Since I have been without any real gaming rig for close to 2 months, and therefore having to live without Battlefield 2 (gasp-the thought), I have decided to play a Alternate Reality-esque Game called Missing. Published by The Adventure Company, the premise of the game centers around a reporter from the SKL Network and his female companion who were investigating a string of serial murders from the 1970s when they disappeared suddenly in January 2004. The network was sent an encrypted CD-ROM by someone known only as "The Phoenix." The network has since been enlisting people to help assist them in their search for both people.
The publishers have went out of there way to make you feel that you have been sent a copy of the CD-ROM and are supposed to help them put all the clues together to solve the mystery of their disappearance. Everything from the packaging to the "read me" installation notes are done in a way that does not let on, to the unsuspecting person, that this is indeed just a computer game. 
Indeed, the game play (which amounts to solving a bunch of puzzles) requires one to search the Internet for content and sites that have been published to support the game, as well as interact with fictional characters via e-mail.
So far, the game is a lot of fun. It really reminds me of EA’s first Alternate Reality Game title, Majestic.
Leave A Comment?