Jack Keane has already appeared in his own game, which was named after him, with that success under their belts the developers have gone and coded another adventure for our British hero, imaginatively called Jack Keane 2 – The Fire Within. The format of the game is a point and click adventure with the focus very much on light-hearted humour. Jack being the kind of guy that he is, the game is full of action, there is also a love interest for our hunk.

Graphically the game's aesthetically pleasing visuals sit somewhere between 2D cell animation and CGI. This goes a long way in making the game feel like it has a good 3D vide going on, using Deck 13’s FLEDGE engine. Control is either via the mouse, the preferable option, or the WASD keys. The game is unashamedly similar to Monkey Island, sharing much the same humour and levels of silliness.

Like all point and clicks the pleasure comes in two parts, the story and the actual puzzles. The story is one of high adventure where you find yourself in the predicament of having broken into a prison with no real plan on how to get back out. Your character is a version of Indiana Jones and the overall object is a treasure quest. The game comes with full vocal acting. For the most part it’s Ok, if a little short of actual emotion. The game mixes perspectives well, so that at points you may be controlling your character in full view, at other times you take on their visual point of view. As well as moving around and solving puzzles, there is the option to engage in fighting, an interesting mixture of gaming styles.

The puzzles are traditional, click on everything and talk to everyone; for the most part they make sense, although there are times when the solution is not always the most obvious one. Right at the beginning you find yourself shooting back at a number of guys with a pretty big rifle. The only problem is that your character seems incapable of just shooting the bad guys.

The first to be disposed of involves shooting a barrel which exposes a box of fireworks. The second is more irritating as you first have to throw a barrel of whiskey, change your position and then ignite the liquid with your rifle. It all feels a little like you have to just point and click everything to see what it does before you can progress. I understand why it is done this way as you dispose of the villains in ever more comical ways, but it misses the basic point of being intelligible. If I have a gun why don’t I have the option of just shooting the bad guys?

I can see that the game is likely to appeal to fans of the first game and although it looks great the lack of logic in the puzzles and the humour made this feel like a game which should have been released a decade ago. Still, there are many who like point and click puzzle games and while Jack Keane is unlikely to offer much that is radically different, the combination of elements does give Keane its own unique feel.

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Charles Packer