Product Description

The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript is a full recreation of the era in which the legendary artistand engineer lived. You become Valdo - a disgraced apprentice of Francesco Melzi, a former disciple of the late Leonardo Da Vinci. Valdo receives a mysterious letter asking for help to uncover one of Leonardo's lost codices. Valdo is out of work, and the money is too tempting to ignore. So he travels to Italy and embarks on a strange and deadly journey, to uncover Master Leonardo's greatest secret.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10930 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: PC
• Model: 183861000867
• Released on: 2006-05-20
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Format: CD

Features

• Point-and-click controls, in a fully interactivve world - explore and experience life in 1500s Italy
• Deep puzzles based on the ideas and inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci himself
• Unique controls and game options, even strategic use of clothing changes
• Moral barometer tracks your decisions and affects the ending

Customer Reviews

Recommend this game
My husband and I just played this game. The graphics and sound are good. The puzzles are fun. We cheated on a couple since we didn't want to spend too much time on them. Most puzzles and tasks are logically accomplished.

Gets dull pretty quick
I played the demo for this game and really enjoyed it. That lead me to buy the full version. Unfortunately, I found that the demo was the most enjoyable level of the game. The level of detail is wonderful and you really feel like you are there in DaVinci's manor (as much as the point and click interface will allow).

But ... after level one, you start to feel like you are the handy fix-it-up man around the house. You start fixing things. Which, to me at least.. can get a little dull. You also start collecting ingredients. There are many times where you have to combine several collected ingredients. Those and mechanical puzzles tend to not be my cup of tea.

After level one, I just was not enjoying my experience with this game. Everything takes place within the same house and surrounding area too. A little diversion would have been ok. I just didn't feel compelled to continue on. It gets pretty dull, in my opinion.

Fantastic
Secrets of Da Vinci is another game from Kheops Studio, the producers of Return to Mysterious Island. You play Valdo, a young artist (and occasional forger) who has been hired to Chateau Amboise in France to find a codex that Leonardo da Vinci left there on his deathbed.

Like RtoMI, the game is entirely non-linear and it all takes place in the chateau or on the chateau grounds. There's a lot of inventory to pick up and a great mix of puzzles--mostly logic. Oh, and you can act either "angelic" or "diabolic" to change how some of the characters respond to you.

There are two different endings, depending on how nicely you want to play with the chatelaine of the chateau. I mean that literally--I think the game is rated E but to advance you have to seduce the lady, and there's a cutscene sketch of the two of you in bed together. It's not dirty, but I was a little surprised that they actually showed it.

Overall, Secrets of da Vinci was fantastic, and I can't wait for the next Kheops game to come out (Cleopatra, which is already out in France and should be released in English in a few months).