While I find myself asking this very question, I also find myself strangely drawn to this strange, engaging world. which I believe was designed to both infuriate and encapsulate me.

"What!" You say. Well, I'll say this. It has been a long time since I have been thrown in the proverbial mental meat grinder. In other words, this game is tough, real tough. How tough could it be? Well, I beat Myst, and I didn't think it was all that hard, I still have not beat this game.

Sentinel: Descendants in Time, is very much like a Myst-style game, only there is more interaction with characters than Myst. I'll explain. In Sentinel, you play a character named Beni. Beni is an amateur adventurer living in a fictitious world. On this world are the remnants of a much more advanced civilization called the Tastans. The Tastans left behind all sorts of strange and dangerous technology inside of huge tombs. No one knows exactly what happened to the Tastans and many of your fellow beings lost their lives exploring these tombs. One tomb in particular, Tomb 35, is said to contain the greatest treasure of all. Problem is, there is an A.I. construct named "Dormeuse" that guards Tomb 35 and she has plans for you and anyone else who comes into her domain. To add just a little bit more pressure to Beni, his sister has been taken by mobsters who are telling you to go into Tomb 35 and find the treasure or they will kill your sister.

Now Sentinel is played like a FPS, only your weapon is your brain, not Beni's brain, YOUR brain. You can run around the strange environments and use your action button on various devices that you find. No, there are no weapons, nor is their any sort of combat. Instead, like Myst, you must solve and decipher strange devices that help move your adventure forward. Beni can run and jump around (although it's weird playing a character who appears to have a six-inch vertical leap) turning on generators that get their power from plants and activating water-based technology all while playing a mental game of chess with Dormeuse who pops up fairly frequently to have a discussion about your intentions. I liked the feel of how Beni is controlled, and the action button does work well with this type of game, but I must admit I wish he could have jumped higher, and that speed at which he runs around was simply not quick enough for me. If one of my loved one's life was on the line, I know I'd be one fast-moving fellow.

Even the audio is done pretty well. Beni "sounds" like a Beni as do the different tones of Dormeuse, and I still don't know what she is up to. Is she evil, is she using me, is she trapping me? I have no clue, but there have been a couple of times I thought she was going to end it all for me. Which brings me to another point that I am starting to see more and more of in the various forms of entertainment. At the beginning of the game, Beni's sister is kidnapped, blah, blah, blah, well when Beni first enters Tomb 35, Dormeuse asks him what he is doing here. Why wouldn't he simply say "My sister has been kidnapped and if I want her to live, I must recover treasure from this tomb," but noooooooo, he's all aloof and vague. Now some people would say that he didn't tell her because what kind of a game would it be if she let him waltz out with the treasure. My point is the dialogue isn't what a person would say in these types of circumstances. The game would still be the same if Beni HAD stated that, and Dormeuse replied "I've heard this before" or "I was designed with no empathy" or any other number of replies. So in the end, my beef is that I feel the dialogue could have used something extra.

Gameplay: 8.1
A Myst-like adventure with FPS controls. Now if they tuned up Beni's innate abilities, I would have been blown away. The uniqueness of the puzzles and how they work get big ups from this reviewer.

Graphics: 9.0
Stunning, absolutely stunning. I hope you have a decent graphics card so you can take in the game's beautiful environments and stunning effects. Wow.

Audio: 7.5
Emotion was conveyed when needed and the conversations came across well spoken, so I had no problem with the voice actors, I just feel the dialogue needed more cleverness to it. Or at least have it be a conversation that would actually occur given the surroundings.

Difficulty: Hard
Oh, I'm sure somebody out there will have an easy time with this one, but they're going to be a card-carrying member of Mensa. I had a real hard time with some of these puzzles. Some weren't too bad, but there's this one, and if you play the game you'll know exactly what I am talking about.

Concept: 7.0
It could literally be the next chapter in the Myst series, and I doubt anyone who plays this one won't think that the developers weren't heavily influenced by Myst.

Overall: 8.0
I really did and am currently enjoying this game. There's no real violence, and it's based mostly on your ability to solve puzzles so I would say it's a good game for parent and child to try and tackle together. It's nice to see a game that doesn't need excess to be well done and enjoyable. Give it a shot.