Sentinel: Descendants in Time

Lord help us, it's a realtime adventure game from the makers of Schizm II. You know what that means, don't you? It's another humourless trudge through the Tombs of Fantastic Boredom to find the Crystal of Random Nonsense. Along the way, you'll visit a series of strange fantasy worlds (ooh, giant plants!) and solve puzzles so devilish you'll wish you'd brought an exorcist.

The plot of Sentinel doesn't bear repeating, but suffice it to say you've been strong-armed into exploring an ancient cavern left by a mysterious yet highly advanced civilisation (yes, one of those). The tomb is guarded by an enigmatic holographic sentinel (cunningly disguised as a lissom temptress in a cocktail frock), who presents you with a series of random puzzles that have absolutely no bearing on the plot.

Puzzles tend to be a mixed bag. Some are tediously simple, others ridiculously obscure and long-winded. Many require you to recognise subtle clues in the environment, such as audio cues or colour patterns, which are easily missed, especially if (like me) you've tired of the wibbly ambient soundtrack and discarded your headphones.

Outside of the puzzles, the game mostly consists of tiresome conversations with the sentinel, who seems intent upon boring you to death with undergraduate dribble about the nature of reality. It's like The Matrix all over again.

As these things go it's not too bad, but it's still just another Myst clone that will appeal only to smug beard-wearers with too much time on their hands.