Parents' Guide to Graveyard Keeper

While it has some problems, and will bore action junkies, this adventure game is rather unique and will engage gamers looking for a new career. In Graveyard Keeper, you're a modern man whose life is cut short by a car accident, until you wake up and find that you're now in medieval times and in charge of the local cemetery. What's more, there's a talking skull in this graveyard with a drinking problem who likes to give you advice. As you try to get home, you'll fix up the place, deal with the locals, and perform the duties of a grave digger, a coroner, and so on. All of which comes with a healthy serving of gallows humor.

But while this game has controls, visuals, and perspective similar to those in classic role-playing adventure games, it doesn't focus on combat like those games. It's more about running errands and performing tasks. The problem is that there are times when the work becomes redundant, or needlessly complicated, while knowing where to go is sometimes a challenge in itself. It also doesn't help that, in a game with so many text-based menus and dialogue, the type is so small that it's impossible to read if you sit at a reasonable distance from your television. But if your eyesight is really good, your stomach is really strong, and your work ethic is really solid, you'll have a morbidly good time being this land's Graveyard Keeper.