Do adventure gamers buy shooters?  I personally love all PC games.  Recently after sneaking through the dark corridors of Doom 3 I installed Wanted A Wild Western adventure.  These games are drastically different, which is good for gamers who like to switch between the two genres.  Having said that, there are some games that just don’t appeal to all audiences.  Atlantis Evolution is a straight-laced adventure game out of the past with some interesting diversions in the form of arcade like mini-games.  The graphics do a decent job depicting original foreign environments and the musical score is lush and full of variety.  Adventure gamers will eat this game up but others may find it too frustrating to bother with.

Atlantis Evolution follows the original series but it doesn’t appear to be a continuation or a sequel.  We play as Curtis Hewitt, a young photographer who gets sucked into a large vortex within the ocean.  When he wakes up from this ordeal he finds himself in a strange, unfamiliar world.  It is called New Atlantis and it is located inside the earth.  New Atlantis is ruled by five cruel gods who torture and kill all who question their reign of power.  Curtis isn’t into oppression and death so he decides to upset the status quo on his way back to the surface side of earth.

The graphics in Atlantis Evolution do a good job of creating bright, colorful environments that all appear to belong to another world.  Jungles are full of weird, sometimes dangerous flora and other areas have curious looking devices and mysterious machines like the pillar of fire.  Each screen is a still picture that the player can spin around in search of objects that can be added to an inventory.  The inventory can be called up by simply right clicking the mouse.  If you have played other games from The Adventure Company this setup will be very familiar to you.

The character models seem a bit blocky and the animations are a little repetitive but each person has a unique appearance and the voice acting isn’t too bad, although some of the dialogue is poorly written.  Or maybe it is just very over-the-top sci-fi camp.  You decide.  The visual variety of the brainwashed inhabitants does help to push the story along.  Especially during some dialogue that resembles groveling when several of the inhabitants of New Atlantis mistake Curtis for a god.  Some of the people you meet throughout the adventure will offer to help you.  Others will try to shoot you and recondition your mind into a god-fearing peasant.

Most of the puzzles in Atlantis Evolution are traditional adventure game challenges.  You’ll be required to travel through long linear paths to find obscure items early on in order to progress.  There are several inventory based sequences when you must combine items to create a new object.  There are defining moments where a mini-arcade-like game must be defeated in order to gain access to a special location.  For instance, there is a moment where Curtis must find the code to a door.  When he tries to interface with the electronic mechanism a Frogger type game appears where you must guide a dancing monkey across the screen to find the hidden numbers to the code.  These games are actually fun and create a much needed diversion.  However I must admit they have nothing to do with the plot.  Some gamers may voice a negative opinion about this.  In my opinion it’s a game.  It’s supposed to be fun and I enjoyed the mini-games.  They are pretty evenly spread and none of them seemed terribly difficult.

The whole experience reminded me of the old version of The Time Machine with a touch of 1984 oppression thrown in for good measure.  The ambient sound and decent voice cast push the immersion factor higher than I expected.  Unfortunately the early jungle maze challenge really dampens the proceedings.  Goals are never really made clear to the player.  That translates into a lot of mindless wandering and patience testing.  If you can get past the beginning portion, the game does get steadily better.  Atlantis Evolution doesn’t revolutionize the genre in any way but adventure fans should find it appealing. 

Gameplay:  6
Standard adventure style point and click requirements.  The mouse interface is simple and easy to manipulate.  The pixel hunting gets a tad tiresome.  The jungle pathways were rather frustrating in the early going.  A compass would’ve been nice, but there are redeeming qualities.  One such moment is when (SPOILER WARNING!) a gigantic swamp monster suddenly appears and swallows Curtis.  The game is merciful because it starts you off right at the spot before you died.  Goals are not always clear which leads to a lot of wandering and clicking. 

Graphics:  7
The locations do a good job of conveying a foreign element but the screens are static.  Sometimes a bug may run by but there isn’t much interaction with the intriguing machines and peculiar surroundings.  In the end it feels like a clicking slide show.  This is nothing new to adventure veterans so I’m not sure if this is a disadvantage or not.  If you love the genre than you know this is typical.  If you hate most adventure games, you’ll probably hate this one too.

Sound: 7
Music is handled with a cinematic score and a decent voice cast.  The dialogue does get campy and conversations are usually a click and listen affair.  Sometimes the sound bottoms out and disappears until you travel to another screen.  It is minor but I’m mentioning it.

Difficulty: Medium
For the most part the puzzles are not difficult.  Navigating through the many screens in order to find obscure objects tends to get annoying quickly.  Especially when it isn’t very clear what you’re supposed to be looking for.  As I said earlier the mini-games aren’t really logical and don’t fit into the story but they are fun to play.  If anyone needs a helpful hint just drop me an email and I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.

Concept: 6
The story isn’t incredibly deep but as long as you don’t get lost in the winding pathways there is enough here to hold your interest.

Overall: 7
This game was made with adventure fans in mind.  If you love the adventure genre this game will likely be right up your alley.  There is nothing new to add to the genre and nothing in particular stands out as being outstanding.  Still Atlantis Evolution is a solid adventure game that is reminiscent of Myst.  For those of you waiting for Half-Life 2, well you’re probably not even reading this review.  Enough said.