The Moment Of Silence

I MUST admit, I had quite highish hopes for The Moment Of Silence: a proper adventure game not riding on the coattails of Myst, promising highfalutin concepts such as characters and an actual story - great, right?

Sadly, no. Yes, there are characters and a futuristic storyline revolving around one Peter Wright, a communications expert working on a notorious Freedom of Speech program. Some of them aren't bad either - like Bob, the guy who runs the local kiosk who appears to know everything from the results of the latest baseball game to the political machinations of the government elite.

The problem is, there seems to be large chunks of dialogue present to fill up space rather than being of any use or interest. This results in some very wooden, uninspiring vocal performances. For a game with a name like this, it doesn't seem to know when to shut up.

Strangely, the graphics range from being not at all bad in the cut-scenes to being strangely unfinished in the actual game. There's one particularly surreal moment when a chain-smoking prostitute moves her mouth and her fag stays suspended in midair, like some kind of bizarre party trick.

The story itself is quite interesting (albeit stolen from several movies and TV series), and it's far more pleasurable to deal with more logical puzzles rather than arsing about with levers and knobs. There are a few good moments here and there, but sadly, there's an unfinished aura to this game that permeates throughout.