Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge (aka Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Carmen Sandiego Treasures of Knowledge) is a game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise, released in 2001 (despite some sources saying it was released in 2002). Despite the title, this game seems to have little do with the previous Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? titles, even abandoning the long-standing formula of the series. Instead, the game seems to be based on the structure of the newest version of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which The Learning Company retitled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time.
The protagonists of the game are Carmen's former partner Julia "Jules" Argent, an experienced ACME detective, and new recruit Shadow Hawkins, who is gadget-happy and rather arrogant. Jules and Shadow's personalities frequently bounce off each over the course of the game, similar to how Zack and Ivy were paired up in "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?", and that they had trouble with each other, but in the end, they both got along. The Chief explains that she has paired them together because she believes their personalities complement each other and indeed by the end of the game they appear to have gained some respect for each other's methods (or have at least agreed to disagree.)
At the start of the game, Carmen steals a rare Franco-Italian edition of The Travels of Marco Polo (which conveniently has the title written on the cover in English) and, as the game progresses, she goes on to steal a Māori wood carving, Incan Quipus and other seemingly random items. The goal of each of the first seven missions is to recover one item, which Carmen has hidden in a puzzle somewhere in the world. The user can only unlock this puzzle by collecting items or clues from other countries, often having to solve other puzzles first. At the end of each case, the item is found and it is announced that Carmen has stolen something else.
As the game continues, Jules and Shadow find that each object Carmen has stolen seems to be tied to a mysterious Portuguese explorer, a lost city with a great treasure and a strange "wheel" design. On the eighth and final case, Jules and Shadow track down the lost city itself. Once inside the city, however, they find Carmen sitting inside a chamber filled with priceless treasures. Carmen suggests that she may be planning to lock Jules and Shadow away in the city, but Jules insists that Carmen would not do such a thing. Shadow captures Carmen by grabbing her wrist with a grapple launcher, but she inexplicably escapes through the use of a smoke bomb. Jules suggests that Carmen wanted them to find the treasure all along so that it could be put in a museum, but Shadow remains convinced that Carmen is simply a bad person. Whatever Carmen's true motivations were is left to the user's imagination.
Treasures of Knowledge plays its storyline more seriously than previous games, eliminating such series staples as pun-filled word play, gag names, and humorously impossible thefts. However, humor is still included in much of Jules and Shadow's dialogue. Though V.I.L.E. agents are often mentioned, only a few anonymous henchmen appear in the game. Although the animation is also more realistic, the game liberally uses limited animation techniques. Shadow's database is the same database as the one in the 1996 version of the game and location music from the 1996 version is briefly played whenever the user arrives in a new country although it quickly fades away. Jordan, which was not included in the 1996 game, is an exception to this. In Shadow's database, Jordan replaces Saudi Arabia.
Source: Wikipedia, "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge", available under the CC-BY-SA License.