The game is presented as the creation of a serial killer known as the Phoenix, who, like the real-life Zodiac killer, sent it to the police with the promise that it contained the secret of his identity. You play as one of the people around the world that the police have recruited to help unlock the game's secrets. You will have to pass through 36 symbolic gates (in the form of puzzles) that lead to "illumination". After each puzzle is solved, you are treated to a fragment of a film shot by either of the Phoenix's two victims — a journalist and a young woman looking for her missing brother — one of whom is known to be dead, and the other in the killer's custody. The clips tell a compelling story and also contain important clues that will help you in your investigation. The actors do an amazing job; if I didn't know the clips were part of the game, I would believe they were genuine amateur films. The authentic feel of the videos is what makes the game so immersive, along with the actual puzzles and the research involved in solving them. The puzzles are mini-games that will test your intellect, your knowledge, and/or your reflexes. Where your knowledge is lacking, you'll have to do some searching on the Internet, based on the clues the killer gives you. You will also receive emails from other "team members" that will sometimes contain clues, as well. You'll have to process a massive amount of information related to religion, the occult, history and zany conspiracy theories, and, unless you have at least some kind of background in those areas, you will probably be overwhelmed; students of the occult and conspiracy nuts, on the other hand, will feel right at home. Either way, the game will broaden your horizons, unless you happen to be a walking encyclopedia. Most of the puzzles are bearably difficult, once you have become accustomed to the Phoenix's style, although the clues he gives are sometimes a bit too vague, and the purely technical side more complicated than it has to be. The ending is suitably disturbing (it freaked me out, which is quite an achievement) and, even though it leaves many questions unanswered, satisfying. If you have an above average IQ and are into dark and mystic stuff, this game is definitely for you...unless you are reading this in 2014 or later. The game's heavy reliance on the Internet was an innovative idea, but not, as it turns out, a very good one. The company that made the game no longer exists, which means there is no one left to maintain the websites created for the game...so they no longer exist, either. You might still be able to finish it with the aid of a walkthrough, but it wouldn't be the same. In a way, this review serves as an epitaph to a bold, but ultimately failed experiment.
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