When
I first heard about Adam’s Venture, it sounded like
a fun concept. You play the part of an adventurer named Adam who,
along with his side kick, Evelyn, go looking for the Garden of Eden.
This is a location which hasn’t been played to death and had potential.
As it turns out, I was probably the worst choice of a person to review
this game. Or maybe the best. You will have to decide.

Yes, this is going to be
another of my frequent “I didn’t enjoy the game, but you might”
reviews. And to be fair, my tastes are not in touch with the main
stream of gamers. Half of Americans drink Coke, half drink Pepsi.
I drink Moxie. (Google that one, I dare you.) So my preferences should
be taken with a grain of salt.

What was my problem with
this game? In short, it was written for a console, but played on a
PC. This means that navigation is accomplished via the classic ADWS
keys with space bar, ctrl and shift adding to the cast. The mouse
is not used. Oh, and there are no save games. There are only checkpoints
and if you want to start a new game you lose any progress you may
have made the first time around.

Now,
if you play on a console – Nintendo, X-Box, Sony, etc. –
and played through the Tomb Raider games, then the
controls will be second nature for you. But I don’t own a console
and I was fighting the controls every step of the way. I won’t bore
you with the details, but I wasn’t having fun.

So, with that having been
said, how was the game? Would a console-oriented gamer enjoy it? I
believe they would.

As you can see from the
screen shots, the graphics are professionally rendered. The water
effects are nice as are the sand falls. And while the guys may not
find Adam to be as interesting to watch as Lara Croft, he still gets
around quite admirably.

The music and audio are
quite nice. Nothing to complain about here.

The puzzles are easy to
medium and the exploration potential is good.

And
the story line… Well, let’s just say that you will have to suspend
a lot of disbelief. For starts, you are looking for the Garden of
Eden. You know, that place which was completely destroyed in the Great
Flood of Noah? Well, apparently, some French knight discovered it
almost a thousand years ago. The professor has found his ancient writings
and has asked you, your girl and your dog to join him in the search.

The game begins with you
finding the gates, which are securely locked, but can be opened with
the right key. Wait, wasn’t there supposed to be a cherubim with a
flaming sword to stop that sort of nonsense? Oh well, it doesn’t matter
because there is large cave formation just around the corner which
heads back in the same direction.

These
are the caves discovered by the French knight and all the torches
and charcoal braziers he left are still burning nine hundred years
later. And all the mechanical doors and locks and puzzles he build
are still working. And all the notes and messages he left behind are
written in modern English, which didn’t exist at that time.

Did I mention that you
have with you a smart girlfriend, a learned professor and your loyal
dog? Well, never mind them. You are the Great Adventurer, so you just
waltz into the caves alone and let them cool their heels outside.

But does all that really
matter? Probably not.

Tomb Raider
used the same navigational system and it was thoroughly enjoyed by
thousands of gamers.

Super
Mario had a story line even sillier that this and it was
a joy to play.

So, just what do we have
here? We have a nice little adventure game with a bit of exploration,
some nice puzzles and no shooting. But beyond that, nothing extraordinary.
If you can handle the navigation system, then you should enjoy this
game.

I should also mention that
Adam’s Venture is intended to be the first in a series of games. Hopefully,
the other characters will get more to do in future games.

Leaving my personal idiosyncrasies
behind, I would have to give this game a B-.

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™
• CPU: Intel® Pentium®
  2.0 GHz or equivalent AMD®
• RAM: 512 MB RAM (1 GB
  Recommended for Windows® Vista™)
• Video: Nvidia 6200+
  or ATI R520+ *
• Hard Disk Space: 600
  MB
• Sound: DirectX®
  9.0c compatible sound card
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard,
  Sound Speakers

*All laptop models were
not tested and some may not provide features adequate to meet the
intense hardware requirement. You need a pixel shader 3.0 compatible
card.

Recommended System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™
• CPU: Intel® Pentium®
  2.4 GHz or equivalent AMD®
• RAM: 1 GB RAM
• Video: Nvidia 7800GTX+
  or ATI 1300+ or better
• Hard Disk Space: 600
  MB
• Sound: DirectX®
  9.0c compatible sound card
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard,
  Sound Speakers