Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose is an adventurous point-and-click puzzle game. The story line is that of the classic Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose), but not in the "sing-song" Disney-ish sense. It is more if a mysterious thriller, with a dark edge, complete with the eerie music. It starts with an overview of the original story of Sleeping Beauty, but with a twist. When the prince comes to kiss the slumbering princess, things go very wrong. Everyone except Briar Rose is awakened. A thousand years pass and everything the Sleeping Beauty has known has long been gone.

Now there are cryptic vines with thorns hastily growing from the ancient castle, and threatening to spread and overtake the city close by. The player's job is to explore the deteriorating castle and figure out how to end the curse and prevent the city from being evacuated. Players will meander around and as they solve the door puzzles, new areas will be opened to explore. There are hidden objects to be found and challenging puzzles to be solved in order to move you toward your goal of saving the castle.

There are twelve chapters to get through and some of the puzzles make it necessary to go back more than once to the same place in order to find everything needed to move forward. Places requiring the player's attention are shown by a single sparkle, and when entering a hidden object room items are indicated by a sprinkle of sparkles. There are tools to help players in their quest, such as the detective journal to keep track of progress. It helps the player keep track of where they've been in case they need to backtrack. The cursor changes to a magnifying glass to further explore an area, or an arrow which indicates areas the player can go to.

Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose is similar to Mystery Case Files, ghostly spirits and all. It can be rather tricky with challenging scenes containing hidden objects. Though the door puzzles are much like those in other hidden objects games, they do have a mystic twist. Players are sure to love the magnificent art work and sound effects in the game as they work toward solving the mystery and saving the city in this eerie, yet enchanting quest.

• Magnificent art work and sound effects
• Save Sleeping Beauty!
• Check out the Collector's Edition
• Get the Strategy Guide!
• The adventure continues in Dark Parables: The Exiled Prince game