George Stobbart of previous Broken Sword fame is back, but this time he's left his adventurous life behind. He's settled down in a quiet job as a bail bondsman, but it's not long before a woman enters his office, followed by a whole boatload of trouble. Before you or George realize it, a plot of powerful implications unfolds that has ol' Stobbart caught up in ancient legends that threaten more than just his life.

The gameplay your classic point-and-click adventure style, there's nothing much else to say about it. You pick up items, combine them, and use them in various logical (and some very illogical) ways. You can use either the mouse or keyboard to control Stobbart's movements, but there are problems associated with both. Most of the time it's decent, but there are times when he'll be unable to reach an obviously accessible place, unable to find a path, or constantly run into a wall. It gets irritating quickly.

Something you'll find out very quickly while playing Secrets of the Ark is that, compared to other adventure games, this one offers up much more of a challenge. Although adventure game enthusiasts might enjoy the more difficult puzzles, those who prefer a less frustrating experience will likely not enjoy like the high degree of difficulty the game provides.

This difficulty comes from various areas of the game. One of the biggest problems is the classic problem of point-and-click adventure games: that of the old fashioned pixel-hunt. Interactive objects don't stand out particularly well from the detailed scenery, and often, finding them is almost a matter of luck. Secondly, many of the puzzles are very obscure and lack any coherent solution. There are many areas in the game when a single puzzle will be keeping you from progressing forward, but the right combination of items will be so obscure that you'll be running around, combining everything possible with everything else, just to proceed. As an example, in the early part of the game, a set of electrical wires blocks your path. For some reason, instead of doing something logical like using a piece of debris to jam the power switch in the off position, you have to perform some obscure tasks, releasing a door, locking it, then knocking the door down (along with a chunk of the wall) to make a bridge for your friend to pass so that she can turn off the switch and allow you to pass.

I'm not saying I dislike the difficulty, it's just that situations like this, where you're pacing back and forth in the same area to find a the one action that'll make sense to the game - but not necessarily to you - comes up far too often. Instead of feeling satisfied at solving a difficult problem, you just feel like you've merely struck lucky and found just the one thing that you were supposed to do. There's also a fair share of logical puzzles that require knowledge that you've collected in order to solve them, and these puzzles actually make sense, and thus provide some actual sense of accomplishment. These puzzles are fun to complete, and fortunately, Secrets of the Ark has many of them.

Voice acting and storytelling is very important in any adventure game, and both are done extremely well. George Stobbart's lines are delivered perfectly, as are many of those by other characters. The characters themselves are very stereotypical, but still manage to provide an immersive environment. Graphics are also improved over the predecessors, with good lighting and detail in each of the objects. The story, though it starts out slow, quickly picks up the pace and offers suspense and trouble to the player, and can easily keep you interested.

As an adventure game, Secrets of the Ark is a very good one, assuming you can get over the hurdles and high degree of difficulty some of the puzzles require. For any adventure guru, this is definitely one of the better entries into the genre in recent years, and definitely worth a look.