''The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript'' is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

developed by

Kheops Studio Kheops Studio was an independent video game development studio created in September 2003. Its games were published by Microids, which acquired the brand and intellectual property as insolvency assets of Cryo Interactive in 2002. The company was c ...

and published by

Tri Synergy Tri Synergy was a video game publisher founded in 1996 in Dallas, Texas. They specialized in co-publishing games made by a variety of developers. The company's website is defunct, and they have not worked on any projects since 2015, so they like ...

for Windows. In 2009 it was released on the Mac OS X.

Gameplay and plot

This is an investigatory game set in 1522 at

Da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

's last home, the Cloux Manor. Gameplay is standard for 3D first-person adventure games.

Development

This game was a co-production between

Nobilis ''Nobilis'' is a contemporary fantasy tabletop role-playing game created by Jenna K. Moran. Early editions were published under Moran's previous names, Rebecca Sean Borgstrom and R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" ...

, Elektrogames, TOTM Studio,

, Mzone Studio, in collaboration with the

Clos Lucé The Château du Clos Lucé (; or simply Clos Lucé), formerly called Manoir du Cloux, is a large château located in the center of Amboise, in the department of Indre-et-Loire, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is located in the natu ...

. It was the first ever game created about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. In September 2005, the project was originally announced as ''Da Vinci Experience'', but this was changed to its current title in January 2006. It came out at a time when the culture was saturated with Da Vinci (including a

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, and competing video game). Marianne Tostivint believes ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

'' projects helped get this game be sold to a publisher and financed. A lot of effort was put into making the Clos Lucé as historically accurate as possible. The designers had three key focuses to ensure an optimum player experience: gameplay, ergonomy, and interfaces. In terms of educational goals, the designers wanted to make the game as historically accurate as it was fun to play. Coladia (who owned the publishing rights at this time) announced the release of the title on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices in February 2011. According to the Agence pour le développement économique de la région lyonnaise (ADERLY), Nobilis planned ''The Secrets of Da Vinci'' to be a hit. The publisher reportedly "hope to sell at least 100,000 copies of this game in France and exceed one million units worldwide".

Reception

The PC version received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' concluded that the game was neither difficult nor compelling. ''GameZone'' felt the game didn't offer much motivation to the player to solve puzzles and advance the plot. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' thought it was pleasurable, even if it wasn't particularly groundbreaking. ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' felt the game tread to far into the uncanny valley. '' Jeuxvideo.com'' noted that the title had replay value due to the different ways in which players can complete puzzles.

References

External links

Official website

Making of featurette
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript, The 2006 video games Cultural depictions of Leonardo da Vinci iOS games Kheops Studio games MacOS games Nobilis (company) games Tri Synergy games Video games developed in France Video games set in France Video games set in the 16th century Windows games