E3 was Adventure Gamers' second experience seeing and playing The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript. We had our first glimpse of the game during the Game Developer's Conference in March, but since English language publishing agreements were still under negotiation, we couldn't write about it then. With the game now showing up in the UK and soon to follow in North America, we've been given the go-ahead... and it's a good thing. This game looks like too much fun to keep it to ourselves any longer.

For starters, let's establish that this game is not an adaptation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. (The action/adventure game of the same name is a completely different animal.) The Secrets of Da Vinci is the newest adventure by the collective of French developers who brought us ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern, Return to Mysterious Island, and VOYAGE. It takes place in 1522, three years after Leonardo Da Vinci's death, and focuses on the artist himself—or, rather, on the house where he died and the secrets he left behind. You play as Valdo, a young man who has been sent to Leonardo's French estate, the Manoir du Cloux, to uncover a hidden manuscript for a mysterious patron. The game opens with your arrival at the house in the middle of the night. The lady of the house, Marie de la Bourdaisière, is not at home, and the caretaker tells you to make yourself comfortable and wait until morning. But what kind of adventurer would you be if you actually waited until morning? Instead, you begin to explore the house and its immediate vicinity. Your initial goal: to get into Leonardo's locked study. There are two ways to do so, the first example of flexible gameplay in this non-linear game.

The game's look and feel will be familiar to anyone who has played these developers' previous games. It's in first-person perspective with third-person cutscenes (some full cinematics, some comic-style drawings). Cinematics that take place in the game's present are in full color, while flashbacks to the time before Leonardo Da Vinci's death are rendered in aged sepia tones. The prerendered graphics are beautifully detailed and meticulously researched to be historically accurate. The developers worked in close cooperation with the actual estate, known today as Clos Lucé, to ensure that the game's representation is spot on.

As you explore the house and surrounding land, an animated cursor shows you which directions you can go and when you can pick up an item or interact with a hotspot. The inventory is similar to that of VOYAGE or Return to Mysterious Island but a bit more simplistic. As in those games, the inventory is contained on a separate screen that also provides your score, the amount of money in your pocket, and your character's avatar. The Secrets of Da Vinci does not incorporate those games' signature formulas for combining inventory items, although you can apply some items, including clothing, to Valdo's avatar.

With each of their games, Kheops and its partners, Mzone and Totem studios, have a tendency to build upon the gameplay of their previous endeavors, and The Secrets of Da Vinci is no exception. The developers have introduced a good/evil ranking, represented on the inventory screen by gauges marked with an angel and a devil. Based on decisions you make during play, such as whether to open Lady Bourdaisière's mail or how you treat her cat, your good or evil ranking goes up accordingly. You also earn points as you achieve certain objectives, which you can then apply to either of the gauges to tip the scales yourself. As gameplay progresses, these rankings may dictate your choices in certain situations (for example, Valdo won't have the option to rifle through someone's private papers if he's very good). Although the general plot remains the same, variances in these scales and in the player's actions ultimately lead to four slightly different endings.



The Secrets of Da Vinci takes place over four days, during which Valdo must explore the Manoir du Cloux, fix various machines (some authentic Leonardo Da Vinci creations; others imagined by the developers in the spirit of the era), and puzzle through a series of animated sketches and paintings similar to the cave paintings in ECHO. Many of these tasks can be done at various points during the four days. Valdo's objectives are organized in his journal, and are automatically crossed off as they're achieved. At points you can die, but if this happens, the game automatically takes you back to the beginning of the sequence to try again. Based on feedback the developers received for VOYAGE, they opted not to include any timed sequences in The Secrets of Da Vinci.

Based on what we've seen, this game seems like another solid offering from Kheops et al, and a good choice for adventure fans and history buffs alike. The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript has already shipped in the UK, and it is expected to appear on North American store shelves in early June.