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Short, with humor and easy puzzles.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed Beyond Atlantis 2 because it was a change of pace from the usual "make 'em guess at what's going on and what to do next" sort of games I've managed to purchase lately. The storyline pretty much made sense and better than most I've played, however there are the inevitable disjointed moments inherent in pc games.

Basically, you are an archaeologist and are captured by the bad guy, who makes you investigate the mystery of the site for him. The story takes place in several areas that differ widely, and you find yourself taking on the life of someone else- a thief in Baghdad or Ice Age woman- which is a different twist from the usual.

Beyond Atlantis 2 will not tax your brain too much- the puzzles are moderate to easy and are clever. There are puzzles using inventory, but accessing your inventory is simply a matter of right clicking in and out of it. You must pick up a few items, and a couple are very hard to find.

There are a several puzzles that send you back to the beginning of that particular scene (not the game!) if you are wrong or do not act in the proper order (and the proper order is the puzzle). This can get frustrating. Many will find one area, with its intricate looking paths and fish-eye view extremely difficult. But, it looks worse than it is and you cannot get lost. Look carefully, and you will notice landmarks to guide you. (Even with random clicking, I always came back to the same spot)

I used UHS hints a few times, but never for a full solution; a gentle nudge was adequate. If you like hard, intricate puzzles, you will be disappointed in BA2. There are hints given in the game via the characters you meet- listen carefully.

I enjoyed the humor greatly. From the wisecracking mummy with a cold (who sits tapping his bony fingers against his sarcophagus while waiting for you) to the eunuch guards who do a little jig as they get out of your way. You even find humor in the puzzles. Getting up the tower steps involves playing a game with a monkey.

The voice acting, with one glaring exception, is done very, very well. Unfortunately, that character is you and you have to listen to a beautiful accent delivered without any expression at all. Everyone else, though, is better than the average game. The music was also better than average, although repetitious.

The graphics were lovely and nicely detailed, with good use of color. Cut scenes were nicely done and were not skimpy. I loved the carving coming to life. My 3 year old laptop had no trouble running the program, however I think the graphics might have been sharper had it been on a better machine. Options are easy to access and use.

As a parent, I appreciate comments that alert me to questionable content, so here's a few notes for those of you with younger kids and who would rather not be surprised when a guard gets his throat cut. There is violence from knives and guns. There is also a character, a thief, who encounters 3 very, very scantily clad women- think Janet and her pasties. There are 2 swear words- nothing worse that what most kids hear on TV.

Overall, Beyong Atlantis 2 is short, fun, easy to look at and will make for a pleasant weekend.

A lot of good stuff ... and some truly awful elements!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

All in all, this is a fairly decent adventure game, with exceptional graphics and a sooth game play. I resorted to a walk through several times but it was mainly sheer impatience on my part rather than extreme difficulty in the puzzles. Most are rather straight forward, although some involve pixel hunting that can cause terminal squinting.

The premise is not as bad as I've seen in other games and anyone who looks for great "plotlines" in a game is usually disappointed. Suffice it to say, you visit several different worlds and need to accomplish various tasks in each. My favorite was the icy Siberian type locale, which boasted a few interesting and unusual "puzzles."

Characters range from the very boring and stilted heroine (with the absolute WORST voice acting I've ever heard ... it was almost enough to make me want to mute the whole thing and just read the subtitles) to a hilarious mummy who helps her out during the Egyptian phase of the game.

Bottom line is that the game kept me entertained for a few hours (it is actually quite a short game, although as I said, I cheated a few times to hurry things along). But don't expect it to win any 'game of the year' awards.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I will write a few lines:
-Dont worry about crashes, because my system is a W2K, medium hardware and it is working OK. Only take care if you have a XP system.
-The story is a mix between adventure and mythologhy.
-The game is excelent if you dont love blood and violence, and prefering to use your brain and resolving puzzles.
-I am a RTS gamer, but this is the best adventure game for me, specially it has beatiful graphics and landscapes.
-The game has secuence if you can see the main line story about reborn and finding ancient power.
-I recommend you search the internet for the key "Atlantis 3" and you will find reviews and walktroughs.
Buy it now is a excellent game (and cheap).

It's a very nice game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a aventure / magic game, you will go trought different worlds: Sahara in the future, ancient Egypt, Paleolithic, etc.
The game is excellent if you like to use your brain and explore, if you like violence maybe is not OK. I have a medium performance system and it's working nice, no delays, no crashes (I have a W2K system). The puzzles are medium level. This is a very well trainig for your mind and exploration capabilities. I am a RTS player, and I don't know a lot of adeventure games, but i love Beyond Atlantis. Search internet using the key "Atlantis 3" and you will find more details.

Dreamcatcher should have quit while they were ahead.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Beyond Atlantis (AKA Atlantis II) was a slightly flawed gem. (Pun intended for those who have played it.) Interesting, beautiful, difficult, reasonably well-plotted, internally logical, and fun. The only part THIS installment of the series got right was "beautiful."

I will say that the graphics in this game are wondrous. From the Arabian Nights courtyard to the Pink Floyd-esque "Membrane" (which seemingly represents the heroine's brain...or maybe Jung's collective unconcious...or maybe God as visualized by dolphins) the rendering is absolutely gorgeous.

But graphics alone do not make a good game. There is no logic to BA2...neither externally nor internally. The "plot" has you discovering an artifact that can imbue you with a superhuman wisdom by transporting you to a series of different realms and times and letting you experience those places through the eyes of one of its inhabitants. This scheme fails on a variety of levels. Sometimes, you appear in these realms as yourself, while in others, you are a completely unrecognizable character. There is no logic to WHY these worlds are chosen, nor to what you are supposed to "learn" in each. In fact, given that you are supposedly striving to achieve some sort of enlightenment that you can then pass on to the rest of humanity, it seems odd that the focus of the "Scheherazade" world is to lie, steal and seduce women. Eventually the sequence of realms seems completely arbitrary. It is similar to Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man:" a series of unconnected short stories woven together by a loose and incomprehensible over-story. Except Bradbury wrote GOOD short stories. The chapters of BA2 are weak and silly, each and every one. Even the few good puzzles (and there are a couple) are mired down in a morass of confusion and pretentiousness.

Beyond Atlantis was a quality game...one that made you think, feel, and examine your character's motives. (Plus, the "White Horse" cutscene in BA may be the single best cutscene in any adventure game ever.) It is an injustice to THAT game that this one shares the same title. Avoid this game at all costs unless you are desperate for some eye candy.

XP Issues

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: February 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game very enjoyable with fun puzzles and good graphics. the heroine makes the game much more interesting as well, because of her casual yet cocky attitude. but i must agree with previous reviewers that although it says XP compatible on the box, there were a number of glitches i had to deal with, such as slow scene play, and difficulty with the charators speech. i'm not sure why this happens, but it seems only with XP computers, it is deffinatly something to watch out for, even if your computer is new and up-to-date. other than those problems, this games could be very enjoyable.

Beautiful graphics, good puzzles, very enjoyable to play!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Atlantis 3, Beyond Atlantis II
As the previous Atlantis games, this game contains beautiful graphics. The storyline is enjoyable, not in the least because of our feisty heroine and the beautiful scenes she encounters. The puzzles are interesting and not too difficult or too easy. The game is wonderfully easy to operate, not a mouse click too much is needed, many compliments for that! Also nice is the story in a story, where the hero suddenly is a male.
Any downsides: Very annoying is the puzzle that relies on motoric skill or luck (throwing the rock at the tiger). The end of the story is somewhat of an anticlimax. And there seem to be a few sides of the Cristal unused, suggesting that the makers of the game got fed up, and did not want to venture into more different worlds?
But overall, one of the best adventure games around!

Beyond Atlantis 2

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

XP Users beware !

Even though "Beyond Atlantis 2" is XP compatible
according to the product box, it does not seem to work with XP.

The game crashes to the desktop at the first cut scene. The error can be reproduced every time the game is run therefore making it unplayable.
I am very disappointed as the graphics of the introductionary video are truely beautiful and breathtaking.

After contacting techsupport at the Dreamcatcher website and following all their suggestion and troubleshooting, the game is still crashing.

While surfing the Dreamcatcher support forum, I learned that many users with XP have this exact same issue and that Dreamcatcher does not appear concerned enough about it, to write a patch even though it affects so many customers.

My computer is less than two month old, pentium 4, 2.5 Ghz
with all the latest drivers and newest DirectX version.

Myst Exile and all my other games run flawlessy by the way.

Don't Buy if you have XP

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Okay I bought this game and I have some pros and a really big con. The pros are that the graphics are very good. The 360 degree pan feature is awesome and the puzzles and music are great. Now for the really big con. It will absolutely not work with Windows XP. I cannot get past the sarcophagus scene in the beginning. I have tried everything. Cleaning my registry, reinstalling, uninstalling, not installing direct X, using a saved game, lowering the acceleration rate of my sound and graphics, nothing works. It is a shame too because the graphics are really good.

Beautiful & fun, would be a perfect 5 but for "pixel hunts"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a beautifully rendered game, with a refreshing variety of different kinds of puzzles that actually relate to the storyline, even a bit of interaction built in to make it a bit more satisfying. Alas it is short - I would have enjoyed more time in each of the various dream environments.

The only problem with the game, in my opinion, is something common to all the Dreamcatcher games - an annoying (to me) habit of hiding small objects (like the little bird needed to get out of a room in an early puzzle) such that you literally have to sweep your mouse across the entire screen before you hit a very small hotspot (what I call a pixel hunt), or having to direct an object to a very specific spot (there is a sequence in trying to distract a tiger that requires throwing a rock to a very, very, VERY specific spot at a particular time). This kind of thing adds nothing to game play - as a matter of fact it detracts mightily, because you think you know what to do or how to solve the puzzle, but if you can't find the object you think you need or when you throw an object and nothing happens, you think you were off track. Since sometimes you die if you don't get it right, this can be a significant time waster to no good purpose.
Because this is true of many Dreamcatcher adventure titles (i.e., Schizm, etc.), if it weren't for the beautiful environments and overall other high quaility and inventive elements of the games, I'd avoid Dreamcatcher titles. My recommendation is to have the UHS (Universal Hint System) handy as opposed to a walkthru - it will validate that you are on the right track with a puzzle without solving it for you (for example - yes, you really do throw the rock to distract the tiger, but you have to do it in the right spot!!).

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