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Have you ever wondered about the similarity between the Egyptian and Mayan Pyramids? And how did several such ancient civilizations build large structures or move extremely large bricks and carved stones? Why did their cultures flourish at specific times but later die out mysteriously? Now you have a chance to explore these and related questions in a new graphical adventure game called Timelapse from GTE Entertainment.
A simple fictional premise sets things up: an archaeologist you know has dedicated his life to finding the lost city of Atlantis and its link to the ancient Egyptians, Maya, and Anasazi. You've followed him to a remote Easter Island dig site where he's found a mysterious time gate that may be the missing link. But now the professor is missing and you have to track him down through five worlds, and in the process, verify his theory about the link between the civilizations.
Finally, a true Myst-killer.
Timelapse is a first-person perspective slideshow adventure with a point and
click interface like Myst, but several elements set it apart from all the recent
Myst clones. First and foremost is the variety of clever logical puzzles which
are integrated into the story and settings extremely well. There are some inventory
based puzzles, and some mechanical puzzles, and many logic puzzles that really
shine. Most are numeric and symbolic, but some are aural. All of them require
careful observation of the environment, both in the natural sense and in the
archaeological sense. For example, in one area you may need to note the symbols
on a cave painting while in another you have to watch what animals cross your
path. Some of the puzzles have more obvious solutions than others, but none
are trivial, yet all of them make sense! If you liked 7th Guest but found the
plot a bit thin and the puzzles out of place, or if you liked the puzzles in
Jewels of the Oracle or the mini-games in Karma but wanted more depth, then
Timelapse will suit you because it has all the good elements of those games
and more.
Full screen graphics.
Yes, Timelapse plays in full screen (640x480) with no letterboxing. The ray-traced
photo-realistic background images are beautiful despite the limitations of a
256-color palette. As you travel within the worlds, you'll also see some well-placed
mini-animations to accompany the scenary, such as a crab walking across the
beach and bees flying around their hive. There are also a handful of embedded
video sequences and inter-world cut scenes, but their quality is poor. They
suffer from a bit of blockiness, possibly because of excessive compression.
Nevertheless, the graphics in Timelapse, on the whole, are very good.
The musical score is another standout feature. It is lush but not overbearing, with each world having its own appropriate musical themes and specialized sound effects. Transitions from one geographical area to another are accompanied with gradual transitions in sound effects. For example, as you approach the sea, the surf gets louder, and as you climb a tall area, the wind may pick up. There are even some stereo effects based on your viewpoint. Unfortunately, there is a minor problem with the sound -- intermittently the sound will cut out for a second between scenes. A recent Usenet posting from the game engine's developers claimed that a patch is being tested and will be available soon at the GTE web site. Supposedly the game engine is being ported to DirectX and will have the benfit of the improved sound buffering provided by DirectSound.
More brownie points.
The point and click interface of this type of adventure game has become almost
ubiquitous, yet Timelapse manages to excel even in this area. The screen cursors
are adequately sized and they change appropriately over hot spots and objects
that you can manipulate. So everything is easy to find and interact with. In
addition to mouse navigation, you can also use the keyboard, and when you do
so, the available directions are shown on the screen.
There are two useful things that the professor leaves behind for you to find. The first is a camera for taking snapshots of clues. This is really useful in solving the symbolic puzzles, especially for those of us who are not very good at taking notes. The other item is a journal with background information about each world and some hints about various objects and mechanisms. You don't have to use either of these helper devices, but it's nice that the designers thought to include them.
First rate!
Timelapse is truly a captivating game, probably one of the best I've played
this year. When the sound problem is fixed, this game should get an A, and if
the quality of the video sequences were improved, this game would definitely
deserve an A+.