Copyright © 1997 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). All rights reserved. Republication, redistribution or conversion is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software. Contents subject to change! For the latest information, see http://www.balmoralsoftware.com.
Ark of Time is another attempt to link disparate historical myths to a common explanation based on the lost continent of Atlantis. Apart from its complete lack of originality, the game seems positively desperate in its attempts to juxtapose completely-unrelated geographical and historical contexts. The overall plot is a hodgepodge of ideas through which runs an often-obscured central theme in which you, as a newspaper reporter, are trying to find a famous professor and his crew which have mysteriously disappeared while trying to find Atlantis. Containing few puzzles or intellectual challenges, Ark of Time is essentially an inventory hunting and management exercise that rapidly grows tedious, especially in light of the sometimes-arbitrary logic with which inventory items must be used. Although you have a certain limited freedom in visiting global locations by means of a world map, gameplay is extremely linear with absolutely no alternatives to the specific inventory tasks at hand. Even if you know the answer to the occasional puzzle (e.g., a combination to a locked door), you are not allowed to enter it until all prerequisite tasks have been completed. At one point (involving a rat), it was impossible to progress without restoring a much-earlier saved game due to a major logic bug. In many instances, the whole game hinges on the player's ability to find a tiny object among numerous locations and put it into inventory (e.g., a bullet casing).
The game's interface is third-person, in which you control a poorly-animated cyberpuppet on the screen. Does the "Y" on the character's jacket mean "Y am I playing this game?" Right-clicking the mouse on a destination avoids waiting an excessively-long time for the character to slowly walk around the screen. Hotspots are indicated by highlighted text, circa Monkey Island I. Object manipulation is extremely simplistic - left-click the mouse to observe a hotspot, right-click to pick an item up or interact with it. Right-clicking is also used to combine inventory objects.
The rendered background graphics are probably the only halfway-decent thing about Ark of Time, but even these lack resolution and often seem blocky. Music is essentially nonexistent. Sound effects are minimal, but fail to produce a subtle sense of atmosphere as has been done so much better in similarly-priced games such as Amber. The occasional video sequences are poorly-animated and sometimes silent. The medallion sequences in the last half of the game were a real ordeal to endure, each consisting of a slowly-moving head combined with repetitive whining about the bad quality control in Atlantis.
Ark of Time is a pathetic attempt to create yet another game based on the legend of Atlantis. It appears to be nothing more than an overwritten plot idea constructed on an outdated game engine. Its poor design makes the game a questionable purchase even in the bargain bin.
Copyright © 1997 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). All rights reserved. Republication, redistribution or conversion is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software. Contents subject to change! For the latest information, see http://www.balmoralsoftware.com.