Let me preface this by saying Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is one of my favourite adventure games of all time. I would also say it is one of my favourite video games of all time. It easily tops at least my own personal top 10 classic point-and-click adventure games. I first played it on a 386/486 where you had to configure the sound card to ensure both the voice and music worked correctly. Ah, those were the days! Actually, no, that was truly awful. Technology has moved well past this, thankfully, and now it’s as easy as pressing play.
After a flurry of scrapped ideas including a rejected Chris Columbus movie script and a potential search for the mythical sword Excalibur, Fate of Atlantis was released in 1992 and as a full ‘talkie’ CD-ROM in 1993. From the minds of Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein came a new, original Indiana Jones story. The game was very well received and a commercial hit, having sold well over 1 million copies. Inspiration for the story and setting had been drawn from a wide range of existing media including various psuedo-science books from so-called true believers, cheapo coffee-table conversation starter books, Plato’s actual dialogues and the 1882 book Atlantis: The Antedulivan World. The Antedulivan World itself is more or less the belief that any and all takes on Atlantis that Plato had were fact and goes into detail on why. Hal Barwood said that once they stumbled upon a diagram of Atlantis being laid out in three concentric circles he was convinced that this was prime to be in a game. They also learned about the Atlantean metal alloy, orichalcum, which provided some fuel for competition with the nazis. Reading through the source material led to the creation of the mythical text, Plato’s Lost Dialogue, Hal and Noah then filled in the rest of the story. The lead artist in the team, William Eaken, tried to depict Atlantean architecture and artifacts to be somewhat alien in nature with a base look drawing from the Minoan civilisation. While at times seeming to be somewhat ‘magic’, Atlantean machines and artifacts were more perceived by the player as simply being highly advanced technology.
We join Indy who is tasked with searching Barnett College for a strange statue artifact by a mysterious Mr. Smith, right on the eve of World War II no less. Indy locates the statue after some grand adventures in the archives of Barnett College and returns to his office where Mr. Smith and Marcus Brody are eagerly awaiting his return. After Mr Smith pulls a gun and steals both the statue and the strange metal bead inside, Indy gets the jump on him as his back is turned. He gets away, but leaving behind his coat, Mr. Smith is revealed to be a nazi agent Klaus Kerner. Kerner also leaves behind a clue for where he may strike next, a magazine article about an expedition Indy worked on with now-psychic, Sophia Hapgood. Naturally, we’re off to New York where Sophia is performing on stage to both warn her and try to intercept Kerner. Indy crashes the performance and links up with Sophia. Returning to Sophia’s dressing room, they discover it has been turned over presumably by Kerner in search of Atlantean artifacts. We soon learn their efforts were a swing-and-a-miss. Sophia uncovers her necklace, which has the ability to invoke the spirit of Atlantean King, Nur-Ab-Sal. The pair discover that Dr. Hans Ubermann, Nazi scientist, wants to uncover the power of Atlantis himself and use it as a power source for the nazis. The next step is revealed by our old pal, Nur-Ab-Sal, who telepathically speaks to Sophia and instructs them to find Plato’s Lost Dialogue, The Hermocrates, which will guide them into Atlantis. After some professional sleuthing, Indy and Sophia discover that the collection Plato’s Lost Dialogue belongs to is actually at Barnett College. Once again, Indy is off on an adventure through the College’s archives to retrieve the ancient artifact. After retrieving Plato’s Lost Dialogue and learning that there are three keys, stone discs, that are required to enter Atlantis and any of it’s lesser colonies we are met with a choice. This is where we choose our story path. Wits, Team or Fists.
The game really starts when you choose your path, which at the time was fairly significant in a point-and-click adventure game as it hadn’t really been done before. We have Wits, which is Indy by himself solving complex puzzles. Team, where Indy, obviously, teams up with Sophia Hapgood in the quest to find Atlantis. And finally, Fists, which should be pretty self explanatory I would think. Less thinky, more punchy. You can still fight in the other two paths, but typically it can be avoided. Each path offers a different way into the lost city of Atlantis. From what I understand, when Noah Falstein first came up with the idea of the three path system, it took an extra 6 months of development to allow for added puzzles, locations and dialogue. Small price to pay, to be honest.
Indy, and Sophia if you’re playing the Team path, travel around the world to Algiers, Crete, Monte Carlo and Thera to track down the three stone discs and uncover the secrets of Atlantis. We visit Atlantis’ lesser colonies and Atlantean outposts along the way. We come up against dodgy antiquities dealers, engage with colourful street vendors, run into trouble in the desert, encounter angry spirits and naturally battle nazi stooges on our journey to save the power of Atlantis falling into the wrong hands.
The pacing of the story is presented very well with a good balance of puzzles to snippets of the story unfolding. The music is simply fantastic throughout the entire game and the title sequence including the Indiana Jones theme always hits me HARD in the nostalgia. These days, you can opt for either SoundBlaster/Ablib or emulated Roland/MIDI. SoundBlaster is much more nostalgic for me, but lately I’ve been using the emulated Roland music and I have to admit, it’s actually sounds pretty great. Both are great. The game has some serious replayability, which is pretty rare for a game of this age and genre, as you can take either of the three paths and there are multiple ways to solve some puzzles. I do play through a bunch of old point-and-click games at least once per year regardless though, so I may not be the best judge here. While the game is fairly linear, the puzzles and story remain incredibly engaging. The environments in the game look good. For whatever reason, the artistic team only gained access to scanning toward the end of development so only about 10% or so of the backgrounds are hand-drawn and scanned in and then completed from there. For a game that looks this good, especially for the time, it surprises me that the vast majority of the work was completed in Deluxe Paint.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is my pick for best classic point-and-click adventure game of all time. It would even make it into my overall top games of all time list. It is simply a standout in the adventure game genre. The story is well written and presents as the movie we should have had, but I’ll happily take it as a video game. I mean, I really don’t hate Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but if there was an Indiana Jones story worthy of a movie this was it. But, much like another LucasArts movie not-to-be The Dig, Fate of Atlantis benefits greatly from the user directly interacting with environment and solving puzzles to unfold the story. The puzzles are well crafted, environments are legitimately interesting and look fantastic. The music is fantastic and only adds to the overall experience, it perfectly complements the atmosphere and story. The three path system gives you the option to not only choose your journey to Atlantis, but to return and choose again. Make a paths save. Do it. Each path offers a fresh perspective on the game’s story. Despite being a fairly linear LucasArts adventure game style, the variety in problem solving and story progression ensures that Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis cements itself among the great adventure games of all time.
Verdict:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis stands as one of the best classic adventure games. It blends an original, captivating story with well thought out puzzles, a rich and thoroughly researched environment with fitting, well constructed music. It offers strong replayability with its three-path system. Truly, it delivers an experience that rivals any Indiana Jones film and earns it’s place as a timeless standout in the adventure game genre.
Deck Compatibility: 10/10
Overall Game Rating: 10/10
Dad with a Deck 
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