Pandora's Box is a highly graphical strategy puzzle adventure. The basic story of the game is that you must return locate characters all over the world to restore Pandora's Box, and to capture these characters, you must first locate particular items associated with each character. To actually win the items, and subsequently win the character, and finally win the game, you must solve a variety of puzzles. In addition to the basic goal of winning the items, you can also be awarded hints and "free" puzzles along the way.

Although this is basically a puzzle game, the graphics and sounds transform this game into an adventure. Add to that the story along with the world map and graphics from all over the world, and it is a fun-filled world exploration journey.

The first character we are looking for is Maui, and in order to find Maui, we must first locate various items (such as a boat, fish, fish hook, and bird). The location of each item is in different cities in different parts of the world. The game starts off with a world map, and the city of New York is highlighted as the only city you can go to. Click on the city, and you are presented with 10 puzzle buttons at the bottom of the screen. To the left side are the number of puzzles solved, as well as the number of hints and free puzzle tokens. A hint token can be used to solve a piece of a puzzle that you may be stuck on, and a free puzzle token can be used to solve an entire puzzle without having to do anything. There are some puzzles which may not be your favorite, and this free puzzle token becomes quite valuable.

The puzzles are all based upon pictures related to the city you are located in, usually depicting historical scenes or monuments. Most of the puzzles are 2D related, but a few are 3D. There are a total of 10 different puzzle types, but you don't start off with all types to begin with. You are given a random mix of three different types, and as you progress through the game, new types are introduced. Each time you play a new type, you are given the option to run through a tutorial of the puzzle type which I found quite helpful. It's a practice puzzle, basically, but a little easier than the normal puzzle and with text messages to guide you along the way.

One of the puzzle types is called "Focus Point". It's a picture which is broken into various sized rectangles, and then scrambled. What used to be in a large piece may be compressed into a small piece, and vice versa. If you have a good eye for resolution clarity, you can usually tell when a piece was in the wrong place (e.g., highly pixelated pieces would normally need to be put into a smaller piece). By clicking on two pieces, the pieces are swapped, and you continue to swap pieces until the puzzle is completed.

Another puzzle type is called "Image Hole" where a picture is covered up by some color, and then pieces of the picture are cut out of the cover layer and moving about the canvas (for example, a bull's head outline). Each of the cut-outs is moving around in different directions and at varying speeds, and as the cut-outs move about, they reveal the picture behind. Your goal is to guide the cut-outs to the correct location on the picture and click them into place.

One of the 3D puzzle types is called "Slices". In this puzzle, you are presented with a checkboard, and a 3D object which has been sliced into pieces and scattered about the board. You need to rotate the pieces and stack them accordingly, until you build the 3D object back to its original form.

I found all of the puzzles interesting and unique in their own way, some of which I enjoyed more than others (and some were easier than others). When you completed a puzzle, your puzzle count goes up, and you may also win a hidden hint token or free puzzle token. One of the puzzles is also hiding the item you are looking for, so you don't necessarily have to play all the puzzles to find the item. I assume that you must play a certain number of them, however, before the item becomes available.

The difficulty of the puzzles was just about right, with an increased difficulty when you actually went after the characters. In fact, the difficulty in solving the puzzle which got me Maui really tired me out, leaving me with no energy to continue for that session. This could be a good thing for those who sometimes get sucked into games longer than your rational mind deems healthy.

For a puzzle game, Pandora's box is outstanding. The story, graphics and sounds transform the puzzle game into an interesting adventure. In the realm of adventure games, however, it is only so-so. The player does not have an effect on the story, nor is there a lot of flexibility of where you get to travel. For example, you are not allowed to go after any other character except for Maui to begin with, and once you have captured Maui, you don't get to go back to those cities from that level again. Over time, one may grow tired of the puzzles and lose incentive to capture all of the characters. If you enjoy a good puzzle, however, you will thoroughly enjoy this game.

Pros

• Excellent graphics and sounds
• A good variety of puzzle types
• Good tutorials on how to play the puzzles

Cons

• Player does not really affect the story
• There is no Mac version
• May not be enough variety of puzzles to hold interest long enough to capture all of the characters

Rating: 4 out of 5 Mice