OBSIDIAN

OBSIDIAN (SegaSoft, CD-ROM for PC and Mac, $59.99) If you've seen the TV ads for Obsidian -- those chillingly stylized spots in which an egg drops and the guy watching it shatters into pieces -- you've already got a pretty good sense of this hypnotic adventure game's surrealist tone. Obsidian immerses you in a hallucinogenic dreamscape that's as nightmarish as it is beautiful -- imagine Myst as directed by Terry Gilliam. Your charge is standard adventure-game fare: As Lilah, an environmental scientist sucked into an alternate reality, you must explore your surroundings, solve a bunch of puzzles, and in general try to figure out the big picture. Fortunately, it's a picture brought to life with lushly detailed backdrops, clean and fluid animation, and an effectively atmospheric soundtrack by techno-pop pioneer Thomas Dolby. What it all adds up to is one singularly trippy multimedia experience. A-