The Return of Monte Cristo picks up where The Count of Monte Cristo game left off. As you probably guessed, both are hidden object adventure games based off of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel by the same name, with a similar plotline.

The first game had you helping Edmond Dantes to escape from prison and take revenge on the people responsible for his unjust imprisonment in 19th century France. The Return of Monte Cristo strays further from the original novel, and follows Edmond as he hunts down his lover (Mercédès) killer in Paris.

Here's my review. There are more adventure components and puzzles than in the first game, but there's a walkthrough available if you get stuck. The game play is untimed, and you can skip the minigames.

To play, you move from location to location, searching for new clues. There are lots of objects to find, which are blended into the backgrounds. Items are usually relevant to their locations, but keep in mind that they are resized, so things which are normally small may appear disproportionately large, or vice versa.

You also play minigames, which have you doing things like rotating rings to make a puzzle image, or playing memory games by flipping over picture chips. They're mostly stock-standard casual game puzzles.

While the game play isn't particularly new or different, the graphics are beautiful, and the environments are interesting. You explore everything from the Paris streets, to elaborate manors, rich carriages, dank prisons, and creepy graveyards.

The Return of Monte Cristo launches on Big Fish Games on  November 6, 2009. You can get a free trial on Big  Fish by visiting the website below.