Recently, a lot of the point and click adventure games that I’ve tried out or played have been kind of the same old thing. FPS view with either full movement or a 2-D still shot background that flips as you move from area to area. Well, Curse of Atlantis: Thorgal’s Quest is definitely a little more up my alley, and it plays out a lot like some of the games that I grew up with and loved like King’s Quest from WAY back in the day.

Curse of Atlantis opens up with our hero, Thorgal, who is a Viking that has been out at sea and is suddenly stranded in a Viking village on the way to reunite with his three children. While speaking with the village leader, an elderly magician strolls in and informs Thorgal that his son is in grave danger … and the vision shows the boy dying a horrible death at the hands of Thorgal himself. The Viking warrior realizes that time is not on his side, and he must venture out and get to his children even if it means going through hell and back. It’s a simple story really, but one that is told well enough throughout the game to keep it interesting.

The game itself is a point and click kind of adventure, so movement is as easy as putting the cursor where you want to go and clicking the left button. This also works for picking up items or inspecting things, and right clicking brings up an easy to use inventory. Due to the fact this is not a run and gun or hack and slash game, be expecting more puzzle solving elements and using your brain versus killing everything in sight. It’s definitely a good break from what I’ve been used to lately.

The first thing that impressed me about the game is that the puzzles themselves are pretty clever in some points, like one of the first ones that you encounter involving a knife (I won’t say anything more than that). While not all of them will make you say “Ah … interesting”, and some don’t seem to make a ton of sense, there are a few things that were done like audible cues and whatnot to make it use more than just looking for things on the ground or on shelves. When you are talking to characters, you have to pay attention to what they are saying or you may miss something that would keep you from moving forwards. There were also some things like timed areas to test your skill at how fast you can move or find things. 

Another nifty element about the game is the story itself. I was pretty impressed by how good the overall storyline was, and you can also go back after you continue to move forwards and look at black and white drawings in a comic book kind of form which will tell the story of what you just went through. While I grew up on these kinds of games, I’ve become more of an FPS fan … but this one was interesting enough to keep me playing and wanting to see what was going to happen next.

One of the biggest issues that I kept running into with Curse of Atlantis is the overall dark graphics in many of the areas which caused a little more hunting than I thought should have happened. Basically, you would walk into an area, find no item that you could use to get around the obstacle, and then backtrack around until you found what it was. There were many times that I just wound up scrolling the pointer around the screen slowly inch by inch until I noticed something that I didn’t see before … and this happened more than once.

Another issue that I encountered with Curse of Atlantis is the fact that it moves like it’s on rails … almost literally. Everything is going in one direction only, and once you move from one scene to the next you can’t go back. In other words, if you change to a new scene, then move three screens and get to an impassible object, you know that the answer lies somewhere in the three screens that you just walked through. There’s not a whole lot of exploration to be done and while I understand that this is a story … giving a little more opportunity to roam and interact would have just made it bigger and a little more enjoyable in terms of the game size itself.

Graphically, the cinematic cutscenes that occur are really good, and actually do a really good job of setting up the story and adding emotion to the overall atmosphere for the most part. The opening scene with Thorgal’s son had me literally sitting wide eyed in disbelief, and I can honestly say that there aren’t many games that pull me in like that. The characters and backgrounds in the game didn’t fair quite as well though, with everything being a 2-D background setup with interactive areas similar to games like Resident Evil on PSX. The characters were also a little blocky and there was some collision detection here and there when they would interact, and they were also a tad choppy when moving. It wasn’t anything horrible overall mind you, but I’ve seen a little better.

The sound to Curse of Atlantis had to be probably my favorite part of the game, and played a part in keeping me interested in it (aside from the story). The voice acting sounded really professional, and the scripting was done well to set the tone and display emotion in the good and bad characters that you encounter during the game. The music was also orchestrated tracks that had a relaxing but entertaining and melodic tone, and little effects like environmental sounds and such were found throughout the screens and levels that I moved through.

Overall, Curse of Atlantis may not change the “twitch gamer’s” mind on what their favorite genre is, but as far as the story and the acting, etc … it was a really good game that had a solid enough story to be really entertaining. People who were fans of the old story style adventures from back in my day will find enjoyment in this game, and people who are fans of the point and click adventure style will probably find this to be a good buy. Even if it is A to B, and the game won’t take you too terribly long to go through if you are good at this type of game, the $20.00 is worth a good story, some entertaining puzzles, and some good entertainment.

Gameplay: 7.2
These kinds of games are easy to pick up and immediately get into, since everything is simple “point the mouse and click the button” to do anything that needs to be done. There were some good and creative puzzles to solve along the way, even if some were a little misplaced or didn’t seem like part of the story overall. The game is very linear throughout, and there are some areas that get very dark and conceal things that you need to find. Since you can’t go backwards through scenes you’ve already been through though, finding what you need is usually only looking back through a couple of screens.

Graphics: 7.5
The cutscene graphics were really well done in my opinion, and only happened frequently enough to add to the story rather than overkill it or make you think you were just watching a movie. The backgrounds looked decent, and are all rendered in an interactive 2-D environment. The characters themselves were a tad blocky when looked at closely, and a little choppy on the overall animations. In addition, there were some neat things like shadows and Thorgal moving his head as you moved the pointer.

Sound: 8.0
This was definitely the highlight of the game for me, since I am a very audible person when it comes to games, music, and such. The voice acting was probably better than I’ve heard from some games in a while, and the story and dialogue were entertaining and I never lost interest while playing. The background effects like thunder and such were neat, and the music was a great selection of melodic sounding and sometimes more exciting tunes.

Difficulty: Medium
While there will be some repeats to do along the way and some things are hidden and hard to see, usually a good amount of looking through a few screens and sliding the pointer around will unveil what you are looking for.

Concept: 7.8
This was a good, solid, and entertaining story even if it sounds a tad bit simple. Adding in some additional things like a bigger exploration environment and maybe adding a splash more action here and there would have really pushed this one up a bit for me … not to say I didn’t enjoy it as it was.
 

Overall: 7.5
While there were a few things that could have been done better in the game, I really enjoyed this one quite a bit. I also played Post Mortem recently, and liked this one a lot better. Even with some of the things that could have been improved on, the $20.00 price tag is slightly more than a DVD, and you will get a good story and some entertaining gameplay out of it. If you are a fan of point and click or adventure games, this will surely provide a good time for you for a couple of days.