Missing - PC

A smart and gripping story, inventive, well written, and well acted. A total delight! except it does seem to require you to be online almost the whole time you're playing. This has two serious shortcomings:-- If you have dial-up, you'll be online for hours.-- If the website dies, you're dead in the water.That last problem is a fatal one, I'm afraid. The game is not playable past the introduction without the websites and emails maintained by the publisher, who seems to be, um, not bothering anymore. Very shortsighted of them -- but I guess they thought they'd be around forever.

Loved this game, great fun!

Other reviewers have described the premise, so I won't repeat it. The game is a multi-stage puzzle - a series of little shockwave games - some verbal, some visual, some involving a certain amount of dexterity (not a lot, fortunately). The games are infuriating at times, but given that their author is supposed to be a serial killer, one must make allowances.The idea of searching the web for clues, and receiving emails from other 'participants' is quite innovative, and adds to the immersion. Since the game has been published in Europe for some time, though, the searches also uncover walkthroughs. Bit of a temptation, that.The production values are excellent - the video sections are slick, with lots of very photogenic European locations, the acting is good, and the overall design is spot on. the story is compelling and the characters are sympathetic.For the most part, I enjoyed this game.So why the 2-star rating? Some annoying technical issues and a lousy ending.First, the technical issues:- When you first play the game, you have to log on, using a user name you created yourself plus a password assigned by the game. Better write this on a piece of paper because you'll need it every time you play. Don't these people know about cookies?- You can't save the game - it decides on the restart point. It isn't always where you would like to restart.- The game is supposed to integrate with your email client. Mine didn't - I use Eudora, and it fixated on Outlook Express(which then tried to take over, the way it does). I had to work around this by loading my email client before running the game. This is important because emails often contain clues.- The game was a CPU hog. When it was running, other applications didn't get a look in. Since the whole point of the game is that it coexists with a web browser and email client, this isn't good. A workaround is to use the XP task manager to drop the priority of the task 'missing.exe'. Maybe it's part of the game:).And as for the ending......(No spoilers, don't worry). Imagine that you've spent several hours working towards the denouement. At the very last minute, the screen goes blank and your only way of finding out what is going on is to wait for emails from the eye witnesses. These come in over a period of time. It's either designed to heighten suspense or the developers ran out of money.It's a shame how this game turned out: at the beginning, I really liked it.Oh well.Next!

Missing: Since January is a cleverly conceived game. The designer, Lexis Numerique, has figured out a way to immerse players with story, in a way that other adventure games simply do not. The conceit is that the abducted couple's employer, SKL Network, has widely dispersed a CD-ROM from the abductor in an effort to hasten their return. Gameplay begins, then, when you insert the CD into your drive. It's up to you, of course, whether you will submit to this narrative device-but for its part, the game makes it very easy to do so. The CD itself is nested inside the story. Missing nests its full motion video within the story as well. Using video in an adventure game is a dicey matter. But here, the video is itself being provided to you, the player, by the killer himself. The video of Jack and Karen is multiply coded: it starts out as their documentary record of an investigation, the audience of which they think will be ordinary viewers back home. The video then passes to the hands of the killer who then presents it to you as a way of teasing you. Because of the killer's presence, the video takes on an eerie quality that would simply be lost without this multiple embedding. At the same time, Jack and Karen's documentary presentation, as they intended it to be, is oddly comforting.About a month or so before Missing was released, The Adventure Company sent out an email (to folks signed up to receive them) that was in truth a promotion for the game, but presented itself as an announcement of the couple's abduction. The Adventure Company was attempting, in other words, to begin the immersion early, as a way of drumming up excitement and interest in the game. The subject line was "Missing," and the text of the email described Jack Lorski and Karen Gijman's capture, as well as asking for people's help. I don't know if the email garnered interest-I myself was vaguely impressed-but I do know that about 3 days later I got another email from The Adventure Company apologizing for the confusion and explaining clearly that the previous email was merely a promotion for the new game. Interest or not, more than just a few people apparently believed the email was real. This unfortunate incident is a testament to the game's immersive quality.As many adventure gamers know, acting can absolutely make or break a game. In most adventure games, voice acting is the only component, but in Missing acting is especially critical, because you both see and hear the abducted couple. I suppose I have played enough games where even the voice acting was virtually intolerable; consequently, I imagine I have low expectations. But I am suitably impressed with the acting in Missing, whereas many reviewers have remarked that the acting is mostly just adequate if at moments hokey. What few reviewers have failed to mention is the back story of Jack and Karen's evolving love affair. What may appear hokey is in fact an attempt to develop the emotionality of this storyline. I for one liked it, and I did not feel that it was overdone. And the actors do a fine job of playing to the camera. After all, at any given time, the camera is looking at the person for whom the camera operator is growing to care. This camera work, with one notable exception (Karen and Jack appear together in one scene, so who is shooting the film?), is expertly conceived and directed. Actress Caroline Charléty establishes her relationship to the camera (which is in effect Jack's eye, always looking at her) very well. Actor Olivier Chenevat is a serious, focused Jack Lorski, and while he smiles only once through the whole game, I found his Jack to be remarkably sympathetic. When Karen (the camera) looks at him, he is quietly self-conscious. I enjoyed the romantic development; it gave depth to the embedded terror inherent in the killer's presentation of the video and consequently raised the tension a notch. If you like complicated stories in your games, Missing will work for you.However, if you like consistently meaningful and well conceived puzzles, you may be a little disappointed. Other reviewers have rightly and adequately pointed to the problems with the puzzles in this game. The game pays homage to Pac Man and Space Invaders, and while I was alive and old enough to play both those games to death when they first came out, I didn't think much of their presentation here. The Space Invaders game is so annoying and meaninglessly difficult that I had a notion to send somebody an ugly email at The Adventure Company. The idea, it seems, with these puzzles is that they are generated by the mind of a psychotic, sinister, sadistic killer, and so the more tedious and meaningless they can at times be the better. This device just doesn't work. If you're a purist-you don't do walkthroughs-you will, even if you are an adroit puzzle solver, pixel hunter, and mouse maneuverer, be incredibly aggravated. I for one am not too proud to seek answers in such a cowardly way, and consequently I saved myself an enormous amount of frustration.I just finished the game a short while ago, and as I write I am still receiving emails about the story development. No doubt, Missing invites a sequel, and I am fine with that. In spite of the astonishingly annoying puzzles and the admittedly anemic ending, I am completely occupied with the multiple storylines in this game. Very little narrative tension is resolved here, but that in itself is interesting and engaging. What works so amazingly well are the lessons learned from the reality and documentary genres. If the interactive element at times fails, and it does, the story nonetheless retains its integrity. I give Missing 4 stars for its creative concept, film/video production values, and its remarkable narrative. I can give it no more than 4 stars for its at times silly puzzles and unnecessary and ill-placed frustrations.

Don't buy this game like i did! The server is down so you cannot play with it!!