Game: Flights of Fancy: Two Doves

Having had some development ups and downs over the last year, ERS Game Studio fights its way back to the top of the genre with Flights of Fancy: Two Doves. This high-class, high-fantasy hidden object adventure offers beauty, magic, wonder, and best of all, surprises—all of which (despite one sizeable flaw) remind us why the name ERS is synonymous with adventure game excellence.Two Doves won me over from the start by casting me as a countess: an unusual choice of heroine that veers from the usual princess/detective/reporter/psychic idea. The narrative ball gets rolling when the countess is away from home, attending an engagement party for the king. She gets back and finds that her castle's been violated by persons unknown. It appears they've stolen a magical dove (a twin to one owned by the king) necessary to protect the kingdom, and have turned her vassals into shiny little figurines. With the help of her last remaining servant, she combs the castle for clues and what she uncovers is deeply unsettling.Considering the doom hanging over the countess and the kingdom, Two Doves' astonishing beauty is something of a paradox. It's clear thatERS let the art team go full throttle here and gave them free rein to add as much creativity, color, and detail as their hearts desired. Amazing attention is paid to the game's interface (the animated inventory items and unique scroll journal for instance) and overused fantasy themes are freshened up by extraordinary inventiveness (two words -"Viking plant"). Playing Two Doves brings to mind the magic you felt as a kid reading fairy tales for the first time: the feeling that around every corner will be something new, strange, and possibly dangerous.