[Captain Blondebeard]

I have attempted to complete Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis about 10 times over the last 15 years. I've failed to either stay interested, faltered at a difficult puzzle or was rejected by a stupid arcade series.

So, after about 8 years between my last attempt I decided I needed to buckle down and complete it with the use of a walkthrough. Despite using the walkthrough I still had difficulties that I pushed through. Now I am absolutely clobbered by the submarine arcade sequence. I spent 3 hours attempting to navigate the sub into the air lock area at Atlantis. For three hours I drove forward, put it in reverse, raised the sub. I tried every angle thinkable. This just isn't fun.

Is it worth powering through? I feel obligated to finish it out of respect of the genre but this is rediculous. Can someone give me some advise on the arcade sequence and some encouraging words?

[Harald B]

It shouldn't be too hard; what might be getting you is that the "depth" in the sense of distance to the camera matters. Each time you turn towards the camera, the sub gets a bit "bigger". It has to be pretty big (just one or two turns below maximum iirc) to get through the airlock.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Captain Blondebeard

I have attempted to complete Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis about 10 times over the last 15 years. I've failed to either stay interested, faltered at a difficult puzzle or was rejected by a stupid arcade series.

I'm glad there are two of us in the cyberspace .
IJatFoA is the only adventure game I had started and haven't been able to finish (not that puzzles were too tough - it simply bored my pants off).

Somehow it always makes me wonder why most of the people out there say it's a classic in a vein of Day of the Tentacle or Sam and Max Hit the Road.
DotT and S&MHtR are my all-time favourites and the only thing they have in common with IJatFoA (as far as I am concerned) is that they were all made by Luc(r)a(tive)$Art$. The good old company, not this BIG-profit-oriented/adventure-games-neglecting company of nowadays.

[Antaios]

How someone can possibly not enjoy Fate of Atlantis is beyond me, Captain Blondebeard, but to each his own.

I'd say plough on and finish it. You've already come this far and I would at least try and see the ending (which isn't too far away) and put the game behind me if I were in your shoes.

[9cupsoftea]

Originally Posted by zobraks

I'm glad there are two of us in the cyberspace .
IJatFoA is the only adventure game I had started and haven't been able to finish (not that puzzles were too tough - it simply bored my pants off).

I would third that sentiment. I've tried a couple of times to finish FOA but I just found my interest waning - something which never happened with other Lucasarts games. I think they just weren't as good at creating games with more realistic art design and characters, and without the underpinning of humour that most of their other titles relied on. The Dig is another example.

[diego]

If we are to compare Fate of Atlantis to Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island in therms of humor, then yes - it's not that good. However, Fate of Atlantis puts accent on pure adventurous experience, lighthearted mystery that resolves, journey across the world, meeting eccentric characters and visiting exotic locations with a clever writing that has elements of history, philosophy... It certainly isn't LucasArts' best, and the Indy theme might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's still above average adventure game, with plenty of locations, long gameplay, original story...

Looking from this distance, it's pretty clear that Fate of Atlantis is one those game that spawned many similar in the same vein when it comes to Atlantis theme, visiting different places in world, making use of two main characters etc.

It may be hard, but if one can control then you can use walkthrough or even better UHS hints so that you bring frustration to a low level.

[rayvio]

Fate Of Atlantis is one of my favourites for a few reasons, but one of the biggest is replayability. any game that gives you incentive to play through again and have things be different can, in my opinion, only be a good thing. I pay money for a game so the more time I get for my money, the better. as great as the first two Monkey Islands were (the third was good, but not as good. the fourth was not. haven't played Tales yet) for example, they didn't offer a whole lot of replayability. you could do a couple of things differently about leaving Monkey Island (go with Herman or your crew, kill the (sort of) friendly ghost or kill him) but nothing big, and since that was towards the end anyway it didn't take long to exhaust all possibilities

anyway back on track, the submarine sequence... yeah, that part sucked. but out of the entire game it's pretty much the only part that does. the balloon parts were a little annoying, but pretty easy once you get the hang of the controls, and the fighting is thankfully skippable with the sucker punch (the only fight where that doesn't work is intended to be avoided anyway)

I assume you took the Team path? if you haven't already, you may want to go back and do the Wits and Fists (don't be fooled, there's still some puzzles in the Fists path so it's worth doing even if you always use sucker punch or avoid fights). all provide different paths to Atlantis but once you reach the lost city they merge together again. so if you can't get past the submarine docking at Atlantis you can get to the city by a different path and not really miss anything

[Shany]

I say skip it. The city is a long tedious series of (simple) mazes within mazes and most of the puzzles are not all that fun.
Plus this was the point in the game that made me really want to punch Sophia.

[Ascovel]

This thread reminds me (a huge FOA fan) to never take too seriously criticisms of my own games except from people whose tastes and expectations I understand. People tend to get so easily frustrated - everyone by different things - that it's impossible to make everyone happy.

[mbday630]

This is a very fun game, but I too had lots of problems with the arcade sequences. I especially found hard the balloon ride where I had to find the X spot. That took me days! I had my husband help with the submarine part and he didn't have any trouble. Something about getting it as far away as you need or something he said to me. But, if you can find some teenager to play that part for you and get past it, it is a very fun game and definitely worth playing. In fact, now that you mention it, I think I need a go at that game again. It has been too many years since I played it. Also, have you written to people for a saved game after that part? There are many places to help you with saved games. Good luck!

[kate me]

I had problems with that submarine too , and I got annoyed, but overall ,I really enjoyed this game and I think IT IS worth playing!


"People tend to get so easily frustrated - everyone by different things - that it's impossible to make everyone happy."

(True, true! I still don't understand why am I the only one who likes those crates pushing puzzles in Broken Sword 3, while everyone finds them annoying!)

Anyway, you're close to the end of the game, why not finish it?

[Huz]

It's a real shame the submarine arcade sequence exists! You're the second person I know of who's stuck there so badly it puts them off completing the game, although I must say I didn't have any trouble. Fate of Atlantis is one of my favourite adventure games, although I've only come to that realisation quite recently.

You see, when I first played it, I played the Amiga version which was beset with an incredible amount of slowdown. I still persevered to the end, but the game was spoiled for me. Luckily I tried it again on the PC, years later, to experience it with speech... what a great game! Anyone who calls it humourless is being very unfair - it has humour, it's just dry humour unlike what you'd find in Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island. Personally, that makes me appreciate the humour more.

If you're struggling to persevere with this particular puzzle though, maybe the game just hasn't grabbed you and you might as well skip it. I mean, you're closer to the end of the game than the beginning, and if it hasn't pulled you in by now, I guess it never will. Might be better to chalk it up to experience rather than ploughing through to the end and hating it.

On the other hand, as Rayvio points out, there are other routes through the game! I seem to remember the 'decision point' doesn't come too far into the game, so you could always nip back there and take a different path? For what it's worth, and having tried all the options, I found the Wits path to be the best of the bunch. The scenarios are more interesting, and not having Sophia around isn't any big loss.

Spoiler:

You're reunited once you reach Atlantis anyway.

Anyway, good luck! I really enjoyed Fate of Atlantis, and I'd hate to see someone give up on it just because of one frustrating puzzle!

[ozzie]

Hm, I remember being annoyed with the submarine sequence the first time I played it, back then when I was...11?
But it took me a while to figure out that I had to activate all the controls, anyway...I actually liked this part a lot. It wasn't easy and getting the submarine to reach the gates of Atlantis required a unique understanding of how the controls function. My brain was mostly too slow to process what consequence the push of this button or turning of that wheel had.

The only arcade sequence I really disliked and found to be weak was the car chase in Monte Carlo. Because it felt nothing like a car chase! Wasn't compelling gameplaywise, either.

Oh, and Atlantis is great! Too bad that part isn't very replayable. :-/

[Jon_wachter]

Indiana Jones is a great game so it's always worth continuing and you've only spent 3 hours, that's nothing. I remember getting frustrated by the whole landing the balloon part but you just got to keep on trying. Adventure games is all about getting stuck for hours, days, week even years sometimes otherwise the game would finish to quickly.

But Indy is an amazing game well worth finishing.

[sierramindy]

Hi there, kate me,
As of now, you are not the only one to like the crate scenes! I totally enjoyed them and always wondered why everyone disliked them so much, big mystery to me.
I'm also a big fan of Indiana Jones (He's on my wallpaper on my home page, lower right hand corner.) and everything Indy, including Fate of Atlantis which I have played to the finish, each path twice, for a total of 6 times. It is a record for me as I do not often replay games, a few I've played twice. This includes Lost Horizon as the latest one, and I may play it again some day. But then, it is a lot like Indy, isn't it?
As for that submarine, it is very, very tricky and took me a long time to get it right, but it is doable, not that I can say how I did it. The balloon was hard, too, and so was the camel, but I liked Indy and the game so stayed with it, until I got it right.

[ozzie]

Personally, I don't think it's worth torturing yourself with a game you find to be tedious, even if everyone else thinks it's great.

Final Fantasy VIII was a game I simply hated, hated, HATED! Everyone could as loudly proclaim as they wanted about how wonderful it is, and great, and awesome. It changed nothing about the fact that I hated it with every fiber of my body.
So, I dunno, if you don't like it, don't play it. There are still many other classics out there you might actually enjoy.

[rayvio]

Originally Posted by Huz

You see, when I first played it, I played the Amiga version which was beset with an incredible amount of slowdown.

please insert disk 11
...
please insert disk 5
...
please insert disk 42
...
please stop kicking your computer. that is not how you reboot...

[DustyShinigami]

I've only completed the game once, although I did each of the three paths one after the other, and I thought it was simply great. The best adventure game I'd played in a long, long time. I found it soooo enjoyable. Despite the fact I've only completed it once, it's one of my favourite adventures/games. I really should give it a replay at some stage.

I remember being inside the submarine and trying to figure out what to do, but I don't remember what/how.

Oh, and as for the crates in BS3... I don't hate them either, I just think they were overdone.

[kate me]

Good to know I'm not alone Sierramindy and Gazzoid !

[Christian IV]

that is a very hard part of the game..as was the balloon chase..the only segment of a classic adventure game i hated more was the jungle in Kyrandia III because like the baloon puzzle they intentionally dont have the areas connect rationally indeed in that segment of Kyrandia they switched the left and right sides of the screens when you move between screens ...talk about hard

i hope you made it thru that is a really fun game and I love Sophia, she is a lot of fun to play with esp in the full talkie version which i hope you have the voice acting is great.