Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best "traditional" point-and-click adventure games in recent memory.In this sci-fi mystery set in the far future, you play Jake Wright, a happy-go-lucky space trader who inherited the mining claim of your uncle Jacob, who has died under mysterious circumstances on a mining colony known as Luna Crysta. Starting out to find out exactly what your uncle left behind, you will soon discover a much deeper and more interesting story that involves murder and possible extinction of an entire race.

The gameplay should be familiar to all adventure fans: you interact with different characters, pick up anything that isn't nailed down, and figure out what to do with inventory items. The game strikes a nice balance between Myst-style logic puzzles and inventory-based puzzles, most of which involves figuring out how to use the various futuristic gadgets. All the puzzles are integrated into the storyline quite well- none of them seems out of place or just there for the sake of stumping you.

The interface is easy to use, although the combination of live actors and computer-generated 3D environments sometimes produce awkward results. The combination is not as seamless as Buried in Time which has a much more elegant interface, but it is adequate. The acting is all above-average, except for a few instances of overacting. Unfortunately, heavy use of full-motion video means a LOT of CDs are required. The game comes on 6 CDs - the use of movies (as well as poor design) requires you to swap CDs very frequently. Fortunately, the story and puzzles are strong enough to make you grit your teeth, swap those CDs, and move on.

In the end, Dark Side of the Moon is a great adventure game that is marred by blurry videos and almost-endless CD swapping. The excellent sci-fi story, decent length, and challenging-yet-logical puzzles will keep you glued to the screen for the many hours it will take to finish it. A wonderful game, but try to find the rarer DVD version if you can to minimize frustration from CD swapping. Two thumbs up for this underdog.