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I realise Intrigue has been on release for a couple of months and it's not really a true adventure: nonetheless I thought it worth a quick mention, especially as new products are decidedly lacking this month.

Your brother Joe is missing and has left you in charge of a chaotic detective agency located in Washington DC. You discover that he has recently been investigating a nefarious scheme to release a dangerous virus into the air of the nation's capital. The objective is to find your brother, deactivate the viral device and finger the villains.

The first section is an introduction that reveals essential information for first-time players. After the intro comes the anti-pirate device: you are asked to input the code to open Joe's safe, instructions for cracking it are printed in the booklet provided with the packaging. Once the safe is open you may input the number of players and level of play.

The screen layout is atmospherically monochromatic with options at the top of the screen when locations are displayed, and at the bottom if character interaction is takeing place. The choice of action is selected using either a joystick or the cursor keys and confirmed via the carriage return. These controls may also be used to pan round your current location. Sound effects and music are present and add to the atmosphere.

So-called adventure games that use this type of select-an-option input are usually very bad - The Archers and Adrian Mole immediately spring to mind. However, Intrigue is different in that it's actually quite good.

The plot is so complicated that the input system makes it work better than a text input system would - there's enough to do without having to worry about your typing and spelling prowess.

Deadlines were against me for reviewing Intrigue therefore game progress was minimal, however I enjoyed what I did see and another go is definitely on the cards.