Timelapse

Posted by Pedro Matias.
First posted on 08 September 1999. Last updated on 08 August 2009.
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Timelapse
You must rescue the Professor who is trapped.
Timelapse
You cross the Nile in an ancient Egyptian ship.
Timelapse
The deserted Anasazi village hides an important secret.
Timelapse
The uneven ground and different hues in the stairway hint at signs of wear of an imposing Mayan pyramid.

Timelapse (also known as Timelapse: Ancient Civilizations... The Link to Atlantis) is an adventure game developed by the since disbanded GTE Entertainment. Although the production is clearly dated by today's standard, this Myst imitator is still a decent adventure and a fascinating time trip to ancient civilizations.

You play the role of a friend of Professor AR Nichols, a historian and archaeologist has been researching the possible links between some of the most advanced civilizations of Earth's past and the mythical civilization of Atlantis. The adventure begins when you receive a distress call from the Professor and arrive at Easter Island to find him missing. It is up to you to find out what has happened to the Professor and rescue him. In the process you must find the gateways to visit sites belonging to the ancient Egyptian, Anasazi, and Mayan civilizations and to unravel their connections with the fabled Atlantis.

This game is played through a series of still images with hotspots. The images are pre-rendered in 640x480 resolution and 256 colors. Movement is limited to certain directions only. Some of the artworks are indeed beautiful and denote great care in rendering the scenes as well as a genuine research effort in providing historical accuracy. The full screen, photorealistic, ray-traced graphics are created on Silicon Graphics Indigo 2 Extremes running Alias/Wavefront Power Animator software. Several strategic locations feature sweeping panoramic 360° views. Many images include small animations (birds, insects). Ambiance is further enhanced by the inclusion of a multitude of ambient sounds. The installation is straightforward, requiring about 44 MB of hard disk space. The installer is unnecessarily verbose, though, showing installation options (typical, full, custom) that are irrelevant since the installed files and the required disk space sre always the same.

In general, Timelapse is an enjoyable gaming experience. It is a first person perspective adventure game in the Myst style. Each of the 5 different worlds (Easter Island, Anasazi World, Egyptian World, Mayan World, Atlantean World) must be thoroughly explored and puzzles must be solved to access hitherto locked zones and thus progress in the game. There is a time gate that connects these worlds. The objectives of your quest are to collect 3 gene pods and finally confront the cybernetic Guardian in Atlantis. Puzzles vary from skill to inventory to logic (pattern or sound matching) based. There is no interaction with other characters (there is a sort of an exception but I do not want to go into it because it may spoil the game). However, at certain locations you can access audiovisual messages, both from the Professor and other people. Although these messages do not contain direct clues to the puzzles, they are relevant additions to the story. The sites you visit are deserted, as if recently abandoned by some reason, which is hinted at during the game.

Inventory items are few. Actually, you can only hold one at any time. If a second item is picked up, the first one is magically returned to where it is first found. At some places the player can hear voices that provide rather devious clues to some of the puzzles. The game can be saved at any point, which comes rather handy sometimes. Early on, the player picks up the Professor's Journals. They provide some background information on each one of the locations you visit in the game. Timelapse is easily playable by today's PC hardware, with a 486 DX2/66 CPU being the minimum system requirement.

Compared with more recent adventure titles (such as Zork Grand Inquisitor and The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time), this game clearly shows its age. Nevertheless, it is for the most part an enjoyable adventure game. There are 6 different endings to the game. The graphics are good. The interface is simple and straightforward to use. A neat addition is a photo camera that can be used to take photos of certain clues or artifacts for later inspection. However, only 36 pictures can be taken so this resource has to be used sparingly. Interestingly, if you take some pictures, restore an earlier game before taking those pictures and try to use the camera again, odd results follow.

A main downside of this game is that a few of the puzzles are exceedingly difficult, quickly leading to frustration for the less experienced gamers (myself included). For example, a puzzle in the Mayan world involves a wraparound pyramid with 22 steps on it. The object of this puzzle is to select a series of fixed moves, either clockwise or counterclockwise, so that a lizard covers each step only once. Theoretically, the solution involves picking a single correct path out of over 73 million random permutations.

Overall, Timelapse is a pretty decent and honest adventure game. The publisher claims that this game has more than 50 puzzles and at least 50 hours of gameplay. However, in my opinion the game is just not good enough to be rated a classic. While it may not be worth its full retail price, it is certainly a must buy if you can find it at a discount.

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