Fading Shadows is an attempt to bring an in-depth story to the puzzle genre. Sadly, however it's not a very successful one, which is a shame, as I had such high hopes for this game to be the new puzzler for the PSP.

The story is set in a mythical world where the evil Master Gardel has orchestrated a plan to conquer the Castle of Heaven by sacrificing the soul of Erwyn to allow him the power to breach the castle gates. Erwyn's sister, Aira, seals Erwyn's soul into a single protective orb, but having used all of her power to create a mystical beam of light to guide the orb, she no longer has the strength to control it - and that is where you come in. It's never actually explained if you're a warrior, a fellow magical entity or just someone who Aira picked up at a local bar after two vodka and Redbulls, but you have accepted and must now take on this quest.

Similar to Mercury Meltdown, you must guide the orb through a maze-like level, picking up bonuses (and jigsaw pieces that allow you to view artwork in the bonus section), while pressing switches and solving logic or guesswork puzzles through the forty available levels. To do this you must decrease or increase the allure of a beam of light that the orb must follow, using the orb's three forms (metal, wood and glass) to reach your goal. Each state has their positives and negatives to your progress; wood can float on water but is easily burnt by your light, metal has the ability to jump rusts in water and glass is your general all-rounder, which can go in water and burns slower than wood but is easily broken by contact with walls. So, for example, in some levels you will need to cross water, requiring the wood state, then once out of the water there might be steps to jump, which requires the metal state, and so on.

Though the puzzles and levels in themselves are highly addictive, they do suffer a lot from confusing designs. You can sometimes spend five to ten minutes looking around every nook and cranny, trying every form of the orb, before you realise that you have to jump on a certain square in a wall. Unlike other puzzlers that thrive on replay value, there are no statistics such as time taken, bonuses gained and so on, which would have increased the longevity of the game. The option of choosing to play a certain level again would have helped, especially in the search for all the jigsaw pieces. Each level progresses in the typical way of increasing the puzzles, learning new skills that become relevant later on and making you think two or three steps ahead - but as I say, with no time limit or consequences for failure (other than having a set number of lives to complete the level with) you can take as much time as you want, giving you a leisurely game that is a lot less exciting than the frantic gameplay of the likes of Tetris or Lumines.

One issue I have with Fading Shadows is the story. It's not that I don't appreciate the effort, but I find myself struggling to figure out why it was included at all. Other than on the back of the box, the booklet and the short blink and you'll miss them montages of beautiful artwork that occur every few levels, the game doesn't actually explain what is going on (whereas the use of voiceovers in Star Wars: Battlefront was perfect in this regard), so the actual story has no impact on the gameplay at all. If the story had been left out, the experience would have been exactly the same and it becomes the gaming equivalent of a film featuring Robert DeNiro on the cover for you to view the entire thing without him appearing once. I felt a bit cheated, as I had such high hopes for this 'puzzler with a story' concept, but instead it's just forty levels of puzzles that becomes a little boring after a while.

Graphically there's no faulting Fading Shadows - the menus and artwork are beautiful, reminiscent of illustrations from a David Gemmell novel, while the levels and gameplay elements are wonderfully created throughout. Unfortunately however, the game is burdened by the worst camera in existence. Controlled by the left and right shoulder buttons, it is appalling, unable to focus on anything. Perhaps if the shoulder buttons had been used in combination with the d-pad it would have given me the control I needed, especially considering that many levels require almost every element to be analysed to figure out what needs to be done. The sound is as professional as the graphics too, featuring the most beautiful and relaxing music since Ecco the Dolphin, although it's so relaxing that I actually fell asleep during one session with the earphones in!

Sadly, the limited lifespan and meandering pace aren't the only negatives in Fading Shadows, as it has horrendous load times, taking almost a full minute per level. I became very restless during these constant pauses and as most of the first ten levels can be completed in less than a minute, it made the experience even worse. Multiplayer is also a little disappointing - I was hoping this would perhaps feature some co-operative levels where you needed the help of a second player, but instead it's simply a race through ten levels, with your only goal to complete each level before your opponent. This could easily have been achieved with a take it in turns timed mode; there's really no need for two PSPs and two games for a mode like this!

Fading Shadows isn't a bad game puzzle game, but it's not a particularly good one either. It won't keep you playing after the forty levels are completed and, to be honest, by level fifteen there's no real impetus to carry on playing. Unlike great puzzlers that grip you and force you to keep playing until someone pries your shiny PSP from your grubby little paws, this one fades into the shadows cast by its competition, where it will probably remain.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).