[EGD] An Aquatic Adventure

Atlantis is a game created by lumberjay

This is ya boy Troyio here with my first ever review on Sploder. Today I will be reviewing Atlantis by Lumberjay. It was a finalist in the platformer category in this year's Epic Game Drop.

Intro

2012’s Epic Game Drop (EGD) was stock full of high quality platform games from notable members and undiscovered creators. Out of this marvelous batch of games came Atlantis by lumberjay. I do not recall Atlantis winning any category prizes but I believe it was a finalist for its group, and with the vast amount of feature worthy games published, finalist is no insult. Nobody was surprised of its finalist position since lumberjay is a pretty well known game maker. He mainly shines in the Physics Puzzle Maker department but his platforming skills are not far behind. So, with Atlantis grasping its spot amongst a large group of well made games, my hopes are very high as I click on the thumbnail.

Review

No one has beaten Atlantis to this point in time. Knowing this meant that it must present a humble challenge to the game player. But hey, who doesn’t like a nice challenge? Lumberjay exposed us to the upcoming challenges in a very subtle fashion. He placed small, weak hazards over the course of the beginning levels introducing that a problem has occurred in Atlantis. While I journeyed all over the map one word kept returning to my mind. Smooth. Smooth like water. Lumberjay did not make anything impossibly hard but you had to accomplish it with a clever and witty mind. Of course, the enemies increased and strategy for maintaining health and getting past the large behemoths became a major factor. But I do not know of a smoother way to perish fighting for my city.

A major positive that helped create the complete essence for the game was Lumberjay’s job on scenery. The vast majority of blocks had a bluish tone which allowed them to blend into each other as you progressed throughout the game. The ramp tile was used various times by Lumberjay as decor. I loved it! Something about figures and rooms shaped other than boring squares stands out to me. I believe in some levels almost every corner was slanted and I really cannot describe why it provided such an elegant feeling to the game.

Lumberjay also did not shy away from creating extras either and what some consider ‘unneeded scenery’. Things like the small towers that appear to have no influence on the game. But in my opinion, extra scenery done the right way is just magical and compliments everything. It is a very sad thing that lags ultimately causes us to delete off our extra pieces. Props to Lumberjay for finding a way to go overboard while avoiding that dreaded lag.

Placement was a large asset to this game. Many puzzles or pathways depended on exact placement of blocks and perms for you to be able to proceed. I never found any problem with enemies accidentally taking a plunge into lava or puzzles that simply did not work. I was mildly impressed on the precision Lumberjay incorporated and the amount of time he most likely spent piecing everything together to his liking. Even though this was an extremely large section of the game I do not have much to say since Lumberjay executed it with flying colors. Major thumbs up!

Even with my terrible gaming skills I managed to reach level six of Atlantis. Over the course of my journey through the underwater city I made sure to pay attention to power ups. Would they be given out like free candy so we all could see Lumberjay’s work or would he try to eliminate them as even being a factor so that only true masters could reach the concluding levels? I will say that it was neither of those extremes but it leaned towards the negative side. This may be since I am a subpar gamer but I found it highly difficult to move on throughout the mid levels. Some med kits here and there after large obstacles and enemies would have given me at least somewhat of a chance of survival. Lumberjay did not do terrible in my opinion but it could have been improved.

One thing I’d like to point out about Atlantis is the sidequests. I did not tally them up but there was a hefty amount of them. I love sidequests being added into games. Who doesn’t like games inside of games inside of games? GAMECEPTION. I only participated in several of the separate adventures only attempting to gain some health and they were definitely of quality. Some were shorter than others but the ones I tried all were pleasant and well made. The extras inside this game really pop out and make it shine. I couldn’t imagine this without Lumberjay’s overachieving work.

My choice of selecting this game to review is simply because I enjoy reviewing games that are truly epic. Lumberjay did a thorough job of not only providing a long but high quality adventure that seemed to flow on my screen like water. Level two and four really represented Atlantis the best with his use of puzzle then action then puzzle and so on. His use of various items like the crushers and turrets produced an elegant yet terrorizing vibe. I even saw that he used the dynamo occasionally, probably one of the most unused tools in the Platformer maker. So many things were right and few wrong. Now I feel like looking for the real city of Atlantis and see if it matches Lumberjay’s standards!

Ratings

Creativity: 7/10

Effort: 8.5/10

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Scenery: 9/10

Fun: 8/10

Overall: 41/50

Feature Worthy? Yes

Conclusion

Atlantis is a very well made game. Anyone who thinks it is overrated is really setting their standards unbelievably high. I believe almost anyone could enjoy this pure adventure if they gave enough effort to plunge into the game’s deeper levels to see its true beauty. Atlantis is absolutely deserving of its feature and Lumberjay should be proud of his work. As for its spot in EGD, I am still questionable on what position it should’ve held amongst all those great games. The games that placed in the top five were all amazing. Atlantis was not the quality of Quest Zone or Lonely Roads but it was still pretty great. This adventure throughout the aquatic town in terror was just awesome.