The Omega Stone — along with its predecessor The Riddle of the Sphinx — is well-known adventure game that I never had a chance to play when it was released in 2003. Timely as ever, only a mere 7 years after The Omega Stone was released, I decided to play it. I just couldn’t help but wonder what an old adventure game would have in store and how it held up over time.

The game starts with a movie trailer type introduction, giving you a quick overview of The Riddle of the Sphinx before it ... kinda gives away the ending. Sir Geoffrey wakes you after a near-death experience (and with absolutely horrible acting). He also gives you a detailed explanation of what happened and a discovery he has made. This is pretty much the end of the story for The Omega Stone: You are given the notion that there is some interconnected riddle with the wonders of the world and that you need to solve it, or else! Stop questioning the what else: — go to the next paragraph!

After the introduction, you are left on your own to solve the mystery. You can travel to the different sites, such as Stonehenge or Easter Island, and solve the little puzzles. When I said you are left on your own, you really are left on your own. Through the whole game, there are no people to talk to: Your character doesn’t notice or reason anything out while exploring, nor do you keep a journal or map. When you enter the wonder sites, there is generally a prep area that contains letters and books you can read — mostly about the site — that drop some pretty basic clues on what to do. The sites themselves are generally dark and involve exploring every random area for items to pick up or other clues, some of which you can’t take or get proper notes for; that is frustrating! Most of the sites you visit are dark and involve a lot of eye-strain. The Omega Stone is no fun at all to navigate through. It almost feels like the developers wanted to stretch the play time, so they darkened all these scenes and placed items in the most random areas possible. And with no map, you can spend quite a bit of time roaming around mazes. Sometimes developers make areas that frighten you or creep you out, but this isn’t the case in The Omega Stone. I just wanted to get out of there because it was boring.

The puzzles in The Omega Stone are all top-notch (despite the constant running around). They are fairly in-depth and moderately challenging. The puzzles at each site are all part of a much larger puzzle, which is obviously what the whole game is built around. The problem I had with the puzzles is I spent more time roaming dark passageways and mazes looking for clues than trying to actually solve the puzzle. If you could take proper notes in game about the clues you find, I have a feeling there just wouldn’t be enough puzzle content to keep people occupied long.

Despite The Omega Stone being 7 years old, the graphics have held up quite well. They are a little grainy but generally look alright. The sound and music is meant to create tension and mystery at some points in the game, but it falls flat, no matter what year it is played in. The largest technical issue the game suffers from is a horrendously poor interface: It is very unresponsive and awkward to use.

The Omega Stone has no real story to follow and no characters to interact with. It almost doesn’t even feel like an adventure game. I really couldn’t get into playing it. It was just, well, boring. I also didn’t buy into the whole super mysterious puzzle that interconnects all these wonders — the whole game feels pretty fake to me. I’m not sure why I had this notion that The Omega Stone was one of the old classic adventure games because it certainly has little in the way of gameplay appeal. While the sites you have access to are great and appear quite accurate, there is nothing at all drawing me to want to solve this mystery. Go solve it yourself, Sir Geoffrey.