LucasArts returned to try his luck with Indiana Jones in the graphic adventures resulting in one of the titles of the archeologist most beloved by the players. In today's retro analysis we talk about Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis of 1992.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Retro Analysis
Four years before Lara Croft stepped on Sega Saturn for the first time - to leave an indelible mark over the years - the world's most famous archaeologist explorer, Indiana Jones , starred in an adventure for the memory signed by one of the seals most emblematic and important in the video game industry at that time, LucasArts .
The company responsible for successes such as Maniac Mansion , Loom or the duo Monkey Island took a title that left behind the script of their films, contrary to what was done with the adaptation of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade videogame. , to simmer what could well have been the story of the fourth film. Or at least that was what we asked many of the fans who enjoyed the adventurer with a fedora in that videogame. We speak, of course, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis for PC, Amiga and Macintosh.
Indiana Jones and the Graphic Adventures
In the decade of the 90s the graphic adventures were the hit of the moment. Although the land was practically bounded by two companies - Sierra Online and LucasArts - there were others such as Trilobyte with its spectacular The 7th Guest or Infogrames with Shadow of the Comet that made it clear that the success of the genre was not only due to these great developers. Discworld , Noctropolis , Broken Sword , Hollywood Monsters ... ten years full of adventures signed by a great variety of creatives that we owe them a lot today.
Indy, as we have commented previously, tried his luck with the adaptation to the videogame of the movie The Last Crusade with enough success. He borrowed items that were used in Sierra Online titles to get a bit away from the path they had taken with Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken while adding fights against Nazis and other enemies. The adventure, although it was a result, was still the same story as the tape released that same year -1989- but with the incentive of being interactive for the players, adding moments of their own harvest and eliminating others from the original film. Despite this, he received good reviews and sold more than expected.
With Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis LucasArts wanted to count on the pen of Noah Falstein , who already worked on the previous incursion of the adventurer with whip in the genre, but at the same time give voice to Hal Barwood , responsible for the video game saw the light. In the company they wanted to make the adaptation of what was to be the third Indiana Jones movie written by George Lucas and Chris Columbus (Indiana Jones and the Monkey King) but it was Barwood himself who recommended creating a totally new adventure.
In Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the archaeologist embarks on a journey through the world with Sophia Hapgood, a former archeologist companion reconverted to a medium, to find the legendary Atlantis before the ever-recurring Nazis get ahead of them. The motive that leads the Germans to seek the mysterious Atlantean island is none other than the Orichalcum , a strange and powerful source of power that could help the Third Reich in its evil plans against the world.
The mystery surrounding the location of Atlantis and its possible veracity serves as spearhead in an adventure where our beloved hero must seek the lost dialogue of Plato , a manuscript that in theory reveals the whereabouts of this advanced civilization, together with the medium Sophia His companion is able to spiritually connect with one of the Atlantean gods of the time - Nur-Ab Sal -, which at times helps the doctor.
At first glance the plot is not one of those that blows the head of the player, what really makes it fantastic is the amount of detail it has, how well spun and consistency with the puzzle of the game. Hal Barwood took advantage of his stay in the Skywalker Ranch studying the different books that there were about Plato and Atlantis and even borrowed several characteristics described in the dialogues of Timeo and Critias to add to the adventure. In fact, the idea for the story came to mind after finding both works of the philosopher in the library that George Lucas owns there.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis again made use of the SCUMM engine that made the company so successful. On this occasion, unlike the previous journey of Indy in video games, Ron Gilbert -one of the creators of the engine- was not among the ranks of the title but Hal managed to get one of the best graphic adventures in history of video games , in a certain part thanks to the puzzles and the great use of said engine in them.
During the adventure we are given the possibility to use Sophia, which is the only one capable of solving certain puzzles if we want to advance in the adventure. For example to coax a certain book collector. We also have moments of struggle against some NPCs and includes an element that makes Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis more replayable, three endings totally different from each other .
At a certain point in the adventure the player must decide how to continue it; with the help of Sophia, using our ingenuity or based on tollins. If we choose to continue with our partner, the game continues on its path as before. If on the contrary we want to face some more difficult puzzles, Sophia disappears from the adventure and things get complicated. Finally, there is the path of smacks where our favorite medium abandons us and problems are solved with knuckles. These small changes of script allow the player to discover new locations, texts and history but in the end all end at the same point to continue the main plot.
A dream team
Hal Barwood knew how to capture the essence of the archaeologist with a whip more than any other member of the team thanks to his relationship with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with whom he had previously worked. The humor so characteristic that Harrison Ford prints the character is perfectly printed in the video game . The adventurous spirit of Jones can be seen in the various trips we make throughout the adventure and the knowledge in archeology that made him worth a teaching position at Barnett College is our daily bread in virtually any dialogue of the title . It also helped that Barwood decided to use a rotoscopic technique to give the characters more natural animations and give a greater sense of realism.
The artistic section also had great figures both in the field of video games and the Hollywood industry. Bill Eaken worked on The Secret of Monkey Island as well as with Paramount Pictures, Steven Spielberg or at NASA itself. He was in charge of giving life to the stages using Deluxe Paintand an archaic graphics tablet with two other companions. In the animation there were people of the talent of Anson Jew and Sean Turner , two experienced animators with enough capacities to contribute their bit in Super Star Wars for SNES, Full Throttle or the Wonder Woman movie in the case of Jew or Ghostbusters II , the saga Monkey Island, Willow or Return to the Future II by Turner.
The main theme composed by John Williams is embraced by other melodies by Clint Bajakian , Peter McConnel and Michael Land , musicians who have blessed their creations to titles like Uncharted , Monkey Island or God of War . For the soundtrack, the iMUSE system was used, which allowed to synchronize the music with what was happening on the screen at all times, as well as to make the transition between songs as smooth as possible. This system designed for Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge would continue to be used in the other adventures created by LucasArts.
In short, a series of artistic decisions when developing Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis that made the project a success even before being launched on the market. Today the consistency of its puzzles, the plot and its careful appearance both in the sound and in the graphic is worth it to be remembered as one of the best graphic adventures in history. None of his puzzles contains absurd solutions if not based on what is feasible , although that does not mean that trial and error disappears.
It is not a very difficult game, in fact the previous adventure of the doctor dressed with fedora was significantly more complicated, however in the final stretch the thing gets a little tricky due to the intricate labyrinth that in itself is the atlantean city and the vertiginous succession of puzzles to which we must face.
As last point, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was going to have a direct continuation where Dr. Jones had to look for the Philosopher's Stone and prevent the Nazis, in the middle of the Second World War, from taking over and resurrecting Adolf Hitler . The content of the game had a theme so strongly inspired by that ideology that LucasArts decided to cancel the project given that Germany at that time was a great consumer of electronic entertainment and feared to sell less than expected. The project ended up being a comic published by Dark Horse entitled with the same name; Indiana Jones and the Iron Fenix , the same fate that had another sequel planned years later, Indiana Jones and The Spear of Destiny, under development by a Canadian study covered by LucasArts.
A videogame for the memory that today is available for purchase on platforms such as Steam or GOG as well as an unlockable extra in Indiana Jones and the Scepter of the Kings for Wii. There was a study called Went2Play that worked for a while in a special editionadapted to the new times and that LucasArts knocked down in a friendly way preventing it from materializing. However the developers have returned to the load and it is expected that there will be a new demonstrationplayable soon. It is advisable to pay a visit to their website, as they are now officially developing the remake of the great Waxworks .
conclusion
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was, is and will be one of the best graphic adventures of all time. It is difficult for us to think of the negative aspects to highlight and that means that it is practically perfect. The difficulty is suitable for any type of player, the graphics were spectacular for the time, the music perfectly accompanies the action thanks to iMUSE and the story was worthy to be used in the fourth film that caused so much anger among the legion of followers of Indy
LucasArts knew how to make games of this kind like no other company. If we look at the list of titles created by them, there is none that has been forgotten by the players. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis far surpassed the previous adventure of the teacher improving all its features and eliminating the scoring system that The Last Crusade possessed -and that he drank from some Sierra Online videogames-. The company and its director, Hal Barwood, knew how to perfectly transmit the essence of the adventurer to the computers of the time and left for history the greatest and best adventure of the archeologist in video games if we are allowed to say such audacity.
If you liked the Indiana Jones movies, you have read this analysis and you have not yet tried to delve into Atlantis, what are you waiting for? Run to get a copy of the game! You will thank us.
The best
- The story, full of details, notes of Plato and coherences.
- His ingenious puzzles.
- The main theme, its soundtrack and the great use of iMUSE.
- Variety of playable situations.
- The adventure is still valid today. The years do not pass for her.
Worst
- That LucasArts paralyzed the remake that made some fans about the game.
A masterpiece that has dominated his genre to be placed on top of it. A colossus of his generation that will continue to be commented on and remembered in the future. The maximum note does not imply perfection, but is used to point to an absolute referent in which others can and should look at each other.