Missing

The Good
The previous reviewer was quite thorough about the mechanics of how the game worked. I'll offer an alternative view of the game.

The Bad
If you bought this game, you're probably an adventure fan. Like me, the idea of doing research on the net to hunt for two missing persons sounds dramatic and fun. You get emails from fellow hunters. Sounds awesome!

Awesome, until you start playing the game. There's a number of fatal flaws here.

First, as I was playing the game, it was very difficult to suspend disbelief. The puzzles themselves are inane and banal. This Phoenix character must be one heck of a programmer to create such a CD. I just can't wrap my head around an insane kidnapper wanting you to play word jumbles or connect the dots type puzzles.

Second, the entire game smells of Flash. Not that it's a bad thing, but for better or worse, when you see Flash, you know Flash. It gave me the "eerie" feeling that I was playing some Macromedia game on www.flashgames.com.

Third, the puzzles are BORING and POINTLESS. If I really wanted a hand-eye coordination game, I'd play Mario Brothers. I bought this game because it looked like a thinking adventure. Feh. I'd rather buy a book of crossword puzzles. At least with a nice book I can go outside and enjoy the sun.

Sooner or later, there will be a problem playing this game. If the company ever decides to drop support for this game, you can forget about playing it ever again.

I found myself completely not caring about the game and its inane puzzles. If you're an adventure fan, this is not the game for you. Jack Lorski and Karen Gijman? Sorry guys. You're on your own!

The Bottom Line
And BTW, Quake plays just fine on Windows XP. In fact, it plays better now than it ever did before. Check out the open source projects.