While not a dialogue-heavy game, solid voice acting is an absolute must to sell the story as a convincing morality tale, and Arxel manages to nail the most important characters of Mephisto, Theodore, and Faust. Mephisto, in particular, exudes a charismatic arrogance that's perfectly suited to the character. Some of the other characters aren't quite as strong, and you might notice a repetitive use of actors, but this doesn't detract much from the overall experience. Musically, the game is a triumph, with a wonderful blend of old jazz, blues, and classical vocals and instrumentals alike. My only quibble is that each particular piece is looped and wedded to an entire episode, and as the tracks typically clock in under five minutes, even the best of them start to wear thin as the hours pass in the lengthier episodes.

Seven Games of the Soul is a puzzle-intensive offering with a little something for everybody, varying widely in both type and difficulty. Most of the puzzles maintain balance between enjoyment and challenge, and the proper combination of careful observation with lateral and logical thinking keep the game moving, but you’ll undoubtedly get stuck on a few head-scratchers. Some of the puzzles do feel contrived as nonsensical obstacles, and there are some notable exceptions to puzzle quality, which bring the game to a grinding halt when they occur. Several are very poorly clued, while others involve some nasty pixel hunting, and another few are just dreadfully implemented. The most blatant of these—an issue of mirror reflection—is either a game glitch or completely illogical design. You know there's a problem when you can't tell which even after solving it.

The game does provide an in-game hint system in the form of a genie creature, the Homunculus. However, accessing the help involves a mindless, aggravating arcade mini-game, and the hints provided are essentially worthless. A good idea wasted. As difficulty is so subjective, it’s hard to measure game length of a title like this, but disregarding excessive “stump” time, Seven Games of the Soul should offer in the neighbourhood of 15-20 hours of gaming.

Like far too many games of this style, the gameworld suffers from a severe lack of interactivity. Virtually nothing but puzzle-related items can be manipulated, and the environments are quite confined, so there's no freedom of exploration at all. I don't mind the linearity, but since the basis of the game is investigation, the gameplay would have been enhanced considerably by letting the player do more than follow the trail of bread crumbs to the next puzzle.

My final lament is that Seven Games of the Soul ultimately stumbles somewhat under the weight of its own ambition. By design, the bulk of the game is spent raising more questions than it answers, which is what makes it so intriguing. Still, a certain degree of resolution is necessary, in one form or another, and that doesn't adequately happen. Some of the key questions are simply abandoned. Not left to the gamer's imagination—just forgotten; discarded in favour of more profound issues. I can't say more without revealing critical plot points, but suffice to say that the conclusion, while fascinating in its own right, made some unfortunate narrative sacrifices that could easily have been avoided.

These criticisms of the game, however, are secondary to my overall appreciation of it. I admire the risk the developers took in tackling the subject matter, and I enjoyed the game within a game dilemma. I consider Seven Games of the Soul to be a true thinking gamer's adventure. That may seem like a redundancy, but I'm referring to thinking outside the borders of the gameworld. Exploring the complexities of the human soul and the ambiguities of good and evil are what give the game its value, and thankfully the exercise is all wrapped up in an above-average puzzle adventure game.

The game has its flaws, without question, so I have to mark it down from my highest critical endorsement. Still, I have no problem recommending the game to any adventure gamer. It's deep, dark and daring; it has attitude and atmosphere; and most of all, it's original. In a world of "me too" clone design, this is a quality that can't be underestimated. Seven Games of the Soul is simply one of those titles that deserves to be played. In fact, I'll go a step further and say it deserves to be played twice. You'd be amazed at how much richer the experience is when privy to the grand scheme from the beginning. So work through it once, and absorb it the second time.

No game this unique will appeal to everyone, but it's a great example of the diversity the genre has to offer, and I can't imagine anyone regretting the time spent with it. Love it or hate it; either is fine. As Mephisto would tell you, the real sin is apathy.

The game is still widely available, but if you need help acquiring it, help is close at hand. Just sign here on the dotted line. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

We'll discuss terms later.