Once again, I bring to the freeware community a masterpiece of its genre: Missing. For an adventure, this game breaks all boundaries, traditions, and gameplay limits to bring to the casual gamer a truly unique and wonderful experience. In 2006, the already well-known studio Radical Poesis Games and Creations, which had achieved professional status in the realm of freeware RPG’s, brought to the freeware community an adventure game which grabs the attention of the player and wraps it in suspense and horror. The experience that came from their work is Missing.

In this game you guide an ex-police officer as he searches the grounds of a mysterious hotel for any trace of his ex-wife and son, who went missing there while she was researching the place. In your search, you will find that the place is not as it seems, and even though many suspicious people lurk on it’s grounds, not every unfriendly being is flesh and bone. With the help of an old friend, a barmaid, and of course, you, he just may be able survive his stay. Someone is knocking at your bedroom door. Will you answer it? Or will you wuss out?

The gameplay this adventure has to offer is radically different from any other setup in an adventure game. Or at least I have not come across a game offering the same unique experience myself, and I am a rabid adventure game fan. Forsaking the traditional LucasArt’s or Sierra style GUI’s, this game chooses something from a completely different genre, first-person RPG’s. You left-click on items to interact with them, left click on the directional arrows to move, and right-click to advance in dialog. Rather simple, but very effective and fun to use. Though this doesn’t allow for very tough puzzles, it is perfect for the incredibly story-driven gameplay that seethes out of the cracks and crevices of this marvelous game.

The graphics are very creepy, and the first-person view immerses you in the story. Each and every character is creepily drawn, and the music is superb at making you feel suspenseful and uneasy. The story itself is very Hitchcockian, and the feel of the game emanates from every part of a Lovecraft-style atmosphere.

But is this game perfect? Unfortunately, no it’s not. Very often, I found it frustrating when the game crashed or the left-behind RPG interface stuck in the games code made an appearance, especially when I had not saved. Fortunately, to exit the RPG interface, just press Alt, or Ctrl, and everything should go back to normal.

So to conclude, this extremely immersive adventure contradicts all the laws of adventure games, but it wins hands down. The story, the gameplay, the atmosphere: everything forms together to create a wonderful experience. Unfortunate, some minor bugs made themselves known in the game, so I have no choice but to give it a 4.5 But don’t let that discourage you from enjoying this amazing game. Download it now!