Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

The Good
The game opens in a grand way that is a true cross between Indiana Jones and Lucasarts games, with a witty intro that intertwines the credits with actually playing the game, I loved this and wish more games were creative this way.

The plot of the game is very in the Indy vein, taking the much over-used idea of Atlantis and putting the Nazi spin on it. True to Jones form the game doesn't dwell in ancient scriptures and instead constructs an almost plausible story involving a lost dialogue of Plato as a cue for sending our hero across the world. Being an adventure game it gets pretty close to the feel of the film, given the constraints of being played out across static screens and being unable to use proper cinematography. The SCUMM game engine has clearly been used well, performing admirably and enhanced by great voice acting and an excellent score (helped along by the famous Indy motif).

The famous thing everyone says about the game is the different paths through depending on you playing style, which add a replayability to it, though I suppose were it a real Jones film, the muscles path would have to be taken.

The Bad
Being an adventure game the game has to have challenging elements I suppose, but sometimes these challenges are ramped beyond what you'd get in at the cinema. I felt that these detracted from the romping across the globe feel, as you were left sometimes doing a fairly ridiculous travel back and forth across the globe to attempt a different puzzle whilst figuring another out.

This kind of criticism may seem unjust given it does the best it can do as a game, but then it is trying to follow in the steps of a film series. I would write that the plot and ending is a little too overblown for an Indy story, but then I've now seen the Crystal Skull, so even the Infernal Machines plot devices could seem reasonable now. The staging of the story doesn't quite work so well, as the tone of the game is more light-hearted than the films, following more on LucasArts other games such as Monkey Island, though I suppose it might help relieve the pressure of 'using item a on object b' to solve a puzzle.

The Bottom Line
In term of where the genre was at when the game was released, it's a milestone, playing other games from the same era allows you to realise how smoothly this game plays and how well the 'never die' (at least giving you a fair warning otherwise) device works well and helps the game continue.

There are lessons to be learnt from this game on how to write and design a good adventure game, though also improvements that could come forth too such as injecting more a free-flowing film dynamism to the game, making the action sequences less stifled (long-winded boxing matches, anyone?).

Definitely worth playing for all adventure buffs and Indiana Jones fans who felt that maybe the latest movie installment didn't deliver.

The Good
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis is one of Lucas Arts best adventure games ever. It remains a classic and most players would remember this game instead of the new Indy adventures (Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb) if they were asked. Well, this one became really great.

The plot is just amazing. Fate Of Atlantis has a great storyline. It is involving. It is even realistic -- well, don't expect too much of truth, this is Indiana Jones we're talking about. This adventure game could have turned into another Indy movie. In fact, many people really thought Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis would be released in theaters. Well, Spielberg should have done this one.

This Indy adventure had everything it could have. There are lots of action. There are different scenarios (Indy travels a lot, of course). There are fighting scenes. There is a girl. Indy does amazing things with his whip. It is a typical Indiana Jones story, and it is only on computers. If you want to know it, then you'll have to play. Well, the game couldn't have been more fantastic, as George Lucas himself keeps quality control of his games and he would never let the image of the star of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' be spoiled.

The great involving story is the best part of the game. Well, the puzzles. The puzzles are part of the story. They follow the storyline (as true adventure games do) and provides lots of challenges and tons of fun. There are also some action parts. The rest is pure irrelevant detail. And this is what great adventure games are made of: first of all, a story and challenge.

Another plus: there is part where you choose your way among three options. You can opt to continue your adventure with Sonia (your mate, the girl I was talking about). She can give you hints and help you through the rest of the adventure. You may also choose to go on alone, following your own brains. Then, you'll have lots of puzzles to solve, some really difficult, and less action sequences. Finally, Indy may opt to go on by himself, following his instincts and filling the game with action. In this choice, puzzles are less frequent and there are more action scenes (such as fighting and racing). Each way has its own end. This choice brings the game an extraordinary replay value, as it can be played three times, without solving all the puzzles.

Gameplay is basically the same as Monkey Island: very good. The player controls almost every movement of the character (this means interaction, which some later games must have forgotten) and the buttons are simple and intuitive. The bar below the screen may take some precious space, but is very useful and was the best thing they had in 1992.

Graphics were very good for the time. They didn't follow the traditional Lucas Arts style of cheerful, colored backgrounds. Indiana Jones had sober graphics, in an effort to make them realistic. Well, one could notice they were as realistic as they could for the time. But they were also grainy, as VGA 320x200 resolution doesn't help in making them very sharp. It also has to be noted here that Lucas Arts always preferred to make accessible games. It is better to have a real good game with modest graphics which runs in every computer then to have an incredible realism which runs very slowly on your computer. This doesn't force the players to upgrade their machines to run the games. So, users should be thankful to Lucas Arts for releasing 320x200 games until 1996. Apart from that, Indy had very well elaborated graphics that look good even if compared to much newer games. Some backgrounds look like real paintings.

The music? Who would you choose to compose the game soundtrack? Is John Williams OK? Well, the music is exactly the same as the movies and it can be easily recognized even when played in PC speaker. Nothing to complain about it. Much on the contrary. Indiana Jones soundtrack is one of the best ever elaborated for movies and stands as one of John Williams favourites, as well as Star Wars and E.T. ones. Besides the main theme, all the other were also very good and provided a great atmosphere. In a few words: music couldn't be better. The CD-ROM version also featured digitised voices.

The Bad
Although the game is filled with the same magic as Monkey Island, it is sometimes too serious. The puzzles may be too logical at times, and may be a little obvious for some players. And some may look too realistic.

And it gets even more serious when you realize Indy can die in this game. Yes. But just in some occasions. Well, Lucas Arts always told the players they couldn't die in its games. In this one, they can, but just in a few situations, which is somewhat contradictory: adopting this possibility, why the danger of Indy dying is not present all the time? Maybe Lucas Arts was reluctant in doing that.

This game is also a little short. It could have been longer. This is probably because of the three versions it contains. But it would be really nice if it contained three long games instead of shorter ones.

Sound effects could have been better. They were just OK and didn't keep up with the great music. Besides it, Harrison Ford didn't play Indiana Jones voice in the CD-ROM version (it would have been just great, but the voice is nice anyway).

There are also some few glitches that could have been fixed. But they are most part of the story, which is great, and I'm not gonna spoil the fun by telling it.

The Bottom Line
TRUE CLASSIC. The best Indiana Jones game yet and maybe the only Lucas Arts adventure game that can keep up with Monkey Island.

The Good
And they loved it. OMG this game is so good! Not like modern games which are all boring and who don't have a soul. Old games were so much better. I remember when I played when I was like 14 years old and it was so amazing and it was summer and I jumped out of my window and went to a walk in the forest with my dogs to eat some berries and everything was just so special.

So I played it again and went for a walk with my dogs like I did back then and it still was amazing.

The Bad
Are you crazy?! This is the best game ever. Like for realsies. Well, that and that this wasn't made into Indy 4. Crystal Skulls like sucked and everything.

The Bottom Line
Played it with my dogs.

Okay, now the real review.

I'm here sitting and looking at the release date of this game – 1992. Wow. 18 years old. And I'm now vaguely sensing and realizing a difference between adventure games of today and adventure games of those days.

Adventure games of those days overshadowed other genres, and this here overshadows games that had yet to come in the world. What I'm talking about is the user-friendliness of the title. It's so easy to play it, and it's so wonderful to play it with it's dynamic atmospheric soundtrack and puzzles that don't bore you.

Today adventure games are a boring, uninspired mess, using Dan Brown as a basis for their stories and characters, and who have really dated puzzles. Writing wise Fate of Atlantis isn't much better. There's hardly any story or characters. It's all just a series of puzzles, sometimes they appear as human characters, sometimes they're just honest objects. For Fate of Atlantis is really a puzzle game. This is not something to be hold as example for how adventure games were about "story" or something.

For there is no proper story. You meet a guy, he says he needs stuff, you travel to the other side of the world, get stuff, come back and then guy tells you where you can get more stuff. And it's all coated in this Indiana Jones exterior. But Indy is not really a wisecracking swashbuckling hero in here, he solely relies on the player to fill in the blanks. Well that's a bit harsh – not solely, but most of the dialogue in this game is just puzzle-talk. Examples:

1) "What should we do now?"
"We should find this thing!"

2) "Hello, I'm Indiana Jones."
"Hello doctor Jones, answer me these questions and then you can get this stuff you want to solve your next puzzle."

There's not really any decoration to these lines and characters in these game. It's very pure puzzle-talk with no extra. Very barren of juice, if you know what I mean. It's quite different from Monkey Island 2 for example, which had loads of different dialogue not at all relevant to puzzles or the game at all. But in MI2 they helped to flesh out the world and the characters.

Though, most adventure games were very puzzle-oriented in those days and can hardly be called story games. There were largely two different kinds. There were the Sierra type where the extra was given through the narrator and descriptions, which were all full of craziness and/or world-building. Lucasarts type of games it was the main character himself who made all sorts of jokes to enhance the basic puzzle-game. None of these games really told stories, though around this time adventure games were starting to do things that later culminated into games like Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight and Grim Fandango. You know, story-telling games.

But Fate is before that. And unlike others of it's era, it doesn't really have any extra.

Fate of Atlantis is a pure puzzle-oriented adventure game. In fact it's so pure that it boasts three different paths with three different kinds of puzzles. And it's not bad. It's great and fun.

For what it is lacking in dialogue and characters, it makes up for with atmosphere visuals and music. And this game is atmospheric! You know, that bit about playing with my dogs wasn't made up at all. There's this very unique atmosphere or vibe or feeling to the game that stays with you for a while.

Now this atmosphere or vibe is not perhaps the most Indy. I mean, remember when people hoped that Fate of Atlantis would be Indy 4? But it's not. It stars Indiana Jones, but for some reason this whole supernatural Atlantis a la Helena Blavatsky, carries a whole different kind of vibe than the 30's pulp of the film series. And Hal Barwood actually researched Blavatsky for this game.

You know, this special feeling that I talked about before? I'm gonna go crazy and say that this feeling was actually the spirit of Helena Blavatsky, who found my essence and locked on to this, while I was playing the game and then followed me when I was walking in the forest with my dogs. Did I mention I was seeing dead atlantean gods in that forest?

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I don't find the game and it's atmosphere most Indy-like. But then again, most of non-trilogy Indy-stuff is un-Indy like. And unlike some un-Indy like Indy-stuff, this one here is quite an enjoyable experience.

So time to talk about why these puzzles are not depressing. Well, they're not crazy non-logical puzzles. They're seamless. They feel natural. And they depend on which kind of game are you playing - the wits path, the fist path or the team path. The game chooses it for you on how you solve the first puzzle of the game, though you can reject that choice and choose your own.

The team path should be sort of like Indy and the snarky girl out on an adventure, having funny unresolved sexual tension. But since most of the dialogue is so puzzle-oriented and no extra, very few moments actually create that effect. Not the most exciting path for me.

The wits path is like the team path, in that it's puzzles require thinking, but it's all solo. There's no Sophia. And except for a fun Monte Carlo segment, I think this is inferior to other paths.

The fist path is sort of like an action adventure game in the form of early 90's Lucasarts adventure game and is my favorite. Mostly because you get to fight and kill people here. And most of the puzzles are sort of physical – should I fight Arnold over there or should I roll this giant boulder over him? And it's not all solo, there are times when you and Sophia are together. So it's best of both worlds.

But of course it's fun to experience all these different paths. Unfortunately the paths are only the middle part of the game. The ending chapter is still the same, and can become boring and tiresome on your third path.

But there were not many games in 1992 with this sort of seamless natural puzzles and multiple paths. Not to mention these production values. There was an other brilliant game in 1992 and that was King's Quest 6, and largely for the same reasons that Fate of Atlantis is. Most adventure games tended to have idiotic torturous puzzles and no replayability; though very recommended as retro experiences.

But Fate of Atlantis has a touch of genius to it that makes it unique and I hope I managed to describe what this touch was, while honestly describing the faults too.

So, a tl;dr version too.

• lifeless dialogue
  
• world locations just a collection of decorated puzzles
  
• no interesting comments from the main characters
  
• characters not really characters, but obstacles
  
• multiple paths
  
• seamless natural puzzles
  
• marvelous atmosphere getting me possessed by Blavatsky
  
• IMUSE dynamic soundtrack
  
• very easy to play
  

It's a great piece of work. Played it with my dogs and they loved it. It's funny that a game by a veteran Hollywood screenwriter that hanged out with Spielberg in 70's, is greatly designed in gameplay but lacking in dialogue. But there it is. Unfortunately the same approach fails Hal Barwood in his recent adventure game – Mata Hari.