KOEI’s Ark of Time was ported to the Playstation, as well as DOS for the personal computer. It is an adventure game that is based on the fabled lost city of Atlantis. It was developed by Trecision S. p. A. and was released in the late nineties. It features detective or mystery style puzzles and plays out entirely in the third person perspective.
The Ark of Time deals with the discovery of the lost city of Atlantis. It is very similar in nature and gameplay to Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis. Most of the game is inventory based and there are a lot of neat items and artefacts to locate and use. The game links this fabled city to other mysteries of the ancient world, such as Stonehenge and the statues of Easter Island.
In Ark of Time, the user plays sports journalist Richard Kendall. Kendall has been given the rare opportunity to travel to exotic locations all over the world by his job, but he would rather stay home and cover football games. Overall, he is ignorant and ill-mannered, downright rude at times. He is not an especially likeable protagonist. Presumably, the nature of his character is meant to be humorous, but the laughable moments are overshadowed by racial slurs and insensitivities.
Kendall begins the game in London, England by investigating the disappearance of a professor who specializes in Atlantean lore. The clues lead him to the Caribbean, and eventually other exotic locations in an attempt to uncover the professor’s whereabouts. Travel between locations is very simple with the mouse driven interface, which is great for reducing the tedium of moving between the many interesting locales of the game. There is a lot of travelling in the game, since the puzzles in any given location require work or inventory from other locations to solve. The user will find himself moving back and forth often. Moreover, each location has up to ten different screens filled with puzzles and item, making for even more moving around within a given scenario.
Everything in the Ark of Time is run from the mouse driven point-and-click system, making it a snap to learn. However, there is a really lot to do, a ton of things to find, many people with whom to interact, and loads of puzzles to solve in order to advance the plot. It is not a short game. It is logical and methodical, but not small. It should keep the user busy for hours.
Written by:
~Shannon
