Review: Timelapse

By: Kirk Hiner

Frankly, I'm tired of "Myst." Sure, it was the first game I bought when I got my PowerMac 6100, and I enjoyed every minute of playing it. I even enjoyed it the second time through when my friend Shannon kept bugging me to give her clues. But soon the market was bombarded with clones, all of which advertised that they were better than "Myst." Every product seemed to be launched with this announcement. I think even General Mills claimed that their Total Raisin Bran was better than "Myst," and higher in fiber!

Then came the books, then "Riven" (easily the worst sequel since "Highlander II"), and now there's even a special anniversary edition. I say you forget it all and just go buy a copy of Barracuda's "Timelapse."

A quick explanation first. "Timelapse" was originally released a couple years ago by GTE Interactive. The company closed down their software development division soon thereafter, leaving "Timelapse" in software limbo. This summer, Barracuda, Inc. bought the rights and have rereleased it. This is good news for the gaming community, as "Timelapse" is worthy of a second try.

Any comparison to "Myst" is well founded, as "Timelapse" is nearly a carbon copy. Instead of hunting down pages of a book and watching horribly acted video snippets, however, your character is hunting down the lost city of Atlantis and watching horribly acted video snippets. The actors and actresses in "Timelapse" look more like refugees from VH1's Fashion Awards than from ancient Egypt, and their acting ability is as thin as a mummified Kate Moss.

Other than that, "Timelapse" is a highly engaging adventure game. After receiving a phone message from Alexander Nichols on Easter Island urging you to see the discovery he's made, you fly there only to find he's vanished. You come across his journal and discover that he believes he's found a link between the ancient Easter Island, Egyptian, Mayan and Anasazi civiliations, all of which he believes lead to the fabled lost city of Atlantis.

After finding the time portal that Nichols discovered, you're able to travel to these civilizations to garner clues as you quest to find both Nichols and Atlantis itself. Each civilizaion comes on one of four CDs, giving them more than enough space for some attractive graphics. At some points, "Timelapse" plays more like a Silicon Graphics slideshow than an adventure game, but the numerous--and often quite difficult--puzzles don't afford you much time for sight seeing.

Like "Myst" you have to learn a lot to solve most of the puzzles. Each civilization comes with a new journal from Nichols, most of which force you to read over forty entries. They're fairly helpful, and even somewhat educational, but also very annoying. Maybe it's just me, but I don't buy computer games to read about what sort of tortures the Mayans performed on their own tongues.

To its advantage, "Timelapse" includes a unique camera feature. Rather than forcing you to draw the symbols you discover, you can simply take a picture of them to view at any point in the game. This is extremely helpful for those of us who couldn't draw the sun without help from Illustrator. Don't get too touristy, however; your camera comes with only thirty-six shots.

Once you've acquired the background and picked up the gist of the puzzles, they do come together quite well. Most make sense and fit well in their individual civilizations, which puts "Timelapse" ten steps above "Riven." Despite the bad acting and the throwaway plot to find Nichols, "Timelapse" was engrossing enough to make me twice miss the beginning of "RAW is WAR" so that I could "just finish this puzzle."

And I wouldn't miss "RAW is WAR" to extinguish my brother if he'd caught fire.

The bright and attractive graphics and sound effects of "Timelapse" are no longer awe inspiring in today's 3Dfx accelerated world, but that's okay. They're really only decoration for the obstacles you must solve, and "Riven" proved to the gaming world that not even amazing graphics can save adventure games with ludicrous puzzles.

If you're looking for a game in which you can lose yourself for a while, then "Timelapse" won't disappoint. It's like walking around a Discovery Channel special on ancient cultures, only without Charleton Heston narrating. Of course, "Timelapse" certainly could've benefitted from Mr. Heston's talents. Where do they find the actors for these games? I mean, I've seen high school productions of "Harvey" with better acting than this.

But hey, maybe bad acting just adds to the fun. Of course, so does a cut in price. From their online store at http://store.yahoo.com/barracuda, Barracuda is selling the Macintosh version of "Timelapse" for only $19.95. At this price, the game is a steal for virtually any Mac user. Hurry, though; the sale only lasts until December 20th.

And now, back to RAW is WAR. You know, I think Mankind is a better wrestler than "Myst."

Genre: Adventure

Platform: MacOS

Format: CD ROM

Developer: GTE Entertainment

Publisher: Barracuda, Inc.

Requirements: 68040 processor, 8MB RAM, 2x CD ROM, System 7.0, 256 color monitor.

Network feature: No

Retail price: $39.95 ($19.95 Macintosh special until December 20th)

Availability: Out now

Raised on Intellivision and "Tron," Kirk Hiner has been an avid gamer ever since he was tall enough to look through the viewfinder on the Battlezone upright. Although he makes a living using a PC (not by choice) to design websites for Dynamics Online, Inc., Kirk never strays from his 9600/200 or 3400c for computer gaming. When he's not playing the latest Logicware release, he can either be found working on his next "never to be published" novel, rereading anything by Kurt Vonnegut or watching RAW is WAR.

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February 09, 2012