Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis - Lucasarts RRP œ37.99
             (Graphic adventure for PC and Amiga)

               Review on the IBM PC by Roy Sims

I'm sure that you don't need me to introduce the character of
Indiana Jones (The world famous archaeologist? I hear you all cry
in unison) so I won't bother. If you don't know who he is I
suggest you pop out and rent Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple
of Doom and The Last Crusade or better still buy the wide screen
versions for your own collection.

This is another Lucasarts (previously Lucasfilm Games) graphic
adventure following on the heels of the two Monkey Island
releases. On the PC it employs 256 VGA graphics, the SCUMM game
system and IMUSE music.

After getting past the copy protection you are treated to an
amusing interactive opening credits with the familiar Raiders
march playing through the sound board. (It might not be quite so
familiar when played through the internal speaker!). A very
visual gag is constantly played through this sequence and you can
bet that poor old Indy gets into all sorts of trouble along the
way.

The game involves a race to find the lost city of Atlantis and
whatever treasures it holds within. To have a race you need
competitors. In the good corner we have Indiana Jones, world
famous archaeologist and all round adventurer. In the opposite
corner we have the Nazis, hell bent on satisfying their Fuhrer's
thirst for power by tapping the powers of ancient artefacts and
lost treasures.

Indy's quest starts outside a Theater. He must get inside and
talk to an old flame and colleague Sophia Hapgood about Atlantis.
There is more than one way of getting inside and once in you must
find a rather disruptive way of getting her attention. A few
trips across the world are then called for as you travel to
Iceland, Algiers and Monte Carlo to name but a few in search of

clues, information and artefacts. It's a good job taxis and
airplanes are free!

You will eventually have to make a choice as to the style of game
you wish to participate in. You can choose to only play as
Indiana Jones where the quest is full of taxing puzzles - you can
play the game with Sophia as a team or you can play on your own
where brawn rather than brains will get you through most of the
scrapes. This is a rather unique option and I've been reliably
told that each of the chosen paths offers very different
challenges. I chose the team path simply because there seemed a
great deal of friction between the two characters and so far it
has lead to some very amusing puzzle solving sequences.

What can you say about this game? The early puzzles aren't too
difficult to solve but it seems to get a little harder further on.
The music is good through the soundblaster and the graphics are
very good if a little cartoony in style. The game system is also
very easy to grasp (and is the same as that seen in Monkey Island
2). The humour is typical of an Indiana Jones adventure but I'm a
little disappointed that the comic book by Dark Horse hasn't
really helped me solve any of the puzzles! (Not that I would ever
consider cheating).

The Fate of Atlantis doesn't do anything stunning like Ultima
Underworld did, but the game is very engaging, easy to play and
will raise some smiles along the way, and you can't ask for much
more than that in this day and age. Buy The Fate of Atlantis - one
game that won't be sinking without a trace!