0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Atlantis The Lost Tales

Atlantis The Lost Tales is a fantasy adventure puzzle game in a similar vain to the Myst series and the first entry in the Atlantis series of games developed by Cryo Interactive Entertainment, the series ran from 1997 up until 2006, with the Atlantis Collection being released in 2014 for Windows, the platform the series would be best associated with.

The series did release on the original Playstation with the initial entry in the series the only one to appear on the console, released on the 30^th of September 1997 in North America the game was published by Interplay, the game would also receive a European release the following year, as well as a Sega Saturn, Windows, Mac and DOS release, all except the latter releasing in 1997.

Notable members of the development team Laurent Fischer who was the games lead artist has recently been working on the Ghost Recon series for Ubisoft, as lead character artists for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and Character Senior Technical Art Director for Ghost Recon Wildlands.

The game is a first person puzzle game definitely getting a Myst vibe from the game even the movement is Myst like with movement taken in frames, with the mouse moving the screen rather than the players character. For the player to interact with objects or one of the many NPC’s in the game they must position the desired object or person in the centre of the screen.

This was one of the main criticism from reviews at the time as there are no crosshairs in the centre of the screen it could be quite awkward to get the item or person position correctly. Later entries in the series would correct this issue however.

To progress through the game and the story the player must complete puzzles of varying difficulty some some leaning towards the abstract with solutions that would not be the first thing that comes to mind. Things can quicken up as well with what can be described as an early style quick time event, with the player having to react quickly to events that are happening.

The players character is a man named Seth, he has recently joined the Queens Companions and elite unit that guards the queen of Atlantis, shortly after joining the companions he discovers the Queen has gone missing recently.

As the story progresses Seth learns that a power struggle has erupted in Atlantis between the queen and the Guards of the Consul, the leader of the Consul a man named Creon. Creon wishes to replace Ammu the goddess of the Moon as the most worshipped and loved of all the Atlantis Gods.

In place of Ammu the sun god Sa’at, with Creon wishing to conquer the world in the name of Sa’at using powerful weapons he has developed one of these weapons is a crystal of great power, capable of granting its user immense knowledge, fearing the power of the crystal it was broken in two a light side and dark side. The two halves of the crystal were hidden one on Easter Island the other at Stonehenge, however Creon was able to find the dark half of the crystal.

The two halves of the crystal were hidden for a good reason as wielders of the crystal were driven insane by its power, Seth has not choice though and sets out to recover the light side of the crystal in the hope of being able to combat the new power that Creon has. He is successful in his quest and returns to Atlantis to confront Creon.

A mixed bag of review scores for this game with one good review score, a couple of above average ones but from her the scores do take a tumble downwards sinking as low as a couple of 30 rated review scores, starting with the best though which comes from Gaming Age who rated the game an 83.

Gaming Age praised the controls of the game calling them tight, they also praised the graphics calling them exceptional ( I stopped here when I realised this review was not for this game but Disney Atlantis) so moving on to what is now the highest review score for the game.

Which comes from Power Unlimited who scored the game a respectable 76 the Dutch publication calling the game beautiful and extensive especially for avid puzzle fans with plenty of time. However their review was not without criticism the constant loading times were a real downer for the review as a result the cheerful walking around Atlantis becomes almost impossible.

German Publication Mega Fun are next up with their above average score of 67, the reviewer calling the story interesting and the game is visually impressive with a beautiful soundtrack, however they found the controls to be lethargic and the pulling action likely to put off all but the keenest of adventure fans.

We take a drop down in review scores for the next publication which is French publication Consoles Plus who scored the game a 55, they were highly critical of the game calling it a nuisance when you try to player it, the adventure is tasteless and dialogue that is silly, add in the tedious loading times as well. Concluding with In short, it's Cryo all spit ... And say that it may sell

Dropping down to the bottom of the review scores we find two review outlets both giving the game a 30 score, they are Joypad and Consoles News, starting with the former French publication Joypad who summarized the game as clicking, sometimes randomly, waiting, clicking and more waiting the review also commented on the games lack of depth.

Lastly on to Consoles News another French publication, who praised the nice presentation, however once you start playing you will be irretrievably disappointed and board and likely fall asleep between each dialogue, either that or the long loading times. As a result the disc is ejected in a rage and thrown out of the window, with the review hoping the game returns to the Cryo studios where it should never have left.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I've heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who along with Retrogames.co.uk, eStarland.com and Amazon.com do not stock this title with Gamedude and eStarland and Amazon not even having the game listed as out of stock.

So we head over to the co.uk version of Amazon where we find just three copies of the game available with two used copies and one new one, starting with the used copies the first is a very good condition but a disc only copy of the game, this is priced up at £21.94 which is $28.63 or 24.36 Euro.

The second used copy currently on the market is a like new copy of the game, sadly again this is not a complete copy of the game with the manual missing, cost wise this takes a jump up in price with a cost of £36.94 once shipping has been added in, this is for UK shipping so the price will likely be more for buyers outside of the UK.

The final copy on the market is the single new copy of the game that is available, with another hefty jump in price with this new copy priced at £104.61 once the shipping costs have been added in, again the shipping cost is for a UK delivery so outside of the UK could be considerably higher.

Written by

P J Gibbon