Call of Atlantis (Review) iPhone/iPod/iPad

Bejeweled is a fine game. Better than Tetris, in my humble opinion, and it’s worth having one of the innumerable varieties on any iPhone.

But not this version.

Call of Atlantis presents the well-known “match-three” puzzle game as a quest of recovering seven crystals of power from ancient civilizations such as Rome, Greece and Babylon to “restore the Altar of Poseidon and save the fabled sunken continent.” No problem – lots of clones involve RPG-like quests and Call of Atlantis has intriguing flourishes and extra touches to liven up the formula (although they fall short of the PuzzleQuest series, which remains my favorite of the genre).

But this game crashes. A lot. Sometimes to the point where a hard reset of the device in hand is necessary.

The developer says an update in version 1.0.2 resolves a crashing bug on the iPad, but since I played this on an iPod (using both iOS 3 and 4) they obviously haven’t fixed what’s cursing me. It’s frozen when booting, during mid-stage, at the end of stages (forcing me to replay them) and at other random times without any obvious provocation. Sometimes returning to the Apps screen works, but often I had to reboot the program several times and twice I’ve had to do a complete reset of my iPod.

Assuming they eventually fix the bugs, there’s still issues that may not make this the Bejeweled clone of choice.

Call of Atlantis, originally a PC game release in 2008 (also playable online and on Macs), loses nothing conceptually in making the transition to an iPhone app. It looks and sounds great, and the 99-cent on-sale price (supposedly a 75 percent introductory discount) makes it a bargain. One thing that might be nice is a slightly more detailed tutorial, but I figured my way around after the first few stages.

Completing your quest means freeing artifacts in each jewel playfield by dropping them to the bottom of the screen. Also embedded are powerups such as bombs to remove tiles and hourglasses to extend time if they are freed. Furthermore, matching four or more items at once adds a charge to the “Amulet of Poseidon” which, after seven charges, can be triggered for a wholesale destruction of tiles. The program suggests moves without penalty after a few seconds of inactivity and reshuffles the board if necessary, again without penalty. Time limits for each wave are long enough that it’s seldom the primary cause of stress, which may or may not be a good thing for individual players (I consider it a plus, since some variants on my iPod tend to induce more stress than relaxation when I’m seeking a break).

Of course the extra help doesn’t come without extra challenges. The playfield layouts are different for each level and, as expected, generally get more difficult with fewer “dropout” locations. Some tiles begin stages “locked,” requiring a match or well-aimed blast before they’re freed to descend. The thing I hate most of all: You have a limited number of lives and aborting a level when things look hopeless won’t save you (you can earn more by dropping the very rare hearts through the bottom of the grid). I’m a fair way through the 54 levels with a couple lives left, but not looking forward to the agony of not being able to continue if I falter near the end.

Then there’s the extras ranging from modestly entertaining to downright stupid. The storyline presentation and narration will probably be seen either as lavish or cheesy, but those in the latter camp can easily skip the cut scenes. What you can’t skip is an opening minigame where you have to trace a series of shapes as they are lit up, which lacks any entertainment value whatsoever. Basically it’s a guessing game of when the illumination will start followed by the hope the game can accurately capture your finger’s movement. It frequently takes a lot of tries for both to happen. Furthermore, the final two stages of each historic location are equally dreary. In the first you place the artifacts collected into appropriate locations in a painted setting (i.e. a coin in a treasure chest). The second is another trace-the-shape challenge. A break from the dozens of shape-matching playfields is a good idea, but these are sadly uninspired.

I’d have no problem saying the plusses outweigh the minuses or Call of Atlantis if I could reassure myself there’s a reasonable chance of preserving enough lives to complete your quest. But not until the frequent and random crashes are fixed.

By Mark Sabbatini
Call of Atlantis by Playrix Entertainment
$0.99 (introductory price)
Platform Reviewed: iPhone/iPod (Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later)
Category: Puzzle
Language: English
Rated 4+
33.8 MB