Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™

I’m being generous as I have massive nostalgia for this game as I played it in childhood. First half is good and defendable, the latter stages have major issues (all the worst aspects of games of this genre and era). Pros: -Mostly logical/practical use of items. -Puzzle solutions are well telegraphed for the first half of the game without just giving it away. -There is a section in the middle of the game that has a branching path, so you have a choice of three scenarios and therefore slightly different situations and dialogue until the paths converge. -A couple of puzzles have different possible solutions in the early game (okay it’s not much, but that’s more than most games of the era offered). -Story is fitting for the Indiana Jones brand and could have made a good movie (although I agree that the characters were quite 2D, but I just accepted ‘hero’, ‘love interest’, ‘evil nazi guy villain’ as the people you get in an Indiana Jones story). Cons: -Puzzles in the last half of the game involve lots of backtracking (using a consumable item which requires a lot of messing around to replenish if you misuse them trying to solve puzzles). -Several puzzles were purely trial and error (choosing random doors. Exchanging an inventory item for another random item at a shop and trying to give it to someone until you guess the one they want. Flying an almost uncontrollable craft and landing at random locations until you get lucky). -Two puzzles in this game are unforgivably vague and could have easily been hinted at (what type of bait to use for a creature/the fact you have to use bait/getting the bait involves doing something absurd and counter logical). -The voice acting is horrendous (played the non-voice version as a kid and it’s been a shock to hear the audio, the ‘evil scientist’ sounds like someone is choking a clown with helium – really ruined the ‘dramatic’ conclusion and made it feel like a muppets parody).

The fate of Atlantis rests in the hands of the player as Dr. Indiana Jones. For this action packed adventure quest game, the player searches for the greatest prize conceivable within the realms of archaeology, the lost Cube of Atlantis. The search takes players to locations around the world that involve a mix of dialogue, fist fighting, and puzzle solving. Indiana Jones 5: The Cube of Atlantis, uses the Atlantean artifact to inspire communication, teamwork, valor, strategy, navigation, and an ancient code language suggesting the existence of high technology from the lost City of Atlantis. Indiana Jones 6: The New Atlantis, will likely follow up on the plotline of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

Okay this game is amazing, this game is what Indiana Jones should have been, this gam defined the genre, this game is a legend yada yada. You heard it thousand times right? I mean just look at this page, it looks like worship center. So let me tell you something that nobody told you about this game yet. It is...easy. Yup, it is not one of those Sierra games that you only retroactivly like to appear badass while in the same time you have PTSD and wake up screaming at night because you missed some one pixel size item and your progress is ruined. Instead this game is very user friendly. As long as you can use your brain you will never need to look up any solutions. Yes, there are puzzles but they are so well integrated that you will not even notice that they are puzzles, instead you will think of them as challenges, I am not solving some puzzle, I am trying to open a door to secret temple- this kind of thinking will always be with you. You will never feel like you are just playing a game.

I feel I have to put some balance against the overwhelmingly positive reviews this game has received. Many of them seem to be based on playing the original game when youngsters, so understandably there is an element of rose-tinted spectacles about them. This game is well put together, and the dialogue choices and situations are entertaining enough. I have to say I gave up on the game after the outer circle of Atlantis (maybe 90% of the way through), for the following reasons: 1) Some of the puzzles are illogical, for which there is no excuse. Towards the end I found myself playing the game in parallel with having the UHS hint system open in order to make reasonable progress. 2) Items that are no longer required or useful are left in the inventory. This would not be a problem if there were logical actions to take (see 1), but they just serve to confuse. 3) Visual cues are very poor. When you're trying to steer the sub into the entrance to Atlantis (which is quite tricky using the sub. controls, but perfectly do-able), there is no indication at all where the actual entrance is, so you could be wasting hours trying to drive the thing into the wrong place. 4) There are at least 2 situations where, when you leave a scene, Indy automatically picks up the sun/moon/world stones which are required later in the game. This gives you a very strong cue that you will not be allowed to leave them behind if you need them (a positive aspect of the game design). However, after you get off the submarine and use them to open the door, you have to manually pick them up. I didn't, and ended up at the Canal in Atlantis without the stones, and I needed them to progress. This is just very poor game design. It wouldn't have been so bad if you knew you had to pick them up every time, rather than them previously being picked up for you. By this point I was done with the game. So this is definitely worth a whirl, but don't be misled by the overly-glowing reviews.

Gut