Price:	£13.44		Reviewed by:	Gavin Fabiani-Laymond
Supplied:	Clickgamer		Review date:	25/10/2004
Pros:	Excellent graphics Range of puzzles		Cons:	Feels like a series of images 120mb

The Background Story to the Game:-

2020. Hoggar desert - A young archeologist searches for the existence of a metropolis built, according to myth and legend, by the ancient Egyptians.From the palaces of the Thousand and One Nights to the Sahara Desert, from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to the icy plains of the Paleolithic, immerse yourself in the beauty and the mystery of Atlantis. During this adventure, the young archeologist will find a precious help in a Targui, a lonely touareg who has decided to stay away from modern life. Refusing to leave the nice young girl alone in the desert, he decides to go with her. Along with these characters, plunge into the most mysterious, intriguing and dangerous of adventures... the quest for Atlantis. Atlantis Redux is a co-production with Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company.

Compatibility:-

This is very important to note.

120 MB of storage is required for the full version. Atlantis Redux must be copied to storage card manually. 20MB of free memory is required to run. Recommended Processor - 400MHZ with good graphics performance. Windows Mobile 2003/2003SE only. For VGA based Pocket PCs, it runs at a fixed 320x240 resolution.

I played the game on my HP 4700 and experience no stresses or compatibility problems. The game played in landscape mode and I had two small blacked out strips, one at the top and one at the bottom. To be honest, the screen was big enough. It was no different to watching a widescreen movie. When you first run Atlantis Redux you get to the registration screen, as shown below and then a short intro video animation.

The controls are as shown below. You can control the direction 2 ways : using the d-pad where up is used to move forward (also to activate some items), down brings up the inventory (holds 5 items) and left/right to rotate the viewpoint in the 360º environment. This is very clever, since it allows you to smoothly scroll around the whole area, providing a superb panoramic view. Stylus control is via the leftmost/rightmost area of the screen. As you scroll around you eventually see red arrows . Tapping these moves you forward to the next area. The interaction parts are signified by spinning wheels or hands and mouths for speaking to a character. I played the game with a stylus which in my opinion was the easiest way. I also know the developers tested the game this way as well. Below is a screenshot of the help menu in the game options. The other options is to sound on/off or to start with a saved game.

Gameplay:-

The game is fundamentally a game comprising of numerous puzzles which unlock the next sections of the game. The puzzles are different and challenging. It is important to pay attention to clues. I initially found the game very difficult to understand and had to email the developers for some help. The main problem I had at first was understanding the controls. I believe that there should be documentation within the game to explain the principles of movement and puzzle solving. After this I was able to slowly begin to exploring the other regions.

I have read other reviews that some people were able to complete this game in 10-14 hours. I reckoned I needed a week.

Within the game, there is tons of video animation and the high level f graphics for the imaging is incredible. There must have been hours and hours of work on the audio and graphics. To illustrate the quality of the on screen graphics have a look at the images below.

In terms of impressing your friends with the visuals, this is one of the ultimate games. After entering your registration code or when you start the game from the beginning you are presented with a short video animation. Some of this appears in the 9mb trial video which you can download from Clickgamer. The various adventures will take you to a maximum of 4 directions north, south, west, east in each environment. The landscapes vary from Egyptian tombs, pyramids, dark caves and other hidden surprises. Throughout the game there is loads more video animation.

Summary

There are many positives about this game. The video and photographic quality are top notch. The audio and speech is superb. But the movement options are simple, and perhaps too simple as this is where I felt the game was let down. Let me explain further. You can smoothly scroll around 360 degrees whilst stationary. As you scroll around a red arrow appears indicating you can move in that direction. There may be only 2 to 4 red arrows (north, south , west and east). When you tap the red arrow, you don’t smoothly move forward in that direction. You jump forward to the next scene/image. This was a major disappointment, considering I had viewed the 9mb trailer and then watched the intro video at the start of the game. Also bear in mind this is a puzzle game and if you have limited patience you might go insane playing Atlantis Redux. I nearly did J

To be honest, I believe there should be a trial version, since in my opinion the video animation trailer is slightly misleading to the actual game operation. If I was judging the game on graphics , nothing would come close. But I am not, it’s the game as a whole.

Some people will love this, others won’t and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy playing this game.