Ark of Time
1997 - Koei
3rd person point and click adventure
Requires a video card that is compatible with the old VESA drivers
Story
Professor Caldwell and three other explorers are looking for the lost city
of Atlantis (one would think with all the games devoted to looking for and
finding Atlantis it wouldn't keep getting lost, but it does). These four are
in a sub under the ocean that suddenly disappears from the radar screen.
Your mission should you decided to accept it? Find the missing crew.
You play Richard Kendall (an American), and a sports reporter for a
newspaper in the UK. Your boss calls you in and tells you he wants to send
you to the Caribbean to look for the missing professor. Do you jump at the
opportunity? Heck no - you tell your boss you want to stay in snowy 'ole
England writing about football - (to each his own I guess). Finally your
boss convinces you that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and off you go
(after you grab a bottle of rum that is).
You travel to your various locations - and there are a few (various spots in
England including Stonehenge, Algeria, The Caribbean, Easter Island and of
course Atlantis itself)- via a map - just click on the spot you want to go
(it has to be mentioned first by someone in the game before it will
appear) and you're there. Getting Kendall to walk around is a might tedious -
he realllllyyyy waaalllkkssss slllllooooowwwww and there's no way to hurry
him up. Once he reaches the end of the screen and you see "Go to" if you
right click he automatically goes to where ever - thank goodness for that or
I'd still be walking around five years later.
The graphics are pretty well done and still look good after all this time.
Not much music to speak of and the game is inventory based. There are a
couple of really obscure puzzles (at least to me they were) but for the most
part it's pretty straight forward as long as you pay attention to what
people are telling you. You can miss some vital clues if you half listen.
Also an inventory item you pick up say in Stonehenge, you may actually use
in Algeria. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the locations.
I don't recall any bugs when I played the game nor do I recall dying. There
are no timed sequences, sliders or mazes. Typical old fare adventure game.
All in all it's a pretty okay game. I played it years ago and remember
enjoying myself. Biggest disadvantage to it now is that it will not play on
the newer video cards. But if you've got an older machine lying around and
can find the game - it's worth a play.
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