Atlantis Evolution Review - Gamezebo. Imagine an alternate reality Earth, one where our technology has become much more advanced, yet all of our time is spent serving the gods through back breaking labor. This is the setting of Atlantis Evolution. Unfortunately, while the setting is unique and refreshing, the actual game is so repetitive and filled with so many frustrating moments that it’s hard to actually enjoy exploring the mythical lost city of Atlantis. The game is set in 1. Curtis Hewitt who is, to put it mildly, having a rough time.
After managing to survive a sinking ship, his life raft gets sucked into a whirlpool, which takes him to the titular underwater city. But this isn’t like any version of Atlantis you’re ever seen before. The entire city bears a strong resemblance to a religious cult, as all of its citizens spend their lives in servitude, toiling away to please their gods. There are guards patrolling the city in search of “deviants,” who are sent to facilities where they are turned into mindless, docile zombies.
It does, however, present an incredibly intriguing world to explore. The city of Atlantis is simply gorgeous, and features an interesting contrast between the haves and the have- nots. The workers toil away like Luddites, unable to use any sort of technology to aid their workload. Meanwhile, the guards look like something out of a science fiction film, complete with sleek armor and fancy ray guns. It’s just too bad that the puzzles make actually exploring Atlantis a tortuous task. The game plays like a traditional first- person adventure game: you’re given a full 3.
Atlantis Evolution Review If you can bear playing Atlantis Evolution long enough, it starts to get better toward the end, but by then it's scant consolation. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Atlantis Evolution - PC at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users./>.
Most of the puzzles generally aren’t that difficult, though you will have to do a fair amount of pixel- hunting. Where things really fall apart though, is with the all too frequent timed sequences. These often involve you being chased by guards and they simply don’t give you enough time to figure out what you need to do before you’re caught and have to start all over again. This means that you’ll be doing a lot of trial and error and a lot of repetition. You’ll be going over the same sequences many times until you can figure out just what to do. And in the meantime, expect to watch the same cut- scene of the guards catching you over and over. It also doesn’t help that a number of the puzzles are almost counter- intuitive.
I spent way too much time on one particular puzzle early on simply because the controls didn’t match up to what I thought they would. It should also be noted that Atlantis Evolution features the worst menu system that I have ever seen. The menus consist a number of unlabeled blue buttons, whose function is only revealed when you hover your mouse over them for a few moments. Atlantis Evolution is definitely a nice, albeit slightly dated, looking game. The strange combination of technology that almost feels alien with archaic religious imagery is quite striking and the tropical setting is beautiful. The game also features some very good voice acting, though the soundtrack often feels out of place.
The most trusted reviews of adventure games on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and console platforms. Previews, Trailers & Top Games. Welcome Playtime for Adults Welcome to atlantisEVOLUTION, we are glad that you have found us. If you are new to swinging, or if you have been in the. There are times when playing Atlantis Evolution could make Chinese water torture look like an appealing alternative. The writing and voice acting are so bad they're almost good--y.
Atlantis Evolution - page 1 at GameSpy - Read all of GameSpy's great Reviews for PC here. Imagine an alternate reality Earth, one where our technology has become much more advanced, yet all of our time is spent serving the gods through back breaking labor. This is the setting of Atlantis Evolution. Genre: Adventure Publisher: The Adventure Company Developer: Atlantis Interactive Entertainment Release Date: October 18, 2004. City 'neath the waves. Since its invention, or chronicling depending on your beliefs. Caught up in a giant waterspout that leads straight to the new Atlantis. Reviews, Ratings & Comments. Atlantis Evolution; Follow Us MacGameStore. Everything old is new again in Atlantis Evolution. Or maybe everything new is old again. It feels like we've been here before, but nothing's quite the same. However you describe it, 'old meets new.
When it comes down to it, Atlantis Evolution really feels like a wasted opportunity. The setting and story hold so much promise, yet thanks to some frustrating puzzles and lousy design choices, it’s hard to really enjoy them. Instead of being able to thoroughly enjoy the fascinating world you’re given to explore, far too much of your time will be spent repeating the same timed sequences until you can figure out how to proceed. Like the mythical city it’s based on, Atlantis Evolution should probably just stay hidden.
Atlantis Evolution Review - Adventure Lantern. Lying on the deck, Curtis stared into the sky. It seemed to be such a pleasant June night. With the stars flickering in the distance, Curtis was not worried about anything. The landscape photographer was on his way back from a successful assignment in Patagonia. Soon he would be back home, perhaps getting ready for an exciting new assignment.
Within minutes the boat was struggling in the midst of massive waves. One of the sailors informed Curtis that the captain ordered the photographer to wait inside his cabin. But this was not a storm the ship would survive. In a flash, Curtis found himself on a small boat trying to row away from the sinking ship. He was completely alone in the middle of the sea, unsure he would live through the accursed storm.
It seemed the young man’s life was about to end. Yet his boat did not get capsized. The whirlpool transported him to a mysterious realm.
It was part of our world, yet it was different. Before the photographer even had a few minutes to take in his surroundings, a strange aircraft appeared above him. A beam of light lifted Curtis and his boat out of the water. The photographer was trapped inside the strange machine.
Armed guards greeted Curtis. The photographer was not about to receive a warm welcome. They were calling him a “deviant”, claiming that the young man had strayed from the “Beaten Track of Humility.” They had one thing right, Curtis was confused and disoriented. Yet the young man gathered that this place was supposed to be New Atlantis. Apparently, those who fled from the wreckage of original Atlantis had formed a new civilization.
They were talking about strange gods. Evidently, Curtis was beyond the gaze of some deity called Enna.
While that alone sounded like a bad thing, Curtis was more concerned about the prospect of being recycled! He had been deemed far too deviated from the “Beaten Track.” Realignment as out of the question, Curtis was to be recycled. And that certainly did not seem like a pleasant experience. The photographer did not truly understand why he was being called a “deviant” and why the Atlanteans felt a need to recycle a human being, but if he wanted to stay alive, he had to run.
Curtis would have to discover the secrets of New Atlantis and outwit the guards before he could find a way home. While it is part of the series started by Atlantis: The Lost Tales and continued by Beyond Atlantis I and II, this adventure game marks a new beginning in many ways. The developers have moved away from the storyline in the Beyond Atlantis games. You will not be traveling to different parts of the world, discovering ancient and mystical places in search of greater truths. Instead, Atlantis Evolution explores what happened to the inhabitants of the mysterious city from the original game that started the series. Players finally get a chance to find out what happened to the inhabitants of Atlantis after the events of the first game.
Players who enjoyed Atlantis: The Lost Tales will most likely enjoy discovering the depth of the connection to the latest chapter especially in the later stages of the game. Pierre Esteve is back as the composer in Atlantis Evolution. If you have played Atlantis: The Lost Tales and Beyond Atlantis, you will quite likely notice some similarities in the musical style. You might even catch remixed versions of a couple of tracks taken from the previous games. Even as the storyline evolves and shift focus throughout the series, the music helps establish a connection between the new and the old. A long time has passed since Seth’s adventure in Atlantis: The Lost Tales and the people seem to have established a rather peculiar new civilization.
The guards and the aircraft you encounter at the very beginning of the game clearly show marks of highly advanced technology. Yet the villagers seem deprived of all but the crudest tools. They are expected to work extremely hard to appease their gods. Confined to their humble homes, they are denied all forms of luxury and even the simplest tools that would make their jobs easier. Their lives are monotonous. Even the thought of straying from the ordinary is considered heresy. These so- called ascended beings command tremendous respect from all citizens.
They do not openly dwell among the citizens, but the gods are still ever- present and always watchful. Zanat is honored as the grand creator. The indisputable leader of the pantheon, Zanat is the maker of the sun. He is the one who has given the gift of light to the civilization. His sister Enna constantly watches all Atlanteans. She is the one who makes sure the citizens do their jobs and do not deviate from the “Beaten Track”. Sama, the goddess of the sun brings daylight to the Atlanteans each morning.
Her sister Kama is the goddess of the moon, casting her pristine light across the nighttime sky. And then there is Cosmo, the god of death.
He is the grand punisher. Nobody can escape the god’s wrath. He delivers justice to those who would dare to deviate.
Independent thought and innovation cannot be a part of this civilization. The citizens are expected to obey without question. The people are obligated to be humble and unfaltering in their faith in the pantheon. This would be a difficult world to comprehend for any stranger. Yet things are even worse for Curtis. He is hunted by the authority for being different, for being a “deviant.” Surviving the island and finding a way back to his old life will not be an easy task.
The game features a simple mouse- driven interface with 3. You move the mouse to look around the environment. An arrow icon is used to indicate that you can move in the pointed direction. If you can interact with an object, the mouse icon turns into a cross. The inventory is accessed with a right click and appears at the bottom of the screen.
A right click on an inventory item brings up a detailed close- up view. Once you select an item with a left click, you can close the inventory and attempt to use it on the environment.
Discovering New Atlantis and understanding the island’s culture is an interesting experience. As you come to learn more about the oppressed inhabitants and the gods who rule over them, the story gradually grows more engaging. But the best parts of the plot are not revealed until the last stages of the game. When you finally unlock the mystery behind New Atlantis and gain a thorough understanding of the events that lead to the current state of the island, the true quality of the plot is revealed.
Despite the relatively slow middle section of the game, interesting plot twists in the later stages and the imaginative history of the civilization makes for quite an entertaining and at times even fascinating tale. Unfortunately, other elements of the game severely hurt the experience, ultimately making Atlantis Evolution a difficult game to recommend. When you start exploring the island and meet some of its inhabitants, you quickly realize that much of the dialog does not bring any value to the game or add to the complexity of the storyline. The conversation system is simple and will be familiar to players who have followed the Atlantis series. Clicking on a character brings up a list of conversation topics represented by icons. Players select individual topics, which causes Curtis to ask a question or make some kind of comment.
Most of the time, the other character responds with a couple of sentences. On some occasions though, the conversation goes back and forth for a small amount of time, revealing more details. If you have heard all the other character has to offer about a particular topic, the corresponding icon gets dimmed on the conversation list. Conceptually, this system works fairly well.
But there are some problems with the execution in Atlantis Evolution. Regardless of which topic you choose, you get a variation of the same response, offering no concrete details. Thus you can end up asking about several allegedly different topics to obtain virtually no new information.
The problem is occasionally further augmented when multiple characters give you almost identical responses. Of course some of this can be justified by the fact that the citizens of New Atlantis are extremely fearful of their gods and seem very hesitant to make any statement that might upset the deities. The developers may have also been trying to make sure players would obtain key details by making them available through multiple characters. Yet no amount of justification may be enough to completely overlook the problem. Especially in several cases, Atlantis Evolution could have benefited from the characters offering intelligent responses instead of reiterating the same information. While the voices do for the most part seem appropriate for the characters, the intonation should have been handled better.
In many cases, it sounds as though the characters are unnecessarily raising their voices. Especially in the early parts of the game, Curtis fairly frequently sounds like he is yelling instead of asking a question to someone less than two feet away. The guards you meet at the beginning of the game sound as though they are constantly screaming. It seems the intention is for them to speak in harsh tones to the outsider who is asking a bunch of strange questions.
Yet in reality they simply sound irritatingly loud. But Atlantis Evolution also has some considerable problems with its puzzles, further hurting the overall experience. First of all, Atlantis Evolution overuses sequences where you have to avoid capture by the guards. Especially frequent during the first stages of the game, these sequences typically involve some accurate timing and quite a bit of trial and error. While it is usually easy to figure out what you are supposed to be doing after a couple of attempts, players should still be prepared to die quite a few times through the course of the adventure.