Anyone who is a fan of the fabulous Blade Runner film will feel right at home with this adventure game. This time you get the change to be the Blade Runner (futuristic super-cop) and set off on your mission to track down the Replicants (artificial humans who were created to work in dangerous or undesirable places off-world and who are forbidden to return to Earth).

Right from the start you are totally immersed in the Blade Runner world featuring recreated music by Vangelis who provided the score to the original film. The sound effects, including drizzling rain are in stereo so playing the game with headphones on makes you really feel you are in it.

Although you don't play as Rick Deckard, the name of the main character in the film, played by Harrison Ford, you do get to meet some of the characters from the film such as Rachael, Tyrell, J.F. Sebastian, and Chew from the Eyeworks. You get to ride in a flying police 'Spinner', administer the Voigt-Kampff test and scrutinise photographs using the Esper photo analysis machine.

There are amazing FMV (full motion video) scenes linking different parts of the game and your character also gets the opportunity to either exterminate or side with the Replicants. The game features, I believe, 13 different endings depending on the various choices you make as you go along. A great game with a brilliant atmosphere, this adventure will delight any Blade Runner fan.

Tomb Raider has to be one of the best games ever, in any genre. In it you guide Lara Croft, a sort of female Indiana Jones only better, on a quest to find lost pieces of an ancient artifact called the Scion.

This game was the first true 3D interactive adventure, the levels are enormous and many take quite some time to solve. There are enemies along the way that Lara has to deal with including humans, lions, wolves and dinosaurs! but in contrast to other Tomb Raider titles which followed the emphasis is on searching out clues rather than just blasting your way around.

The fourth installment was released at Christmas 1999 and provides a return to the adventuring style of the first game, this is good news indeed as I found the second and third episodes contained too many enemies and too much time was spent shooting them and trying not to be killed. The first game has a lovely sense of isolation and you can spend as much time as you need to find the clue which will bring you on to the next level.

A note must be made also concerning the music of Tomb Raider. It was composed by Nathan McCree and it is marvelous, very atmospheric. It's a shame that it appears to have been recorded on a couple of synthesisers as it would have been majestic if recorded with a real orchestra. At that early stage, however it was completely unknown that Tomb Raider was going to turn out to be the gaming event of the decade...

"Something's rotten in the Land of the Dead..." In Grim Fandango you play as Manny Calavera who is a (dead) travel agent to souls who are embarking on their four-year journey to eternal rest. But something is wrong and Manny finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy which threatens his own salvation.

Manny must depart on a journey to unmask the conspirator and restore order to the Land of the Dead. This game features astounding graphics, the best yet seen, by me anyway. The dialogue is very sharp and witty and the characters larger than life/death.

The music is an original score of swing-era bebop and jazz and the story is revealed through 7000 lines of dialogue. The puzzles in this adventure can be quite tough at times and I must admit to having being rescued on a couple of occasions by tracking down clues from the Internet.

The company who produced this game Lucas Arts are at the cutting edge of computer gaming and I for one would love to see the return of the intrepid Manny Calavera and his motley crew.

The image on the right is for the second Broken Sword adventure called The Smoking Mirror but I'd also like to include in this section the first installment which was subtitled The Shadow of the Templars.

Both of these were of the old style 2D point-and-click adventures and although you don't actually ramble around like in Tomb Raider, nevertheless the stories are just as compelling. The first game finds the main character, an American called George Stobard holidaying in Paris where he is slightly injured when a bomb demolishes the cafe he's sitting outside. After he interrogation by the police George decides to launch his own investigation. The adventure takes George from Paris to Spain, Ireland and Scotland where with the help from a French photojournalist called Nico he uncovers a secret and deadly organisation.

In the second adventure George and Nico set off from Paris to South America on the trail of a sinister drugs ring but things aren't what they seem and the two are caught up in a Mayan mystery involving sacrificial rituals and stolen treasures.

Both stories are well written and the voices used are believable throughout. The graphics are excellent and even though they are point-and-click adventures some quick thinking and clicking are required at times to prevent a premature ending. Roll on the next Broken Sword outing...