I have a real love/hate relationship with adventure games. One the one hand, I love putting my brain to work, solving puzzles with just the merest hint of how to proceed. On the other, I can't stand difficulty for difficulty's sake, and most adventure titles seem to be under the impression that "overly complex" is a synonym for "clever." Myst was both a blessing and a curse to the adventure genre: it was hugely popular, proving that gentler, more cerebral games could still make money in the modern gaming environment, but it spawned a clone army of imitators that are deadly boring and dreary in their mindless similarities. So finding that rare adventure game that breaks the Myst mold of beautiful (but soulless) static pictures and challenging yet arbitrary puzzles is no small victory for someone like me, and Return to Mysterious Island (RTMI) is both of those and more.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…

You play the game as Mina, a scrappy young lass in a sailing competition who zigs when she should've zagged and ends up shipwrecked on an apparently deserted island. Her cell phone batteries shot and her boat in Davy Jones' locker, Mina is effectively stuck unless she can figure something out. Exploration of the island reveals the ghost of Captain Nemo, captain of the Nautilus, as well as some long deserted buildings and structures. Return to Mysterious Island (RTMI) was inspired by the Jules Verne novel "The Mysterious Island", in which five men (and one dog) flee war in a hot air balloon, only to crash on a small island inhabited by the reclusive Captain Nemo. The men use their individual talents and abilities to set up a small, but comfortable, living space that they christen Granite House. RTMI acts as a sort of sequel to the novel, as Mina's story retraces the footsteps of characters in the novel, intertwining the tales in an engaging and entertaining way. The game throws a number of curveballs without ever seeming too goofy or outrageous, which is no mean feat considering Mina eventually ends up fighting robots with her monkey assistant, Jep. (Sounds like this episode of Futurama I saw once, actually.)

Prettier than Ginger and MaryAnn combined

Adventure games have a reputation for being easy on the eyes, and RTMI is no exception. It takes a different approach from its brethren, though, in that it portrays environments that most players will find at least a little familiar. No mystical mountain peaks or underground cities here, just a normal beach, an ordinary jungle, a standard cave. Although that might sound dull to folks used to the eye candy of exotic locations, it's anything but. The environments in most adventure titles are beautiful, but ultimately cold; they're like the photo spreads you see of gorgeous homes with perfect furniture and marble floors. Sure, they're pretty, but can you really picture yourself watching infomercials and eating cereal at 3 a.m. in them? RTMI feels more like the snapshots of your living room from last Christmas: lived in and genuine. From the detritus and scree washed up on shore to the crumbling stone of the wall around the windmill, it all feels like an actual place you could visit. The areas Mina explores have been abandoned by the residents of Granite House for quite some time, left to the whims of the jungle and the monkeys, and that's exactly how it looks.

The environmental noises are as genuine as the graphics, but overall the sound is a bit sparse. I imagine a real jungle would be far noisier, but of course that would be obnoxious from a game-playing perspective. Monkeys howl in the distance, and thunder rumbles so convincingly you'll run out to your car to put the windows up, but usually you'll just find yourself listening to RTMI's delicate (though bland) musical score.

I knew those years of watching Gilligan's Island would come in handy

The core of any adventure game, of course, is the puzzles, but RTMI takes a somewhat different approach to them. Most point and click titles have an insular sort of logic; that is, things make sense in the game, but not anywhere else. For example you might be asked to solve the equation "square + squiggle – half-circle = ?", then find a scrap of paper somewhere that has "half-circle + square= triangle" on it, and so forth, until you can eventually deduce that the answer to the equation is "#". In the end it's all perfectly logical, but the sense it makes is completely arbitrary. RTMI's puzzles, on the other hand, are all founded on everyday behavior and logic. When Mina first arrives on the island, she's hungry and too weak to do much, so she has to find something to eat before she can proceed. After she finds clay, a potter's wheel, and a kiln, it's not too big a leap to figure out how exactly she'll carry water from place to place. Solving the puzzles in RTMI is far less frustrating because the answer is almost always fairly clear, it's just a question of how to achieve it. Also much like real life, the problems in RTMI usually have more than one solution, allowing for different kinds of thinking.

RTMI doesn't break the adventure game mold completely, of course, and relies on the collection of various objects to solve the puzzles, but again these are all fairly ordinary items with which most players will be familiar. There are no oddly-shaped levers or curiously carved keys to be found, just coconuts, vines, and a tool or two. The real fun comes from the invention system built into the inventory screen. When items that can be combined to form more complex items are placed together, their icons are moved down into a separate area on the screen, and set into a sort of equation. When the pole, the worms, and the line for the fishing rod are combined, for example, "stick + vine + worms + ? = ?" is displayed, it indicates that one object is still missing (in this case, the hook). Sometimes the outcome can be guessed, which helps when trying to determine the missing element, but even savvy players will find themselves uttering "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh" more than once. Later in the game, Mina gains access to an encyclopedia, which provides additional information about the items she finds, providing clues as to their potential uses. Since there are so many ways to play through the game and solve the various puzzles, Mina's inventory ends up with a bunch of red herrings, so players trying to circumvent the puzzles by simply combining everything with everything else will do nothing more than create a bunch of half-solved equations.

Going so soon?

The only complaint I have about RTMI is its length, or, more to the point, the lack thereof. Although the everyday nature of the puzzles makes them more accessible and, for me at least, more enjoyable than their more complex and obscure cousins, it also makes them somewhat easier to solve and drastically shortens the game's length. And though there are multiple ways to get Mina off the island, players will likely find themselves stumbling onto the first one in under 10 hours. The branching paths do provide a certain amount of replayability, but I was very sorry to see the credits rolling so quickly.

Return to Mysterious Island does something few other adventure titles have pulled off by having appeal for both fans of and newcomers to the genre. The puzzles, atmosphere, and story are interesting and clever enough to hold the attention of an adventure veteran, but the real-life logic and short length make RTMI instantly accessible to folks looking for a high-quality diversion from head shots or +3 helms of wisdom.