When I first saw Largo Winch, it didn't look much like an adventure game to me. A 3D game with combat sequences, ported from a console on top of it. But the more I played Largo Winch, the more it was beginning to feel like a real adventure game.

Largo Winch is, all things considered, a lucky man. Orphaned at an early age, he was adopted by Nerio Winch, head of the multi-billion Group W. After Nerio's death, Largo took over as a CEO of the corporation. And now he's a handsome young fellow worth $100bln - needless to say, rather attractive to ladies.

The game opens with Largo announcing the latest activity of Group W called "Winch for Humanity", a shipment of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country of Drinavia (apparently somewhere in the Adriatic). After the announcement there's a reception at a hotel. But Largo doesn't have much time to enjoy himself: his public relations director, Sharon Green, wants to see him urgently and show him documents concerning strange goings on at one of Group W's research labs. Just after Largo gets to talk to Sharon, he is told that there's a bomb in the hotel. And the door is locked!

But Largo isn't the panicky type and soon finds out that the "bomb" is just an alarm clock. Before everyone can calm down however, two masked men attack Sharon Green, seize the incriminating documents and disappear into the night. Something is rotten in the kingdom of Group W.

The documents are gone but Sharon tells Largo that someone in the Vera Cruz research lab was apparently secretly working on genetically engineered organisms - and that's against Group W's policy (unlike the mega corps I know). Two security guards have been killed and one scientist is missing after someone broke into the lab. Without much hesitation, Largo flies to Mexico to investigate. It soon becomes clear that the matter is very serious when an unknown attacker tries to kill Largo by releasing poisonous snakes in the lab.

Largo switches to full time detective mode and follows the trail to Siberia (not Syberia!), Sardinia, the Adriatic, Mexico and even Group W's own New York headquarters. There seems to be a secret organization bent on revenge and well versed in industrial espionage, computer hacking, planting of false evidence, intimidation, murder and similar entertaining pastimes. Whoever they are, they have just one small problem - they underestimated Largo Winch.

As I mentioned earlier, Largo Winch is a third-person 3D game with just a few CG FMV sequences but a number of seamless cinematic sequences in the game. The backgrounds and cameras are not static, but the camera follows a predetermined path and is not free-flying. In some ways this game resembles Grim Fandango: you control Largo through the keyboard and when he gets near an "interesting" object, Largo will look at it - and the object (or person) will also begin to flash. Some people dislike this type of interface, I don't mind.

What I did mind however was the fact that the game is controlled exclusively through keyboard (or possibly joystick). This is where the console heritage shows. Keyboard controls are fine for walking around. They're OK for manipulating inventory items. They're not very convenient for navigating menus. But having to enter a password in the game using only four keys really sucks. Hello developers, I have a key for every letter of the alphabet and I honestly don't care that consoles do not!

The graphics are good, with nicely modeled characters and environment. There are no mind blowing special effects but the camera work is solid and adds to the cinematic "feel" of the game. The image takes up the entire screen but for the cinematic sequences, the view is "letterboxed" for widescreen format.

Sound is technically very good, it is for instance noticeable that when the camera view switches, the sound position is shifted as well. Music is mostly in modern style, not very remarkable but adds to the atmosphere. The voiceovers are not great but okay. It is apparent that Largo Winch was translated to English from some other language (French I believe): some words and expressions sound a little strange and what's much worse, the lip syncing is completely blown. Oh well. Another oddity is that when Largo visits Siberia, all inscriptions and texts that are supposedly in Russian are in fact in Gibberish and do not even use proper Cyrillic.

I hinted that there are combat sequences. I also said that Largo Winch was an adventure game. How is that possible? For one thing, in the entire game there are fewer than ten combat scenes - and it is a fairly long game. Moreover the combat is turn based - there is no timed action in the entire game (it doesn't look that way at first sight, but it's true). Winning the battles is thus a matter of strategy, not quick reflexes. And best of all, most of the combat scenes are not very difficult at all. Sometimes Largo fights alone and sometimes his friends help him - either Joy Arden, an ex-CIA agent, or Simon Ovronnaz, an ex-criminal. All kinds of people work for Group W. The combat would be sort of pointless if Largo couldn't die - but he of course can. He can also die outside of combat in several instances, but fortunately not very often. Still, judicious use of the save function can't hurt.

And here we come to the puzzles. Like every proper adventurer, Largo has an infinitely expandable inventory where he can examine and combine items. Ergo, there are inventory based puzzles. They start out very easy but get noticeably more difficult towards the end. Exploration is naturally an important part of the game - some items are surprisingly easy to overlook. That said, the puzzles aren't really that difficult if you have not missed something obvious. The game is split into a number of relatively small areas with linear progress from one to the next. That way there is never too much to do at once. Moreover Largo always has notes in his PDA summarizing what needs to be done.

Apart from inventory puzzles there are also other, "puzzle" puzzles: a poker game, a slider puzzle (which took me inordinately long to solve because I was not looking at the tiles closely enough), a Towers of Hanoi type puzzle and a number of hacking "mini games". On several occasions Largo needs to hack into other people's computers. He has a special CD with a hacking program - which is really a game. I will not describe it in detail but I should say that the hacking game is again turn based and purely a strategy game, with unlimited number of tries (if you lose, you have to restart the mini game).

An interesting feature of Largo Winch is that when you load a saved game, you get the opportunity to replay the mini games (hacking, combat etc.) as well as view some of the FMV sequences. Naturally only those you've seen at the point the game was saved are available.

Finally we come to the story of Largo Winch. I'm afraid it's not one of the game's strongest points. That is to say, the story is not uninteresting but it isn't exactly what I'd call inspired. It feels like something out of a B movie. There are several interesting moments but on the whole the plot is rather unremarkable.

Still, Largo Winch is a fun game. Because the puzzles are relatively easy and Largo often travels from one location to another, the gameplay never gets repetitive or boring. That is despite the fact that the game is fairly long - don't expect to finish it in an afternoon. Okay, the story isn't groundbreaking, but we're talking about entertainment after all. In my opinion the other aspects of the game make up for it. My final verdict on Largo Winchis a B.

Final Grade: B

System Requirements:

• PII
• Windows 95
• 64 MB RAM
• 4X CD-ROM
• DirectX 8