The Low Road

Quirky characters abound but fail to rescue this stylized espionage adventure from being for fans of point-and-click games only. The Low Road captures the mood of 1970s espionage thrillers with its music, but the voice acting ranges from solid to over the top. The dialogue reaches for comedic moments, and while some funny segments hit the mark, most come out as hollow attempts to be amusing. Then again, some of this could be blamed on the actor's delivery of the lines. Graphically, The Low Road has a certain charm, and the visuals are bright and inviting. Plus, the puzzles are clever and can give your brain a challenge, adding some nice variety to play. For example, you may try to pick a pocket without alerting that person, requiring almost chess-like maneuvering in planning your moves ahead of time.

But perhaps where THE LOW ROAD falters the most is with the story. While it's a progressive but linear tale, there are times where nothing logically leads to the next segment. Players may find themselves aimlessly wandering around, clicking on this or that trying to find something that leads to the next step in the story. See, the point-and-click style makes the game easy to navigate. But there's also the chance that something you do will cause the mission to fail, showing that the "bad guys" have won. This will require a rewind to the moment when the wrong choice was made for a do-over. Worse, the actions of the character in the game -- which relies on lying, manipulating, misleading, and stealing -- don't send a great message. Quirky characters aside, The Low Road is an average game that had a foundation of potential, with some good moments but plenty of rough edges that'll keep only adventure fans interested.