With such a remarkable back catalogue to LucasArts' name, picking favourites seems both futile and fallible. Nevertheless, Zak can't help but sit in the company of the very best of the genre on my own personal list. When so many titles make themselves memorable by pulling just one or two very nice rabbits out of a hat, I can't help but find things to love about this game. Yes, the game is funny. But the storyline is brilliantly imaginative, too. The puzzles are sometimes tough, but satisfying and entertaining. The title score is fantastic. GOG seem to have bagged the best-looking version of the game I've seen, as well (momentarily disregarding some fan-made remakes - yet another tribute to the extensive and deserving audience this game has won). I cut my teeth on an EGA graphics-powered relic of awesomeness the first time around - so this is both a nice upgrade and all the excuse I need to revisit an old friend. If you didn't play it the first time around, I'm sorry you didn't experience it in it's heyday. Even so, I'm also rather jealous that you'll get to experience it anew. You're in for a treat. I won't spoil the story and I'll resist the urge to re-tell jokes only half as well. If you're a fan of adventures, don't wait for a sale - just buy the game already. It deserves it.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the adventure game - not the action game - and prequel to this) set the stage for me. It required a 'supercomputer' beyond my means and came at a time when my imagination was at its most susceptible. I would have to be satisfied watching my friend occasionally play it, see occasional pictures, hear about the glowing reviews. When Fate of Atlantis came along, I was finally able to satisfy that unfed curiosity - expectation that had ballooned out of all reasonable proportion ... and somehow I did not come away disappointed. This, for me, was the most influential adventure game I have ever played. I play adventure games to this day in the hope that I'll one day find another to equal the journey this took me on. I don't expect it to happen. And I'll echo the sentiment expressed by so many others: This IS Indiana Jones 4. I tip my hat to those that made it and those that inspired it through film.
