The Da Vinci Code review

For a game that's all about using your brain, The Da Vinci Code sure can insult your intelligence. "These symbols don't look familiar," says Langdon, whose whole life revolves around deciphering the meaning of symbols. Turns out you have to solve another puzzle first; then they're suddenly easily deciphered. Argh. And speaking of artificial intelligence, your enemies are pretty brain-dead too; it's so easy to elude the French police and murderous monks, you might as well put your hands over your eyes and scream "you can't see me!"

Usually, adventure games require you to write down the clues as you go, but here's an area where The Da Vinci Code got it right: everything you see, collect or learn in the game is recorded in an in-game database which you can check whenever you like. Inventory objects like cell phones and raw meat (don't ask) can be rotated in 3D too; sometimes inspecting them reveals further clues.

We spotted a glaring bug early on in the Xbox version of the game: while the game switches you between Langdon and Neveu to keep things interesting, a technical glitch switches them at the wrong time, putting you in Langdon's shoes for some of Sophie's adventure. That led to later screwups, like the audio dropping out of cinemas and about ten minutes of the game being skipped. It didn't happen in the PS2 and PC versions, but it did happen to other Xbox gamers. You're warned.