Summary
LucasArts got it right... again!
The Good
Well, it uses the SCUMM engine adventure game system. That's a GOOD thing. You know how sometimes companies have an engine and make a ton of repetitive games that are almost the same? Well, now that the adventure genre is (almost) dead, I wish they've made more. Beautiful system, practically flawless ease of gameplay.
You're Indiana Jones and you have to find Atlantis. On the way, you visit Crete, Egypt, Monaco, Iceland, Atlantis itself, and more locations. You can play as both Indiana Jones and his archaeologist female companion. You can play an adventure or action mode. Thus, it seems like you have more options available than in the usual adventure game.
The game is a tad more serious than most LucasArts adventures, but not as dark as its predecessor, Indy 3. While there is a sense of urgency and drama (the cutscenes whenever the evil Nazis do something, etc.), there's also the usual witty Indy humor. Also, Indiana Jones looks remarkably like Harrison Ford in this game.
The storyline is EXCELLENT. As a matter of fact - you know how they often make computer games after books, movies, etc.? They made ANOTHER computer game (the Indy 4 action game) and a 4-book comic book series (by Dark Horse Comics) after this game, THAT'S how good it was. Sure, nowadays when Warcraft has its own Paperback series, that's no big deal, but for ten years ago it was.
On a side note, this was the first game that I owned that actively supported Windows (it actually had a little .jpeg picture for the Windows desktop shortcut, something that games only slowly adopted).
The Bad
I hated all those dumb dial-a-wheel copy protections, but thankfully if you buy the game today (CD version on a compilation, or so) you won't have to do it.
The Bottom Line
Get it. Graphics and sound are not too outdated, and the storyline's worth it. I *WISH* the following Indiana Jones games (Infernal Machine, etc.) had still been SCUMM adventures and not Tomb Raider clones.
