20. The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time (1998) – PC
I bought this game and its two prequels in a box set for $9.99. At the time I was mostly just impressed with the value: I got 8 discs for $10. This is of course back when games were on CDs. It was advertised as an adventure game franchise, and the screenshots looked cool, and the price was unbeatable. I later discovered that the company who developed the games went bankrupt after releasing the third and best entry in the franchise, which not only explains the discounted price, but also why you probably have not heard of the game.
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time is spread over 4 CDs (although I later picked up the DVD version of the game which has higher resolution graphics), and continues the story that precipitated in part one about the adventures of a temporal protectorate agent who is tasked with the intimidating responsibility of safeguarding all of mankind’s history from negligent time travelers. This by itself is an interesting concept. Should we one day invent time travel, what’s to stop people from abusing this power, and what kind of devastating global effects might be rendered if someone were to alter past events? It is logical, then, that we would need an agency to safeguard and police the technology, and even, perhaps, to go back and mend damage caused by other travelers.
The previous storylines addressed neat paradoxical dilemmas, and involved wonky artificial intelligence and human saboteurs. Legacy of Time tells the most epic tale of the trilogy, and gets the entertainment factor just right, an important element that was sacrificed in the first two games in lieu of often dry history lessons. After the events of part two, the government has decided to close all time travel agencies, deeming the technology unsafe. Our hero, Gage Blackwood, receives a distress call from an agent missing and assumed dead, who informs Gage about a secret kept hidden for millennia, a secret that would spell disaster for recent peace talks with alien consortium visitors. Gage turns rogue, travelling back in time in a new prototype chameleon suit which allows him to project an image matching any person that he encounters. This proves to be the game’s most interesting puzzle dynamic. You can capture a character’s image, but if you are seen by that character disguised as that character, it’s game over. The fun is in impersonating characters and manipulating them against each other.
You travel to ancient cities of legend: Shangri-La, Atlantis, and El Dorado, just hours before they are destroyed and their technologies lost forever. What’s really genius about these locations is that developers took time to really ground the civilizations in known history and plausibility. Atlantis, for example, is a Greek city that directs water in extraordinarily advanced ways to power all their technology. Nothing is too far-fetched, and it is all grounded in real science. The city is walled in, and many who venture in accidentally are imprisoned or enslaved, never to leave, keeping the secret city safe. El Dorado has learned to harness the power of hot air. They use this technology to travel within their valley, and artists use the topographical perspective to create the famous Nazca Lines like those that appear in Peru. Finally, Shangri-La has found ways to exploit geothermal tunnels and vents within their mountain valley to grow plants and heat homes.
It’s wonderful to have so much fun with history, and yet still feel like you’re learning something. You even meet Genghis Khan in Shangri-La. If you are rude to him, watch out.
I bought this game and its two prequels in a box set for $9.99. At the time I was mostly just impressed with the value: I got 8 discs for $10. This is of course back when games were on CDs. It was advertised as an adventure game franchise, and the screenshots looked cool, and the price was unbeatable. I later discovered that the company who developed the games went bankrupt after releasing the third and best entry in the franchise, which not only explains the discounted price, but also why you probably have not heard of the game.
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time is spread over 4 CDs (although I later picked up the DVD version of the game which has higher resolution graphics), and continues the story that precipitated in part one about the adventures of a temporal protectorate agent who is tasked with the intimidating responsibility of safeguarding all of mankind’s history from negligent time travelers. This by itself is an interesting concept. Should we one day invent time travel, what’s to stop people from abusing this power, and what kind of devastating global effects might be rendered if someone were to alter past events? It is logical, then, that we would need an agency to safeguard and police the technology, and even, perhaps, to go back and mend damage caused by other travelers.
The previous storylines addressed neat paradoxical dilemmas, and involved wonky artificial intelligence and human saboteurs. Legacy of Time tells the most epic tale of the trilogy, and gets the entertainment factor just right, an important element that was sacrificed in the first two games in lieu of often dry history lessons. After the events of part two, the government has decided to close all time travel agencies, deeming the technology unsafe. Our hero, Gage Blackwood, receives a distress call from an agent missing and assumed dead, who informs Gage about a secret kept hidden for millennia, a secret that would spell disaster for recent peace talks with alien consortium visitors. Gage turns rogue, travelling back in time in a new prototype chameleon suit which allows him to project an image matching any person that he encounters. This proves to be the game’s most interesting puzzle dynamic. You can capture a character’s image, but if you are seen by that character disguised as that character, it’s game over. The fun is in impersonating characters and manipulating them against each other.
You travel to ancient cities of legend: Shangri-La, Atlantis, and El Dorado, just hours before they are destroyed and their technologies lost forever. What’s really genius about these locations is that developers took time to really ground the civilizations in known history and plausibility. Atlantis, for example, is a Greek city that directs water in extraordinarily advanced ways to power all their technology. Nothing is too far-fetched, and it is all grounded in real science. The city is walled in, and many who venture in accidentally are imprisoned or enslaved, never to leave, keeping the secret city safe. El Dorado has learned to harness the power of hot air. They use this technology to travel within their valley, and artists use the topographical perspective to create the famous Nazca Lines like those that appear in Peru. Finally, Shangri-La has found ways to exploit geothermal tunnels and vents within their mountain valley to grow plants and heat homes.
It’s wonderful to have so much fun with history, and yet still feel like you’re learning something. You even meet Genghis Khan in Shangri-La. If you are rude to him, watch out.
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