Also located on the "icon bar" are the "INVENTORY" and "RECORDER" buttons, the active inventory item window, score, and the "CONTROLS" and "HELP" buttons. Inventory items can also be used as cursors with the active inventory item also available in the cursor cycle. The available cursors are: "WALK", "LOOK", "ASK", "TALK", "PICKUP", "OPEN/CLOSE", "OPERATE", and "MOVE". The various cursors are accessed by either selecting the respective icon from the "icon bar" or by cycling through the cursors in a predefined order. Unlike newer graphical adventure games that use context-sensitive cursors that change based on what the cursor is hovering over, Sins of the Fathers uses "dumb icons" or "dumb cursors" in which the correct cursor must be chosen for a specific interaction with an on screen object. Throughout the game a running score is added to as new challenges (both required and optional) are completed. However, within each day play may be nonlinear. In this way, the game proceeds mostly linearly, since the puzzles on a given "day" must be completed in order to reach the next day. Its story unfolds over a sequence of "days", each of which has a required set of actions to be performed before proceeding to the next. Sins of the Fathers is a point-and-click adventure game, played from a third-person perspective.