In this game, you control a historical character, Robert Ripley (1893-1949), a famous traveler and collector of rarities. One day, during a travel in Egypt, Ripley was attacked by mysterious Chinese assassins. The trail leads him and his Chinese girlfriend Mei Chen to the Forbidden City of Beijing. There he becomes involved in a mystery that will take him to exotic locations all around the globe.

The game plays like a traditional puzzle-solving adventure. Ripley will have to talk to various people, searching for information, but the main emphasis of the gameplay is still on puzzles, mainly inventory-based. The game features live actors filmed over pre-rendered backgrounds. Cut scenes are often presented as full-motion movies shown in small screens with close-up on the actors.