Time, please! We spent last month Sweeping it and Splitting it, and now we get the chance to meddle with it and control our destinies.

In Shadow Of Memories, you control Eike, a man stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant while leaving a cafe.

Eike enters a strange limbo where a camp, disembodied voice offers him the opportunity to go back in time and alter events in order to save his life. He agrees, and goes back to half an hour before the stabbing. If Eike succeeds, he must deal with the consequences of his new life.

If it sounds complicated, it isn't really. You're given a glimpse of the future and how you snuff it, then you're jetted back in time in order to prevent it from happening. In fact, everything about Shadow Of Memories is a bit too simple, from the primary school graphics to the suffocating linearity of the tasks you're asked to mill through. While the concept is fantastic, it's dull to play, thanks to the overlong cut-scenes and a plot with more holes than a tea bag.

Technically, it's quite shameful. The low- detail visuals shudder and creak around Eike, who clomps about the place in a pair of shoes that sound as if they have a megaphone stuck to them. This is a workmanlike conversion of a game that was workmanlike when it made its debut 18 months ago on the PlayStation 2.

Playing the game involves little more than completing a series of Resident Evil-style puzzles, but with none of that game's cool carnage in between. The puzzles are either too easy or so random that you're reduced to trial and error. Silent Hill 2: Inner Fears outclasses this in terms of looks, atmosphere and overall quality, and is a better purchase than this messy gimmick of a title.

1. A sound, original idea for a game
2. Fairly stylish and interesting settings

1. Scruffy visuals
2. Painfully linear
3. Puzzles either too random or too easy

Power
A first wave PS2 game. Your Xbox will get fat through lack of exercise if you play this too much.

Style
The continental town rendered in different time periods is quite neat, but, overall, everything is blocky.

Immersion
Most puzzles waver between obscure, vague and obvious; only very few will stoke your curiosity.

Lifespan
Later chapters require dedication to crack. But with a plot full of holes and oversights, you may not care.

Summary
In concept, it's an interesting bit of timeline management. In practice, though, it's drab, clumsy and low on enjoyment.