CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

I found this game in an online catalogue at bargain price in the
"adventure" section. That was intriguing enough as I had never
heard of it or seen a review. A bit more scouting on the net
revealed a number of very good reviews labelling it "Myst" like &
very intriguing. So I parted with my tenner and ordered it. Please
don't make the same mistake.

I'm not actually sure it is a game - it's more a multimedia
experience based on a series of books, which I haven't read, by a
cult author. Effectively it consists of a correspondence between
two and later three people. To view the letters you have to solve
a visual problem on each postcard - that usually means randomly
clicking on it until you have clicked the right spot. The first
two or three are fairly challenging but once you understand what
to do it becomes a doddle. The letters are for once read by an
international cast of recognisable actors (three to be precise);
all of them (Donal McCann, Ben Kingsley and Isabella Rossellini)
are not as far as I know short of work so what attracted them to
this is beyond my imagination. The story is relatively intriguing
to begin with but soon degenerates into tedium and of course has
an enigmatic ending, which may mean something but to me suggests
that the author ran out of ideas. In fairness the card animations
are nice. Also it only takes about three hours to finish -
probably the best thing about it.











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