Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™

I'm storming through puzzle games lately and stumbled on this gem from 1992 mainly because there was a sale on Indiana Jones games, lucky me! I played Lucas Arts games growing up and this is a great intro to the series of games if you've not played many, or any at all. The puzzles so far are enjoyable and not too difficult. Sure you have to use mayonaise to slide some things around, but with only a few things to interact with in each area you quickly find out what needs to happen. The graphics are what they are, but what you lose in realism you gain with a really good storyline equal to that of an Indiana Jones movie. You'll meet a bunch of characters, fly across the Atlantic Ocean in search of artifacts, and roam the desert on camelback in search of hidden locations, what's not to love? The only grievences are with the action interface, which is a little cumbersome. There's an option for 9+ things depending on where you're at in the game and while there are keyboard shortcuts it can still be tough to navigate at times. The biggest gripe I have is there are commands for Push and one for Pull which will really drive you crazy sometimes. A simple combination of these two would have been super, but hey it was 1992 and they loved their action interfaces. All and all though, this is really enjoyable and worth the purchase. I've been how suprised that you don't even notice the graphics or the action interface because it's just a fun game. Thanks for the time-killer!

...and great comedy to boot, gameplay is simple enough. Traveling doesn't take long at all. The subtitlies of the animation are pretty dang good. Overall a perfect game then and now.

IJFOA is the first game I ever played as a kid, and today, many decades later, I have played thousands of games since... I think I'm being objective when I say that IJFOA is still easily one of the best games in the history of games. Yes technically it may be a bit dated, and many innovations have been invented over the years. BUT when you add the inventiveness, the scope, the imagination, the charm, the breadth, the story, the dialog, the humor, the artwork, the design, the variety, the surprises, the pacing, the cohesiveness, the love and ambition that was put in this, (oh, yeah, AND Sophia!), you realize how much every other game has borrowed from this one and somehow still can't measure up to it. The best aspect is the tone of the game ; funny, but not goofy and silly; colorful, but not tacky; educational, without being didactic (I read Plato as a teen because of this game)... it creates a sense of wonder that manages to sustain itself over the many locales and story arcs without losing focus... Also, it's a very free game ; games today (even the better ones) feel like they've been force fed top-down corporate pap, like they have a board to answer to ; to be greenlit, they need to be able to show which other successful games they copy to demonstrate proof of ROI. With a game such as IJFOA, you feel the designers were given a free hand to do whatever they wanted in a way that is refreshing and rare. In countless games I have played in my life, never have I come across a game that's managed to etch itself into memory quite like this one; and I generally find it impossible to replay most games - even those I have enjoyed - because they get depleted fast. With this one, replayability comes with rewards on a level I couldn't find in any other game. I would make a plea for game designers to make more games like this one, but they have already tried, and you will easily find imitations galore, and they pale in comparison...

This is the full game I played way back when I was younger and I'm glad that GOG brought it back to us! All of the details still work including the excellent SCUMM interface, full voice acting, and colorful scenes! The one glitch (and it's not a biggie, but it's significant) is the use of the sun, moon, and world stones. In my installation of the game, these puzzles did not work as described in Plato's book! I finally figured out that the puzzles were off by one to the right! So, if after I've read the correct solution in Plato's book, I have to pick each symbol from the right of the correct symbol! This glitch occurred on 2 separate game re-installations and with 3 different plays through... so I would say it's a bug... I'm interested to know if anyone else had this problem? Otherwise, the nostalgia of playing old Lucas Arts games has satisfied my tastes for now! Thanks, GOG!

The '4th film' in the Indiana Jones franchise, The Fate of Atlantis predictably explores the mythology surrounding the lost city of Atlantis and depicts a race between Jones and the Nazis to reach it first. It is a very solid adventure and an enjoyable return for the globe trotting, iron fisted archaeologist but I find this to be one of my least favourite LucasArts adventure games. The presentation is to LucasArts quality. Graphically the game is wonderful; Jones looks like Jones and the various locales both exotic and familiar are excellently rendered, with each area visited having a very unique style and look. The voice acting however is pretty patchy, and some of the non-American characters are either difficult to understand or simply sound silly. As a LucasArts game this has the distinction of being one of the most linear adventures in the series, despite the various international trips you'll make. The plot follows a narrow progression with many instances of being in an area with only 5 or 6 rooms to explore, leading to some rather uninventive puzzles to solve that feel contrived and uninteresting in comparison to other games by the publisher. They can also get tedious and repetitive, the world stone in Monte Carlo and finding the dig site in Algeria being two of the worst offenders. The arcade fighting sequences are also pretty bad, but thankfully optional. This game does however feature far greater replayability thanks to a few dynamic puzzles and the choice of which of three paths to take about 1/3 of the way through the game. It also 'feels' like Indiana Jones, the license is very appropriately used and while linear, there is a sense of exploration and discovery that translates very well as an adventure game. Of course it's recommended but as there are a few quibbles, it would be wise to lower your expectations.