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 Carribean 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 (vaious spots in England including Stonehenge, Algeria, The Carribean, 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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