The adventure game--that old formula of using your mouse to hunt for hot spots in a static image and then click away, gathering items and solving puzzles--has been quietly disappearing from the gaming landscape for years, despite having been industry champion not too terribly long ago. In a day where we pshaw any game whose physics aren't perfect down to the last Newton, it's little wonder that these slow-moving exercises in mental gymnastics don't quite have the audience they used to. If an adventure game is going to make it these days, it had better have a really good gimmick, and hoo boy, Evidence: The Last Ritual has one of the best.

Games killers play
In much the same way that Eternal Darkness broke the fourth wall to mess with the player's mind, Evidence seeks to draw you into the narrative. The act starts with the very packaging of the game; you'll find no instruction manual here, no ads for other Adventure Company titles. Just three CDs bundled together in a police evidence bag, complete with chain of custody sticker on the front. The story, you see, is that the serial killer Phoenix (last heard from in Evidence's predecessor, Missing) has sent the police another challenge, in the form of these CDs. The police can't make heads or tails of the contents, and in a bold move, they've decided to enlist the help of the public, figuring that several million heads are better than one. Before you can tackle Phoenix's multimedia conundrums for youself, you must first log in with a valid email address, and it's highly suggested that you join the ICPA, the International Committee for the Phoenix Arrest. The ICPA's website offers numerous resources that will help you solve the puzzles, including a search feature, notepad, and a translation application.

This is the second brilliant bit of Evidence. Missing had a very similar design to Evidence, in that the player was meant to research the puzzles and clues online. However, what ended up happening was that when you Googled whatever clue you were working on, what you inevitably got were serveral dozen links to walkthroughs and spoilers for the game. Helpful, sure, but it completely took you out of the experience. Evidence has solved that problem by letting you search through the ICPA: you get all the info you need to help you figure things out, without any of the "real world" interference. Solving puzzles unlocks video clips that slowly reveal the events that led to the death of the journalist who was rescued at the end of Missing.

"Come into my parlor," said the spider to the fly…
As you play, you'll receive emails from the ICPA and other "players"; some are merely informational, others gently guide you towards a solution. Since you're meant to be online the entire time you're playing, the game tracks your progress, so don't be surprised if someone congratulates you on solving a puzzle mere minutes after you've pieced it together. You might think that taking your cue from the news bulletins posted on the ICPA home page, or from emails you get from your colleages is cheating, but the puzzles in Evidence aren't meant to be solved in a vaccuum. It's highly unlikely you'll be able to make a whit of progress in some of them without guidance from others, and soon enough you'll be grateful for the help. The puzzles in adventure games tend to be fairly esoteric and exotic, which tends to force the player into an emotional disconnect. I mean, really, if you're trying to figure out which opera aria notes to play on the pipe organ in order to open the blue door, the onlyl real emotions you're likely to feel are frustration if you can't figure it out and elation if you can. But those feelings don't have anything to do with the actual story, they have to do with your own personal victory. Evidence, on the other hand, goes a long way towards taking the game out of your head and making it very genuine and real, which can lead to some extremely creepy events. Very, very creepy.

The rebirth of a genre
One caveat with regard to Evidence--you not only need to be a bit smarter than the average bear to suss out some of the puzzles, but a bit better educated, too. I'm not saying you have to be a Rhodes scholar to make progress, but if your reading history is limited to the back of cereal boxes, you might have a bit of an uphill climb ahead of you. The puzzles range from sublimely simple to brilliantly complex, and the solving method varies wildly for each of them. Every puzzle, every clue, every new piece of information leads you down a path you didn't quite expect to tread, leaving you a bit on edge as you await the Phoenix's next move. Maintaining that level of tension in a point-and-click title is an amazing feat and one that no mystery or thriller fan should miss.

- Maj1013