The classic adventure game seems to be going through a wee bit of a renaissance at the moment. The recent release of Indigo Prophecy and upcoming titles Lost in Blue and Dreamfall are hopeful harbingers of a resurgence of interest in ye olde pointe and clicke game, a state of affairs that would undoubtedly make the fine folks at Kheops Studio very, very happy. A long-time supporter of the adventure genre, Kheops has recently released the latest in its Jules Verne-inspired series of games, Voyage. While Indigo Prophecy and Dreamfall are using new control schemes and interfaces to take the adventure formula in a new direction, Voyage stays true to the classic structure of an adventure title; whether that's a bad or a good thing is highly debatable.

Much like its predecessor, Return to Mysterious Island, Voyage picks up where a Jules Verne novel left off. In "From the Earth to the Moon," the members of a gun club concoct a scheme to fire an enormous bullet-shaped vessel into space, with the hopes of eventually landing on the moon. The plot of the book deals with the planning, the design, and even the math of such an undertaking, but Voyage starts with the capsule already in space. The player takes on the role of French adventurer Michel Ardan, who regains consciousness to discover his two traveling companions are dead and that he is en route to the moon. Once on the lunar surface, he's surprised to discover the mysterious civilization of the Selenites, and begins searching through the deserted buildings in hopes of finding a way home.

The gameplay of Voyage will be familiar to anyone who's ever played an adventure game before. Ardan travels from location to location, collecting various and sundry items in his travels, which he then uses to solve obtuse, oftentimes overly complex, puzzles. I say that as a fan of adventure games, too. Part of what set Return to Mysterious Island apart from its so-so point and click brethren was that the puzzles in it made sense, such as figuring out how to crack open a coconut to feed the protagonist, or firing some clay to make bricks to repair a wall. Voyage starts off much the same way, while Ardan is confined in the capsule, but once he makes it onto the moon's surface, players will find themselves faced with the sort of obscure logic puzzles that plague this type of game. The correct tune has to be played on a pipe organ in order to open a door. A math puzzle must be solved to open another door. Ideograms must be decoded and interpreted in order to do far too much to list here. And don't get me started about the fruit.

Carried over from Return to Mysterious Island', but dumbed down, is the fun and creative invention system, which allowed players to combine simple found objects into new, more complicated objects. For example, a stick, a thorn, and a vine combine to make a fine fishing rod. Items could be disassembled once they'd served their purpose, and it was possible to make several creations that would serve absolutely no purpose in the game, thus setting up some nice red herrings for the player. The invention system is in Voyage, but only items that are meant to be combined will actually go together, so that if a lazy player simply tries to combine an item with every other item in the inventory, eventually he'll find all the correct combinations. It doesn't hurt the gameplay per se, but it does take away some of the challenge. I'd much rather have kept the old invention system and lost some of the lame logic or code puzzles.

Also in keeping with the true adventure style, Voyage is very, very purty. The locations are all beautifully rendered, with bizarre lunar vistas and creatively colored plantlife, and the objects and mechanisms display a nice amount of detail. The bright jewel-like colors of the plants and Selenites contrast well with the dull gray of the moon, and the overall design ensures that there's always something interesting to look at. Take a moment to look up at the night sky, and behold the swirling stars and comets in the heavens. The sound is equally solid, with a cosmic sort of background noise accompanying Ardan's travels around the moon. The voice acting is whimsical without being too goofy, but it's a shame there wasn't more of it. Some of the puzzles are sound-based, which can get very annoying for those of us with tin ears, though most gamers should have no trouble with them.

Voyage is about as classic as an adventure gaming experience can get. It's visually stunning, the puzzles are logical and sound, and the overall challenge is healthy, but not obscene. Yes, Voyage hits all the expected marks when it comes to an adventure title, and that is part of why I found it to be a bit disappointing. With games like Still Life using edgy subject matter for their plots, and other titles breaking the point and click mold in an attempt to make players feel more involved, it's somewhat sad to see a game with such potential take the safe route of tried and true. Still, that said, Voyage is a solid, well done, enjoyable game with which any fan of the genre will be well pleased. It doesn't rewrite the book, but it does what it sets out to do, and it does it well.