Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

The Good
What an amazing gaming experience and how sad that games like this are few and far between. Indiana Jones is a classic game. Although its graphics are quaint, its story and gameplay are equal to any current adventure game.

This was one of the few games where the puzzles seemed integrated into the story. While adventure games require puzzles, most involve outrageous leaps of logic or cycling through inventory to see what works.

It was refreshing to have conversation options affect the outcome of a situation, even so far as resulting in talking your way past someone or ending in a fist fight. This game also has built in replayability, in that you can chose to work with a partner, fight your way through the game, or think your way through.

The story was very good and the only time I was bothered by the aged graphics was when I could tell the designers weren't able to show how grand locations actually were. Voice acting was good and even though Indy didn't sound like Indy, the lack of a cheap impression and honest delivery was nice.

The demos on this disk included Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, and one of the Monkey Island games. When was the last time you played a game that had demos of that quality?

The Bad
Hmmm... I didn't like that this game failed to kick off an Indy series. Also it could have been a bit longer.

The Bottom Line
Most classic games make modern gamers shake their heads. This game doesn't have to be appreciated within the confines of its time. It is equally as enjoyable now as it was when first published. Before LucasArts became obsessed with the Star Wars franchise, they had quality adventure games like this.

The Good
What is good about this game? Everything comes to mind. The sounds are authentic and realistic. The graphics aren't good when it comes to raw power, but it has a certain style that endears you to the feel of the game. The controls are simple and too the point and the puzzles are all logical. The voices are also excellent, even Doug Lee who does Indiana Jones. You can really believe who these people are and their dialogue will bring you into the Indiana Jones world.

The Bad
Not much except that occasionally there is a lot of walking back and forth between areas.

The Bottom Line
Some games have a near mystical quality. Like X-Wing, Jedi Knight, Star Trek 20th Anniversary and Star Trek : Judgment Rites. This game is right up there with them. Buy it.

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.