Try, if you will, to think of commonplace adventure game settings. Ancient Egypt? Check. Atlantis? Been there. Modern day and near-future? Yup. World War II? Hmm, maybe not. The two Indiana Jones games aside, the Second World War is a rarely used setting in adventures, and one ripe for all sorts of intense stories. To fill this void, enter Undercover: Operation Wintersun, a new third-person, point and click adventure from dtp/ANACONDA and Austrian-based developer Sproing Interactive. We had a chance to see the game for ourselves at E3, which was presented to us by Harald Riegler, the Managing Director of Sproing.

In Undercover, players step into the shoes of John Russell, a renowned nuclear physicist in Nazi Germany in 1943. Russell, a Brit, has been sent deep undercover by MI6 (the British international espionage division) to investigate a new weapons project the Germans are developing. Although not a spy by trade, his expertise in nuclear technology has made him a crucial component in discovering what the Germans are up to, but he'll get assistance from other allied spies along the way.

The story itself is a "what-if" scenario involving the fate of all humanity, and revolves around a theme of responsibility for each of the game's central characters. Russell is proud of his scientific achievements, but he's an intellectual who has never considered the implications of his work. That's about to change, however, as he's confronted with the potential for human suffering by the adventure he suddenly finds himself thrust into. As a result, Russell's character begins to change as the game progresses, a fact that Riegler says will even be reflected visually in some of his animations and behaviours.

Besides Russell, there are plenty of other characters to interact with in Undercover, and everyone has his or her own agenda. Players will need to discern the motivations of Russell's (apparent) partners and adversaries, and the developers have teased us with the promise of several surprises along the way. And while obviously a serious story, Sproing plans to include just enough humour here and there to break the tension and lighten the atmosphere occasionally.

The game will take us to a number of places around the world, including London, Berlin, a small German town, and one other major location that is currently being kept under wraps. Despite having a fictitious story, the game stays generally true to the real historical period, presenting appropriate details for the time, although Sproing admits that some details have been altered to create a more intriguing story.

From what we saw of the game, graphics are of a high quality, with all the bells and whistles we've come to expect of a realistic prerendered adventure, and perhaps then some. Sproing is committed to pushing the graphical envelope with this game, which will include shadows, true volumetric lighting, plenty of ambient animations and dynamic weather to go with its traditional 3D characters on 2D backgrounds. However, worry not if your PC is past its prime — the game engine promises to be able to scale back the quality of the graphics in order for lower-end machines to cope.

Each location will reportedly feature many hotspots to interact with, which should come as welcome news to those who feel that most modern adventures have become too streamlined and easy. Puzzles in Undercover will be mostly of the traditional inventory-combining type, but will also include around ten different "minigames" to provide variety in the gameplay. Included among them will be some timed sections and stealth elements — all integral to the story and atmosphere, however, not just thrown in for their own sake. It's hard to imagine being a spy and not having to do some sneaking around, after all. You can get caught, but according to Riegler, the focus remains on intellectual challenges rather than dexterity or stealth action. The goal is for these sections to provide strategic puzzle opportunities rather than simply skulking around in the dark, hoping not to get caught. For example, turning on and off various lights in one section will provide a distraction that allows Russell to progress through a guarded area.

In our E3 demonstration, we witnessed a few sections of the game set in a Nazi headquarters, with guards patrolling the corridors. In one case, Russell and a female spy were trapped in a room with an enemy soldier guarding the hallway outside. Players must create a cunning trap for the guard using the inventory and environmental items. But before Russell can put the trap into effect, he needs some kind of bait to lure the guard into the room. After a short conversation with his female counterpart, the woman screams, which causes the Nazi outside to run straight in. Or at least, run straight into the trap you've just created. With the guard incapacitated, players are then free to continue exploring the building.

Sproing Interactive may be a new name to most of us, but the team previously worked on a German-only adventure based on a popular movie in Germany. The company has also worked on many other non-adventure games, but according to Riegler they are self-confessed adventure fans, and the enthusiasm for the genre was clearly evident from our E3 demonstration.

But if Sproing is unknown in the international adventure community now, that may not be true much longer. Our first look at the game definitely piqued our interest, and we'll be closely watching its development in the coming months. With its intriguing setting and promise of a character-driven, complex storyline, Undercover: Operation Wintersun could become a dark horse that takes a lot of people by surprise when it releases in September.