Previous Next

In times long past, mysterious beings known only as the Ancients watched over an eternally tropical world, their leisured thoughts creating ten thousand Archipelagos. When they tired of that, they populated a nearby planet. These new people eventually came to the world of the Archipelagos as the Visitors. On each archipelago the Visitors placed an Obelisk. The Ancients disliked this intrusion and unsuccessfully attempted to de-imagine the Visitors. Soon after this, the Visitors left, but only after first slaughtering the Ancients. While they slept the Ancients were turned to stone and their blood drained into the soil.

You enter this tormented world floating a metre above the ground with the objective of cleansing all ten thousand Archipelagos of the Visitors' presence. To do this you must destroy the Obelisk on every island, but this is only possible after each of the stones which give it power are disintegrated. Stories are invulnerable unless connected to the Obelisk, so sometimes vast land bridges have to be created. Once all the stones have been destroyed, by absorbing their energy, you have 90 seconds to get the Obelisk.

You move around the world by placing a cursor on a square, pressing a mouse button instantly transports you there. This is all relatively easy, but you must be wary of trees. As they rise and fall they move toward you, along with the lethal virus which turns the land red and kills you on contact. Also lethal is the sand and sea. If you complete a level you go onto the next, the game automatically remembers how far you go, so there's no need to write codes down to get back to the last level you completed.

As you get further into the game the dangers increase. Necromancers are ghosts of the Ancients and wander around taking away the land directly underneath them. Blood Eggs first appear on Archipelago 20 and hatch extremely lethal spirits with a clap of thunder and lightning. Even more fearsome are Lost Souls which are like whirlwinds, contact with them brings death!

If you complete a level, you advance onto the next during the first 100, where every fifth island has a special shape (there's even an Eastenders archipelago). After that all the archipelagos are drawn randomly and you advance two if you complete one. Obviously getting to level 9,999 will take quite a while!

Once you accept the relatively simple rules of Archipelagos there are no glitches or compromises to distract you. When the sky starts to darken, lightning bolts flash and mirror-faced Necromancers go hunting it all gets extremely tense.

The music heightens the sense of atmosphere still further, together with haunting sound effects such as the Lost Souls wailing. A massive and enchanting challenge Archipelagos makes Logotron a name to watch.

One of those games that you just can't get into quickly but once you've experienced it you just don't want to let go. The strange nature of the game and the totally hypnotic accompanying music creates a totally weird and immensely convincing atmosphere which (in my opinion at least) beats The Sentinel hands down.

Just start the game and listen to the music to hear what I mean. Gameplay is significantly better with considerable variety in the foes lurking around the islands, a better sense of progress, a better feeling of achievement and at last true incentive to progress. Great stuff.

Presentation 85%
Good manual and no codes to learn for level access.

Graphics 91%
Relatively simple, but slick, fast and totally convincing.

Sound 92%
Subtle, weird background music and unnerving FX.

Hookability 85%
Takes a bit of getting used to, but first few levels are pretty easy afterwards.

Lastability 93%
9,999 levels.

Overall 90%
A superbly atmospheric successor to the brilliant Sentinel.