Atlantis – The Lost Empire

General Information:

Name of Scenario: Atlantis – the Lost Empire
Final Score: 25 / 30
(Breakdown: 0-10 terrible /11-15 Average/ 16-20 Good/ 21-25 Excellent/ 26+Best possible)
Type of Scenario: Historical/Fantasy
Name of Author: ERIN T. RYAN a.k.a. "shamrock"
Name of Reviewer: Kobayashi

Summary of Scenario:

You play as Atlas, leader of the Atlantean Civilization. The Atlanteans are
technologically superior to all other civilizations, but unfortunately
their continent sinks and they must start all over again. Two of your
brothers realized this long ago and made off with some special items to
start their own empires long ago. They are your main rivals. You can
win by conquest or by building a Deep-Sea Submersible that can make the
journey to the lost city of Atlantis.

Playability – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5

Were you able to finish in a reasonable amount of turns? (Score: 1 )

There
is a 311 turn limit and some races are able to build the submarine
(spaceship) before the end of the game (but not me on Emperor level).

Did the scenario avoid being tedious or repetitive? (Score: 1 )

Pretty good change in pace throughout the game. There were three stages using different source files.

Did the scenario capture the essence of what it was suppose to portray? (Score: 1 )

Does not disappoint. You escape from Altlantis as it sinks and try to return in a submarine.

Were you impressed with the overall sound effects? (Score: 0.5 )

Nothing particularly special but of reasonable quality.

Did you enjoy playing the scenario? (Score: 1 )

Yes- I played it three times in succession.

Units – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5

Were the majority of units changed from the default Civ2 units? (Score: 1 )

Every single unit was changed although the tuaoi settler looked suspiciously like a civ engineer wearing dark glasses.

Were all of the sounds appropriate for the units in the scenario? (Score: 1 )

Not one inappropriate sound. I particularly liked the sound you got on building a submarine component.

Was the scenario free of ‘unbalanced’ units? (Score: 1 )

Quite good balance – neither defensive or offensive units were too strong.

Were there innovative combinations of special unit abilities? (Score: 0.5 )

Everything was pretty standard. There was a spy type unit which was a land based missile.

Were Barbarian units appropriate when they appeared? (Score: 1 )

Good frequency of appearance and always the appropriate units.

Research – – Section Sub-total: 3.5/5

Was the progression of advance to advance done properly? (Score: 0.5 )

A
good face-lift to the standard tech tree. I did not like the fact that
there were modern weapons like cruisers in 2000 b.c. The units should
have been adjusted to the time frame or vice versa.

Were advances properly related to new units and obsolescence? (Score: 1 )

Good
control of units – you got new ones and old ones disappeared. You never
have a few dozen units to build like in some other scenarios.

Were non-event messages amended to suit the scenario ? (Score: 1 )

Yes – golden age, first space flight etc were all done up nicely.

Was the civilopedia properly updated? (Score: 1 )

Generally
good work here. My only complaint is that some units have the ability
‘tuaoi knowledge’ and it is not stated anywhere that ‘tuaoi knowledge’
is the ability to attack air units. There is also a nice tech tree
diagram in MS Word format.

Were there dysfunctional improvements or useless technologies? (Score: 0 )

The
Church can only function if its prerequisite is monotheism. The author
renamed Advanced Flight to monotheism and made it the prerequisite. So
the churches didn’t work after you built them until you discovered
centralized church.

Map & Terrain – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5

Were you impressed by the Map in general? (Score: 1 )

Nicely
done atlantic map with America on one side and Europe on the other. I
think this is a new (or at least not very common) map.

Was terrain properly adjusted to fit the scenario? (Score: 1 )

Normal
regular terrain. The sea was a unique flat shade of purple but
otherwise I liked the look of the wavy desert and farmland.

Was attention given to geography and historical details? (Score: 1 )

There
is (apparently) proper research and a good length article speculating
about the origins of Atlantis. The splitting off of two rival tribes
led by Atlas’ brothers was a good concept.

Were you happy with the city, fortress, terrain improvement graphics? (Score: 0.5 )

Normal stuff – nothing to get ga ga over.

Were there innovations used in relation to Terrain? (Score: 1 )

Simply
the sinking sequence should entitle the scenario to full marks in this
category. On switching from part II to part III, terrain movement
penalty is adjusted – a nice touch.

Care & Details – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5

Did you find the documentation adequate? (Score: 0.5 )

A
bit skimpy. The readme is lengthy but dwells mostly on the legend of
Atlantis and the strategy guide for getting off the island before it
sinks. I also do not like the use of a word file as the read me
(because of the possibility of macro viruses). Nowhere does it say that
MGE is required.

Was the events file sufficient for the needs of the scenario? (Score: 1 )

The
events die off after the great flood and its mostly you got a free this
and free that. Before that, the story of Atlantis and the way the
island got swallowed up in part one was great.

Were you happy with the improvement and wonder icons? (Score: 1 )

Yes – especially the wonder icons and names. Very imaginative.

Did you find any very apparent errors in any category of the scenario? (Score: 1 )

Good quality control overall.

Do you think a lot of effort was put into doing this scenario? (Score: 1 )

Yes
– it comes in three parts and there are two videos and some graphic
files which alter things like the background of the
submarine(spaceship) display. This is double the normal ‘adequate’
amount of work.

Originality and Technical Proficiency – Section Sub-total: 3.5/5

Were the sounds appropriate in volume and clear enough to understand?
Were the sounds unique and different in the scenario? (Score: 0.5 )

No, just your normal typical sounds except maybe for the Tuaoi war cry.

Did you discover many unit GRAPHICS not used in any other scenarios? (Score: 0 )

No. All units as far as I know are from other scenarios.

Is the theme of the scenario completely novel? (Score: 1 )

No.
Atlantis is one of the original FW civ scenarios but this one is much
improved. But then again the Atlantis theme is not exactly over done so
1 point.

Were complex events used to carry the story line or enhance the AI? (Score: 1 )

Reasonably
good. You are supposed to find two portals, one on land and one on sea
to trigger other events but I never found them the three times I
played. There is also a great flood which caught me completely off
guard.

Did the author deal with all areas which could be modified? (Score: 1 )

I think a good job overall in engineering the change from default Civ2.

Overall Assessment and Other Points of Interest:

A
reasonably difficult scenario. The author warns you not to play at
deity level but I recommend King level at most for an enjoyable and
challenging game.

END

Author’s Feedback

The readme is rich text format not a word file.
There
are other special units like the terraformer and tuaoi jump troop which
I didn’t get to build – mostly because I did not find any of the
portals.
There is a complete set of detailed
descriptions in the description file and not the civpedia. You need to
click the description button.