Return To Atlantis (Amiga) - A Playguide and Review by Lemon Amiga.com
63Return to Atlantis is a sprite-based underwater open-world 3D game, announced by Electronic Arts in 1985, and released to the public in 1987. The engine is based off Rescue on Fractalus. So lets see if this underwater spy story is more Thunderball or Thunderbirds.
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Recorded: 13th March 2024
Narrated: 11th May 2024
Uploaded: 20th Sept 2024
This series includes open-world 3D games, so my search brought me to this game on the Lemon Amiga database. I was reminded that I recorded the 1985 EA demo disk for my movie Amiga: The Quantum Leap, so I was very keen to see what it looked like. Booting this up, I was expecting something similar to Thunder Jaws. But in fact this is very much open world, but with only small clues as to what to do on each mission. I must have read the manual from cover to cover, as it explains what must be done on each mission. After several practice goes at level 1 to get used to the controls, and learning to shoot!, it was time to start the recorder.
Level 2 was familiar, but I'd never managed to compete it before, although I knew where the various elements were scattered from previous attempts. I'd also read up on Mission 3 and 4, but never played them. So in the video I'm mostly just winging it, looking for upgrades to make life easier.
The quiet Amiga Speech in the game was made a lot louder in the edit. It seems the music is louder in the game than the SFX.
Danscore:
Very few developers were prepared to sacrifice many months of their time creating open world games. But right back in 1985, Trip Hawkins splashed this title around the magazines, along with Archon, to show what the next generation afforded over the 8-bits. It took 2 years to make this, even though it was only ever meant to be a fish tank simulator, as bits were added and the missions were developed. However, the game still feels like it is stuck together with Gaffers tape and string, with non of the game sections feeling connected. The player is meant to interview people at the start of each mission, to gain some info, but nobody ever gives a straight answer in the game, so the player is often inclined to skip it. The flying section drags and is unskippable. The ocean itself does not change at all, and the same creatures and elements inhabit each level. But the biggest down side to the game is the HUD and operating it to do some tasks. Everything seems to be more fiddley and convoluted than it needed to be, and as everything happens in real time, it is sometimes difficult to whip out the gun and start firing, or quick beam something back to your vehicle. The programmable sub is a great idea, and acts as a fun companion on the missions to interact with, but clearing the messages and keeping up on the subs progress is hampered by having to read each one, until the player is lagging behind the feed. Returning to the surface for oxygen also means going back to the drop point in the level, which could be far away from where you came from and need to be. Collecting and dropping items seems buggy as things disappear, and the toxicity scanner over the safe medical packages is problematic on level 4.
So I never went back to the game since this was recorded, with no plans to return. It was a good experience and fun to swim with the undersea life. But without many landmarks or colour changes, it feels very samey. The boring monologue drone from the ships computer is also tedious and not fun to sit through, and offers little to no advice about the mission, just a heap of back story. As an RPG, it clings on by it's finger tips. But as an Arcade game meant for casual players, this slips down the abyss. So I'd give it 6 out of 10. There is not much to love here, apart from the sand box freedom and the strange atmosphere, and it seems neglected in all of the most critical areas. Certainly Treasures of the Deep on the PS1 took this scenario and made it playable and fun. But as this was the very early days of 3D, maybe we can write the game off as being too ambitious for its time?