Others say...

"I thought Monks were supposed to be silent...LOL"
Yack, yack, yack...I was bored out of my mind with all the never ending dialoge in this game. Actually, I could probably have played the whole game in about 2 or 3 hours without all the talking, which means that there is not as much game as it may seem. The graphics are really nice and some of the scenes had lots of potential. I was disappointed that many "places" were not developed more cause they could have been really intriguing. I think this game was rushed and to cover up for the lack of game the developers through in a bunch of boring dialoge. I'm playing Evidence - The Last Ritual right now. Now there is a game! To go from Murder in the Abbey to Ritual really highlights how shallow a game Abbey is. Again though, the graphics are really good and the game ran well so that's why it got a few stars.

"People do not actually review based on what they experience, but rather based on what they assume."
This game is good. Although it has its flaws, I am very much disappointed from the bad reviews I constantly see here.

Pros:

- Good graphics. No the game is not slow, unless you have some quite old
- Great sound. Played from the Czech Philharmonic, they enhance the games atmosphere.
- Great atmosphere. A monastery full of strange facts gives you exactly what you must get: Peace and Evil in one mix.
- The riddles are good, and although mostly inventory- or chat-based, they are easy.

Cons:

- The close up of the characters is rather weird. But you will get used to it.
- Somewhat short( but there are WAY shorter ones like Nikopol).

Resume:

You should have a nice mystery game in your library. Worth the money.

"Way too slow"
The game is a big disappointment. The graphics are good, but that is about it. I am sure Dreamcatcher can make a far better game than this.

"oh brother"
i must say when i first started i was very pleased, the graphics looked good(cartoonish fashion)..the sound was good..the cut scenes are good..i was not so thrilled to be a monk, but an adventure gamer takes on many forms.The dialoge is just too much for me..snore..zzzzz...zzzzz..your monk walks so slow you can feel your skin wrinkling (the good news here is that you can double click to move to a new screen)..but when you press on something your monk takes the slow stroll to check it out.The early puzzles are just not exciting and didnt grab me..i seem to be battling my inner adventurer in wanting to play but not wanting to play for long..(I am still playing and hope it gets better, but its just not cutting it for me after playing games like..dracula origin..art of murder..jack keane..(this is a premature review and things might pick up but so far i started checking amazon for the next new game)

this game is not all bad..dont get me wrong..its just alittle slow...lots of dialoge...you are a monk at an abbey..so its no theme park.

3 of 5 .... not my cup of tea ..or should i say... wine

"The Abbey"
The Abbey

This is a traditional point-and-click adventure set within the confines of a monastery. You play as Leonardo, delivering the king's son, Bruno, to the abbey.

Installation is long, roughly 30 minutes, and initially without indication that anything is happening. Once installed there is no requirement to have the game disk (DVD) in the drive while playing.

The game detects your video setup and sets up accordingly. Unfortunately, in my case, it chose an incorrect resolution and it took some time before I realised that the graphics were not severely dark. After correction the graphics were much lighter and this made a big difference to gameplay. The whole is in cartoon form, including the characters. Cut scenes were good.

The story is basically a who-done-it. Your object is to uncover evidence and work out who the killer is. Investigations take the form of conversations and object collection to solve puzzles. The game is fairly conversation heavy. Puzzles are mainly object based. The main character was fine, Bruno childishly annoying, other characters suitably suspicious.

Occasionally the conversation sound was absent (fortunately the subtitles worked perfectly, so nothing was missed). This could have been a fault of my system, but bear this in mind if you purchase this game and experience the same fault.

With perhaps one exception, the puzzles were fair and progress was steady. There was no pixel hunting as all usable objects were well sign posted.

Expect about 40 hours of play. Despite there being an inbuilt map to zoom around quickly, the character movement was very slow.

Voice acting was good. The lip-synch was poor but at least there was some attempt made. Ambient music was well suited to the subject and did not annoy.

Expect to visit and re-visit all the available venues as characters move around and objects become available that were previously inactive.

There are 5 chapters to play through, with the story maintaining interest throughout.
I didn't guess the killer, so the suspense carried right to the end.

The game is only loosely based on "The name of the Rose". Do not expect the same plot or characters or you will be disappointed.

Overall I enjoyed the game. It's not a stellar experience, but worth playing.