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Fate of Atlantis…really?

Total Posts: 49

Joined 2014-05-28

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So, I realize the game was made over 20 years ago, and that it’s generally considered one of the greatest point-and-click adventures of PC gaming history, but…really?

I’m a die-hard Lucas Arts adventure fan.  I celebrate the whole Monkey catalog, Sam and Max, DOTT, even the original MM.  When it comes to absurdist conundrums, and needing to find some random pop-culture-related product to solve them in a completely non-linear fashion, I’m totally on board.  Make shift ipecac syrup to make an oversized snake vomit me out of his belly?  Awesome.  Fake barf?  Near-Grog? Snow cones?  Let’s do this.

When I finally decided to play FOA, I was uncommonly excited, given my obsession with the Indy franchise in general and the decades of enthusiastic reviews from the adventure gaming community about the game in particular.

Well, now that I’ve reached the end, I can honestly say…meh (let the rotten fruit-throwing commence).

I do think the story is excellent.  The various archaeologists, the Plato Dialogue, the Nazi involvement, and the way they conceptualized the city itself, as a three-ringed civilization unlocked by the three stones, and the orichalcum, and the higher purpose of creating near-gods through ancient machinery… brilliant.  Would have made a much better 4th film than Crystal Skull, that’s for sure.

But the actual gameplay was so boring.  Everything from the speed with which the characters walk, to the way the dialogue is sequenced.  Having to go through all the “hello, how are you” formalities every time you need to ask a question, and the way the game forces you out of a dialogue and forces you to re-enter it (and thereby repeat all of the unnecessaries again), every time.  Unnecessary repeats are not a virtue, they’re lazy programming.  Thankfully later LA games, like Curse, figured out how to do better. 

The inconsistencies in the programming which led to drawn-out, hair-pulling boring-ness were myriad.  Like the fact that the game continuity is consistent when it’s annoying (with regard to remembering if you picked back up the stones (or ladder) after using them (can’t tell you how much time I lost going back for this stuff)), but INCONSISTENT regarding things that might make the game a bit quicker, like the guards you kill coming back to life in the next screen.  Eventually Lucas Arts realized that what gamers respond to is getting the puzzle right, and not being penalized for idiosyncratic, onerous programming.

The main problem with the game though, is Sofia.  In the history of humanity, there has never been a more horrid, useless, embarrassingly boring character created.  She gets in the way EVERY time, is annoying, painfully stupid, does zero to solve a single problem, and does a million things to slow you down, and force you to help her “catch up” with what you already know.  Seriously, she’s like, insulting to all female characters, and women in general.  Just horrible, horrible writing.  She’s supposed to be this tough, spunky, yet feminine hybrid of Marion and Willie, but in practice she ends up making my colon quiver.  It was truly a burden playing this game because of the way she was written and her function in the game.  !@#$ing devastating.  DEVASTATING.  I realize I should have not done the TEAM track, but thought it would actually be beneficial.  Holy deuce-balls was I wrong.  Holy. deuce. balls.

Additionally the musical score was a huge let down, especially considering LA game scores AND the John Williams legacy of Indy.  Total missed opportunity here.  And I’m not talking about 8 or 16 bit sound limitations in sonic realization.  I’m talking about composition.  The harmonic vocabulary was embarrassing, zero thematic material or development, and the dramatic functionality was next to nil. 

The dialogue wasn’t very funny, and often slow-paced and boring.

Again, I adore this story, I love the IDEA of this game.  I REALLY wanted to love it.  I guess after so much knob-robbing, I was just disappointed with the execution.  I’m all about early 90’s adventure games so it’s not like it’s an issue of when it was made for me.  I just think it’s not nearly at the level people seem to think it is.

Would love to know why I’m wrong here, as I’m still scratching my head about Fate of Atlantis…


-Rottingham

     
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Total Posts: 4249

Joined 2005-04-14

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I’ve tried to play FoA three times and I’ve never finished it.
Just not my kind of game, I guess.

     

Everybody wants to be Cary Grant.
Even Me.

-Cary Grant

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Total Posts: 57

Joined 2009-07-07

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Fate of Atlantis isn’t the fastest paced or funny adventure game Lucasarts ever released, but I’d argue that it’s a damned good and intriguing Indy story with beautiful graphics (for the day) and some brilliant gameplay. The three different paths you could take, the globe trotting, the locations, there is so much of this game that comes back to me now I’m typing this.

It was a top notch adventure game back in the day (and still is), and people rightly remember it that way. Maybe you should have played it back in the day, I don’t know. It’s very much a product of its time. Perhaps I should do a replay one of these days to see how it has aged. I do remember thinking the music was rather lacklustre, though.

     

“It is so shocking to find out how many people do not believe that they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.”

Total Posts: 813

Joined 2004-08-01

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It sounds like you should’ve just taken the “wits” path.

That being said, I haven’t played the game lately, so my opinion is tainted by nostalgia. So, thanks for inspiring a re-play.

     

Total Posts: 49

Joined 2014-05-28

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I do realize the game is a product of it’s time, and I know there’s really no point in criticizing a 22 year old game.  Most of the gameplay issues like the the dialogue structure etc were improved or completely replaced in future LA games.

It’s just that I’ve never seen a rant about this game, only unconditional love…so I just…had to vent.

I never played any of the later Indy games like Emperor or Staff of Kings, but they seem more like POV action games than adventure.  If they’re any good I’d be into checking them out.

     

Total Posts: 49

Joined 2014-05-28

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Antrax - 28 May 2014 02:57 AM

It sounds like you should’ve just taken the “wits” path.

That being said, I haven’t played the game lately, so my opinion is tainted by nostalgia. So, thanks for inspiring a re-play.

Haha, yeah.  I realized that about 5 minutes into having to show Sofia how to tie her shoe…

     

Total Posts: 813

Joined 2004-08-01

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“The Last Crusade” is another adventure game, but it’s worse than FoA IMO.
[edit]
Here’s the AG review: http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17668

     
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Total Posts: 2063

Joined 2013-08-25

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I tend to agree. I always felt FoA was overrated, with its bland characters, shallow gameplay and two long mazes. While 3 different paths add to replay value, EVERY path ends with the same boring maze. The fighting parts are also pretty horrible. Still, this is the best game the Indi franchise has to offer, so I guess people love it for that reason.

     

PC means personal computer

Total Posts: 930

Joined 2004-01-06

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I enjoyed it back when I played it.
Can’t say how I’d like it if I played it now.

     
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Total Posts: 134

Joined 2013-04-13

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i enjoyed last crusade more as i recall. not sure why. not sure why this one gets all the praise really.

     

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Joined 2008-09-01

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I think Sophia is supposed to be a similar character to the woman in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Come to think of it in all three (the fourth one i won’t even mention) films Indy always has a bumbling character with him. In the first one all the woman does is basically get captured, so he has to save her. In the second one its the same with the addition that she’s really annoying. In the third one he has to rescue his father all the time.

It just the whole “damsel in distress” thing that was popular at that time. Sure now it may seem silly, but a lot of things from back then are.

That being said i really enjoyed it. I still replay it from time to time. The thing with picking up the ladder that you said, well its present in a lot of adventure games. I couldn’t really comment on the dialogue since i’ve replayed it so many times i know everything i have to do, so going through all the dialogue doesn’t happen for me. When i played it i loved it and i still do. I find the story fantastic and all the gameplay decisions have never bothered me that much to be honest. Maybe its because of nostalgia…

     
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Joined 2011-03-14

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crabapple - 28 May 2014 11:21 AM

I enjoyed it back when I played it.
Can’t say how I’d like it if I played it now.

Ditto.

I have never replayed it because I fear that it hasn’t aged very well, and it would just end up as one big disappointment.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Total Posts: 298

Joined 2004-08-15

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To answer the topic title: Yes, really!

I replayed FoA quite a lot over the years, though I only played a bit of the talkie version once, since I don’t think the voice acting fits the characters all too well for the most part. It tends to be too campy.
FoA is my favorite adventure game of the LucasArts catalogue and one of my favorites overall. I have to say though that I never played it in a way where I had to figure out everything for myself, since my copy of the game came with a magazine that included a walkthrough, which I followed pretty closely, so I was spoiled from the start. Ooops.
But I watched a friend play it once, and I think he seemed to enjoy how logical the puzzles were. He had astoundingly good fun with it considering he didn’t normally appreciate such old games.
Yeah, I see how forgetting taking some items again can result in some tedious backtracking, but weirdly in FoA I never found the backtracking to be tedious (contrary to in Monkey Island 2, which I find to be incredibly tedious to play. All the jumping from island to island…).

Otherwise, are you sure we’re talking about the same game? Meh
CoMI is great, too, probably my second favorite of the LucasArts adventure games after FoA.

Anyway, don’t be afraid to kill any idols. Like I said, I don’t appreciate Monkey Island 2 very much gameplaywise either, the same goes for Grim Fandango. Both I love as worlds and stories, though. A perceived consensus on games to be classics is only built when people are to sheepish to criticize them. Consensus shouldn’t be built by silence of the disagreeing voices.

     

Total Posts: 49

Joined 2014-05-28

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Thanks for the replies all.

Glad to see I’m not being lynched outright.  I realize more and more that if I had played the game in ‘92, especially coming off of the predecessor “Last Crusade,” FOA would probably have hit me in all the right places.  There weren’t nearly as many games to compare it to at the time, and I can see that they did a lot of work in trying to really bring out the story and suck you into the Indy world.  I even had a dream about the game last night, so that probably means they did something right Smile

I also agree with the previous poster about CoMI.  I actually think it’s my all time fav. hey, maybe I’ll post a Curse-love thread next, to offset the bad vibes I dropped here.

     
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Total Posts: 1235

Joined 2013-03-31

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FOA was the first of its kind in many ways.  It innovated and simplified the Scumm engine, added a graphical inventory, was the first major adventure game to include branching narrative paths, and pushed VGA adventure game graphics forward notably (compared to earlier Lucasarts games, that is.)  Also, as I recall, this was the first game to be saddled with the “Lucasarts” monicker (as opposed to Lucasfilm.)  Not that that matters much, but a fun fact.

     
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Total Posts: 298

Joined 2004-08-15

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I’m pretty sure Monkey Island 2 had the LucasArts moniker first.

     

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