I’m not ashamed to admit it, though it makes me sound a bit like I’m
at a twelve-step meeting: “Hello, my name is Ray. And … I … like Myst
clones!”

Friend, Myst was incredibly popular for a reason.
It’s games like Myst that brought me to this genre.

That having
been said, I must say that Timelapse is, as clones go, quite a nice one
indeed. It’s another first-person, pretty pretty slide show game with mysterious
puzzles and lovely, empty worlds to skulk about in.

And what lovely worlds
they are! Your character is following in the path of an iconoclastic archaeologist
(would we find any other kind in an adventure game?) who’s discovered a time machine
hidden in a cave on, of all places, Easter Island.

Through the course of
the story you will travel around Easter Island, ancient Egypt, Mayan temples,
an Anasazi settlement, and, finally, that perennial favorite of our genre: Atlantis!

It
must be said that these environments are absolutely gorgeous, with renderings
so beautifully detailed I could actually smell the flowers, the Nile, the beach.
Subtle and atmospheric sound effects and music add greatly to the ambience. Like
Myst, a large part of the appeal of this game is simply that it plops you
down in a place that’s fun to spend time in.

I have a tendency to gobble
games too quickly, and I found Timelapse slowed me down. I enjoyed its
languid pace.

The interface is quite simple and Myst-like, except
that you have the option of keyboard or mouse navigation. I found myself using
the keyboard, because it gives you more information about your possible routes
of travel. Like Myst, you can basically only hold one item at a time.

The
puzzles and obstacles are challenging but seldom as obtuse as the more infuriating
ones in Myst. There is a lot of symbolism and translating, and a couple
of “arcade” puzzles which, as an adventure game purist, I resented.
I don’t pick up a game like Timelapse to see how good my bow-and-arrow
aim is, if you know what I mean. And there is one dreaded slider puzzle that’s
not only difficult, but (due to a not-smart-enough-randomizer program) is sometimes
actually impossible! Considering the game’s many virtues, however, these are very
minor complaints.

Timelapse was like a lovely dream from which I
was sorry to wake.

Final Grade: A-

System
Requirements:

PC:
Microsoft
Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 (Windows 95 strongly recommended)
Pentium 60 MHz
processor or faster (Pentium 100 MHz processor strongly recommended)
16 MB
RAM (32 MB RAM recommended for better performance)
Quad-speed CD-ROM drive
or faster
Super VGA graphics card (local bus video card recommended) and color
monitor
100% Windows-compatible sound card and external speakers
Mouse
and keyboard
About 90 MB of hard disk drive space for full installation

Macintosh:

MacOS 7.0 or later
Motorola 68040 processor or faster (PowerPC processor strongly
recommended)
16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended for better performance)

Quad-speed CD-ROM drive or faster
640×480 with 256 colors (8-bit) display
and color monitor
Mouse and keyboard
About 90 MB of hard disk drive space
for full installation