I can’t think of
a higher compliment for a game then to state that I was prepared
to be disappointed by Curse of Atlantis, but
after playing through this advance copy provided by The Adventure
Company, I was pleasantly surprised!

A
few recent Cryo games have not been among my favorites – Time
Machine and the Arthur’s
Knights series come immediately to
mind – but Curse of Atlantis is a solid effort and
I have to admit that I was occasionally disheartened knowing that
this will
be the next-to-last game we will ever play from Cryo (assuming that
is, that The Adventure Company releases Salammbo in North
America). Granted there are some time-honored annoyances present
such as minute
pixel
hunting that will drive you cross-eyed, but the strong storyline
and infusion of Viking mythology help to override these shortcomings.

Curse of Atlantis – released in Europe as Thorgal – is
based on the travels of the mighty Viking warrior Thorgal Aegirsson.
Much like General Maximus in the movie ‘Gladiator’, Thorgal
wants nothing more than to return safely to his family. But ill winds
have driven his ship off-course and now a mysterious old man has
shown him a vision of Thorgal purposely killing his own son! Now
Thorgal must journey through time and space to dispel the curse that
has been placed on his family.

Curse of Atlantis:
Thorgal’s Quest is based on a series of
five illustrated novels that are very popular in Europe and the game
itself notes your progression as it unfolds in a series of comic-book
illustrations. If I had but one wish about this game, it would be
that I would have welcomed a guest appearance by that skinny runt
Gilbert Goodmate who could have then spewed one of his gosh-awful Viking jokes to
Thorgal. The beating on Gilbert’s head that would have followed
could at least have erased my horrible memories of that game!