only exception that comes to mind is Majestic). However, Missing is also an example of how you can ruin a fantastic idea by throwing in tones of irrational and pointless mini-games and occult mumbo-jumbo. This game has a few flaws, but those flaws manage to affect the fabulous atmosphere of ritual murders and ancient cults and scripts. I still recommend it, but only to people with extreme amounts of patience, and the desire to undergo certain amounts of mental suffering. There it goes: a good game, but recommended for masochists only.

If Missing: Since January weren't chock-full of video clips detailing its story of an occult serial killer, two stalwart investigators, and a decades-old murder, you could probably play the entirety of this Macromedia Flash-style game in your Web browser. At its heart, Missing is composed of a fairly lengthy series of puzzles and minigames--some based on logic and some on manual dexterity--that will help you unravel the mystery of a vanished couple who have been trailing a depraved murderer called the Phoenix. It's a decidedly unusual game, if nothing else.

In Memoriam no pasará a la historia como una aventura imprescindible. No se hablará de ella como inicio de un nuevo planteamiento de las aventuras gráficas porque tiene errores importantes y, sobre todo, porque depende de un servidor en internet que Ubisoft puede tirar en cualquier momento. Sin embargo, sí sirve como ejemplo de aventura diferente que puede estar bien acabada, que puede gustar e incluso hasta mantener el interés hasta el final.

In these risk averse times of mass market videogaming, the best we can generally look forward to in terms of innovation is a new engine or more accurately, more powerful technology. The sort that enables developers to basically show off and up the wow factor with more convincing physics, better AI and prettier graphics. It feels like progress of sorts, and the novelty of seeing our favourite gaming styles dressed up in new clothes is perpetually exciting... but it's a quick fix that hides the sad reality that originality is way down the list of priorities. The truth is, sadly, most popular genres have been lacking in genuinely new ideas for half a decade or more - which is why a game like In Memoriam stands out all the more.

With all the conformity, rigidity and franchise familiarity that's beginning to crowd the modern games market, a touch of originality, of real inspiration, is more than welcome. In Memoriam isn't a perfect game, it's isn't even a great game, but it feels so damn different and so smart that it will surely be remembered long after the latest FIFA iteration or Sims expansion pack has left the shelves. There hasn't been a title this inspired since Uplink.

Een Majestic op kleine schaal. Een origineel concept dat door z'n te sobere uitwerking slechts een kleine groep gamers zal aanspreken.

Zwei Reporter sind verschwunden. Deswegen stöbern Sie im Adventure In Memoriam in Film-Dateien, Fotos, kryptischen Texten und auf Internet-Seiten. Gelegentlich bekommen Sie E-Mails zugespielt, die Ihnen Hinweise geben. Nachteil der für Akte X-Fans durchaus spannenden Mörderhatz: Sie müssen ständig online sein.

"In Memoriam" is like a roller coaster drive. On one hand marvelous ideas, suspense and originality, keeping the gamers interested. On the other hand boredom and frustration in the mini games and bugs, which one cannot push aside. The intended closeness to reality and involvement of the gamers are actually successfully done in large areas and force the gamers to go on, quasi despite all adversities.

For those willing to seek them out, the world wide web is literally swarming with small puzzles or riddles, free for you to solve. Fun to kill time, but for most of us, that's it. Nevertheless, the people over at Ubisoft saw it as an untouched goldmine and combined a lot of these puzzles with a thrilling storyline and thus gave birth to In Memoriam.

When a journalist and his companion disappear while researching a series of gruesome murders, his company comes into possession of a data CD purportedly from their kidnapper. The company sends the CD to you to help decrypt it. And so begins your foray into Missing: Since January, a unique title -- originally called In Memoriam in Europe -- from French developers Lexis Numerique, and published by The Adventure Company.

This is only my second game review, so I’m still naïve enough to have been thrilled when I received the envelope from Worthplaying containing this game. The documentation (what there was of it) was either photocopied or printed out on a two-bit laser printer, and the game discs were built from the release candidate: CD-Rs with the title hastily scrawled on them in Sharpie ink. This just seemed…seedy, like I’d received a bootleg from some anonymous source inside The Adventure Company who wanted to share the game’s greatness with the world early. Unfortunately, that’s almost it for any thrill I was able to get from Missing.

I have agonised somewhat about this review. I have not experienced such highs but also such lows in one game, or anything quite this interesting for a very long time, if at all. It deserves the highest praise for what it has tried to do, as well as a brickbat for some of what it has actually done.

I am a voracious reader. I suck up books like a vacuum cleaner sucks up cat hair. Sure, I've read the classics, but my number one love, fictionally speaking, is serial killer novels. Real-life serial killers are not very interesting to me—mostly they're not the criminal masterminds toying with their prey yet deep down inside yearning to be caught, as are their fictional counterparts—but those fictional counterparts are endlessly fascinating to me. When I heard that In Memoriam featured a serial killer, I had to play it.

DreamCatcher's The Adventure Company has brought In Memoriam to the United States as Missing: Since January, and the good news is that it is a pretty decent game. The bad news is that it isn't for everyone. Missing is billed as an adventure game but the meat of it is puzzle solving and lots of online detective work that won't sit well with gamers that don't want to think too much. That's not a bad thing, and doesn't take anything away from what the game is trying to accomplish (immerse players into a web of intrigue involving a sadistic killer and the head games he likes to play to save the life of two abductees), but it does mean that only a specific niche gamer will want to pick this title up. We'll get into the particulars in a minute, but first the basic rundown of the story: