Get home. Install game onto computer.

Creepiness ensues.

The premise begins with why you have the game. CDs were sent to the police by Phoenix, and in an effort to decipher the puzzles within, the NYPD has decided to distribute the CDs to the public. When you install the game onto your computer, you are prompted to register with a login name and an email address, then receiving a password which you use to access the CDs. You are also prompted to register at http://www.phoenix-investigators.org/us/, the International Committee for the Phoenix Arrest. The website features tools such as a web search, translations, a case update section, lastest news section, etc. Immediately upon doing both things, you are connected via your email address with a group of fictional characters who offer hints, musings, and discussions right to your email as you play through the game.

The CDs themselves are of course somewhat disturbing - they were offered to the PD by a serial killer, after all. The first few puzzles are a test of sorts, and are relatively easy to figure out. As soon as you get through those, however, the puzzles become much more difficult. You spend time searching for clues through the single screen puzzle presented to you, look things up online, check your email for hints or suggestions from your fictional compatriots, and finally solve the puzzle.

My favorite puzzle thus far: several numbers in floating around on your screen, not really a discernable pattern: 8, 9, 21, 33, etc. Small rectangular pieces of illustrations towards the bottom of the screen, scroll through them and you can place a number on each of the illustrations. But what number goes where? The hint Phoenix offers you in the puzzle screen is simply "Alessandro Mariano". Do some research on the MSN web search linked from the Phoenix arrest webpage, and find that Alessandro Mariano became Sandro Botticelli. And Sandro Boticelli did illustrations for Dante's Inferno. Hey, wait... do those picture fragments look like Botticelli's Dante illustrations? More research - hey, I bet those numbers floating around are the plate numbers for the illustration fragments....

And puzzle solved.

After completing a puzzle you're usually rewarded by a short live action video clip following one of the two storylines that the Phoenix is presenting before you. You're following the story of Jack Lorski, invesitgating a series of murders in Spain with a woman named Manuela, and the story of a woman named Jessica, who is searching for her brother Adrian.

I absolutely love that you have to do actual research online to find the answers to these puzzles. It gives the game a more realistic feel. I read a review online that was complaining about the fact that you spend just about as much time on a internet search engine as you do in the actual game, but I think it's a fascinating and original idea. The live action video clips and the emails you receive give an even more realistic feel, especially when you get your first email from the Phoenix:

Gotta admit, when the Phoenix started sending me mail, I got pretty freaked out. ^_^

I haven't played through too much of the game yet, but what I have played (with friends Bob and Nils) has been clever, original, and creepy but not gory. The puzzles are interesting and difficult, but with some effort and teamwork the answers are attainable. I haven't yet felt like I needed to consult a walkthrough. Not only would that be cheating, that would definitely destroy the realistic feel the game attempts to impart.

Great game. Frustrating at times when you get stumped on a particular puzzle, but when you hang in there it's worth it. I'm curious about where this is all going to end up....