Missing: An Interactive Thriller

This live-action crime drama draws upon the late-'90s legacy of FMV (full-motion-video) games, but its length is very disappointing. The game consists of a series of short videos triggered by the resolution of various puzzles, and most of the plot involves freeing a young man named David Newcastle from a warehouse where he's being held by an unknown kidnapper. Tension is high as you progress through the building, discovering disturbing messages and photos of David's family, not to mention encountering things such as arcane-locking mechanisms and a collection of time bombs.

Between escape sequences, you're taken to a second story line involving a police detective on a missing-persons case. The world-weary Detective Lambert is the epitome of the veteran cop: sharp, cynical, and bent on getting his man. As in the warehouse parts of the game, events progress through short videos triggered by puzzles (in this case, searching for and gathering evidence). Both narrative threads are interesting and occasionally involve making quick, knee-jerk decisions at the appearance of timed, on-screen prompts. Accompanied by jazzy, moody crime-drama music, it's all very absorbing -- for about half an hour. Unbelievably, Episode 1 clocks in at a scant 30 minutes, which is a big let-down, especially considering there's as yet no ETA for Episode 2. Though Missing: An Interactive Thriller lays the groundwork for a clever mystery, its brief amount of play separates this only for the serious thriller or FMV fan.