Despite all the bluster about conspiracies and origins of the species, the Da Vinci Code is an adventure story with a murder thrown in for good measure. Considering the state and number of adventure games available that don't completely focus on combat, there's good reason to give the game a chance based on the genre alone.

Just in case there's a reader out there who hasn't heard of the Da Vinci Code, here goes: Robert Langdon is a symbologist accused of murder. The path of redemption lies along a series of cryptic clues left by a dead man which, in turn, lead to long-buried, scandalous secrets about the Catholic church. Langdon, the main character, is joined by cryptographer Sophie Neveu to unravel the code and put the world's demons to rest.

The occupations of the main characters would lead one to expect that the game revolves around puzzle solving. And the good news is that a lot of the puzzles are interesting and clever enough to be entertaining. Some are rather obvious, some are headache inducing and difficult, but most fall somewhere in between. There are riddles, codes, pieces of things to put together – all the stuff you'd expect, and most of it fits with the setting and tone of the story. The source of these puzzles include priceless works of art, ancient architecture and history most people have never heard. If that's the kind of game you'd enjoy, then you're in luck.

But if you want anything else to go along with your puzzle solving, your luck is about to run out. The animations and character models in the game are not up to par. People look plain and drab, and they move like poorly handled puppets. Dialogue is delivered about as woodenly as humanly possible by voice actors who seem completely uninterested in the amazing discoveries of the main characters. Considering the implications and historical context of the story, the delivery should be appropriately urgent, incredulous and excitable. It's not, and it doesn't help that the long-winded speeches seem to come one after the other, over and over again.

Despite the fact that the source story is clearly meant to be more cerebral and tense than a typical action flick, this is a video game. And hardly a game is put out for sale that doesn't include some kind of fighting. In this case, you'll get into a grapple with the bad guy, then decide whether you want to hit him, shove him, etc. Based on your choice, you'll be prompted to enter a series of button presses displayed on the screen. If you do so accurately, you'll pull off the desired move. It's not a bad system, it just makes the fights take a lot longer than what would feel natural. The main characters are scholars, not gladiators. Any fighting should have been kept to a bare minimum.

Even so, the story in the game remains faithful to the source material and adds some detail and background in the process. And the puzzle aspects of the game are done well, so those who are interested in interacting with the events and characters in the book and movie may enjoy the game. But the other aspects – animation, dialogue, acting, environments, and fighting – are too poorly produced and out of place to ignore.