"The Phoenix," the international serial killer from Missing, has returned. The sequel to the award-winning adventure game, Evidence: The Last Ritual, is just as spell-binding as the first. In Missing, the player is given a disk in a box that was "sent" from the agency that employed the two missing journalists. Evidence, however, comes in it's own evidence bag with documentation affixed to it as if the CDs enclosed were really part of a criminal investigation. This is merely a sample of the detail used to draw in the player to this alternate reality game.

Again, developer Lexis Numerique has created characters that interact with the player via real email and has provided a centralized web site with tools to aid in the investigation. This time around, players can also create their own profiles and communicate with other "investigators" (players) around the globe.

The game begins with a puzzle that includes a video of a woman the Phoenix has kidnapped. The puzzles are all a part of the mind game the Phoenix is playing. Some of these require some research onthe web but, fortunately, the websites to solve the clues are created by the developer. After completing a significant puzzle, the player is rewarded with various video segments of documentary footage he's acquired. These may give some background on the people he's pursuing or they may show a crime scene of one of his victims. Whichever case it may be, they all have clues for the investigation.

Evidence: The Last Ritual recaptures the mystique of Missing and adds a few new twists. It also helps that old friend, Jack Lorski, has returned as well... in a manner of speaking.

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