This game has been the favorite of our 7 yo and both of us parents ever since it arrived. I admit that after playing it addictively for 2 days in a row we all put it down for a while because you do tend to get tired of the same scenes when you are playing it 24-7 (ha ha!). But a less obsessive enjoyment of it sets in when you pick it up again, and it has plenty of variety and challenge for all of us. I have now reached the forgotten ruins, but as a lover of puzzles I still pick it up to play it all over again. Our 7 year old is getting advanced reading practice from having to read the list of items she must search for. We all do tend to skip over the journal entries- they weren't all that exciting because they didn't actually challenge us with much of a mystery (it was too easy to predict what would happen) or archaeological facts.