The original Jules Verne novel on which this game is based told of a fantastic expedition to a hidden land beneath the Earth's surface. Instead of simply rehashing the tale, the developers have wisely brought it bang up to date with a modern, sassy photojournalist as the heroine.

On a trip to Iceland, the helicopter she's in crashes, the pilot disappears and Ariane falls into a chasm while searching for him. She arrives in a land that has been caught in a peculiar time warp somewhere between the age of the dinosaurs and the nineteenth century.

While she awaits the rescue party, Ariane can barely contain her excitement as she explores the scoop of the century. As well as meeting a range of prehistoric creatures (not all of whom are as fierce as you'd expect), she encounters a large collection of weird and wonderful characters who ask her to solve a lot of problems for them.

This takes the familiar form of point-'n'-click exploration and retrieval, also combining various elements in the inventory. Some of these combos are so bizarre that you'll probably need a walkthrough to help, while others are self-evident. One major missing element is a decent map that would allow you to zap back and forth to visited locations, rather than having to wade through several screens (as in Myst) every time you needed to gather an item.

The graphics are quite beautiful, with rich, vivid colours and plenty of detail on both the recognizable and surreal elements in the landscape. Ariane moves rather stiffly but that doesn't detract from the lush vegetation and animated 'monsters'. There is a serious flaw in the graphics detection system, though, as you have to place the cursor on exactly the right area of the screen to pick up the 'hot spots'. Sometimes these are all but invisible and developers Frogwares would do well to issue an urgent patch to repair this.

Although the story is strictly linear, you do have a certain amount of latitude to explore the world you're in. When several of the puzzles have been solved, you're rewarded with some excellent full-motion video scenes that include pterodactyls in full flight and a balloon trip.

This is the kind of epic journey where you don't pause too often to question the logic (e.g. how can the sun be shining under the ground?) and in fact the narrative is seductive enough to keep you wondering what's going to happen next. Whether or not they read and enjoyed the book, adventure gamers will appreciate this conventionally constructed and aesthetically appealing game.

It's no startling breakthrough in adventure gaming, but this energetic adaptation of the Jules Verne classic has an engaging heroine, a plethora of puzzles, impressively surreal graphics and a fascinating enough storyline to keep you reeled in.