Based on a tale by Umberto Eco the adventure begins when George Stobbard, an american in Paris enjoying a pleasant afternoon at Cafe de la Chandelle Verte, is suddenly thrown into the middle of the action by a powerful explosion from inside the cafe. After some preliminary investigation he soon finds himself entwined in an unsolved mystery dating back over 600 years, concerning the mysterious Knights Templar.

As you can imagine a full blown animated adventure such as this, which is easily capable of taking the better part of a week to complete, means a fairly hefty soundtrack. You wouldn't be mistaken. The original score, written by Barrington Pheloung, is over three hours long. This is a first for an interactive CD-ROM game.

Since leaving his hometown of Sydney at the age of eighteen to attend the Royal College of Music in London, Barrington Pheloung has written forty eight commissioned scores for ballet and dance companies in Britain and Europe, created scores for several West End plays and Tennessee Williams' `Sweet Bird of Youth' on Broadway, and written the soundtrack for the film `Truly, Madly, Deeply'.

His wonderful soundtrack for Circle Of Blood is enhanced by the delightful sound effects which help create the subtle "you are there" ambience to each and every scene. Listen out for birds chirping out of the right speaker in some scenes and the left in others, or the sound of a truck that actually pans from right to left as it moves across the screen.

Wonderful stuff.

Rating - 688,479 (out of a possible 1,000,000)

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