The Lost City of Atlantis and Our Gaming Obsession

Perhaps it’s the fact that despite years of searching, nobody will ever be able to find it, or perhaps it’s Plato’s allegory itself that has kept everyone rapt, but there is no doubt that the world has a simmering obsession with the Lost City of Atlantis. While there have been literary classics and cinematic masterpieces galore about the missing island, it is the video game industry that has truly caught the obsession with the lost land.

In all cases, it is likely that as nobody actually knows what happened to Atlantis (if it even existed), or what it looks like, designers can use their own artistic steam to conjure a world of magic and mystery surrounding the enigmatic island. So where can we find Atlantis when it comes to gaming?

Disney’s blockbuster 2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire release may have flopped critically and in the box office compared to its previous decade of films, but that didn’t stop it being spun into a game that added to main character Milo’s journey into the depths of the ocean. The game, while criticised for being a visually appealing, yet gameplay-lacking offering, does feature some extra content from the film. In 2001, this was fairly impressive. The Atlantis of the game is a rehash of the Atlantis from the film, infused with magic.

It’s not just triple-A blockbuster titles that have utilized Atlantis as their setting, either: players can spin underwater with a series of Atlantis-themed slot games, including Pragmatic Play’s Queen of Atlantis. The game features the long lost queen and merges slot five reels and 1,024 ways-to-win gameplay with pearls, tridents, and dolphins that may be discovered if Atlantis is ever found.

Elsewhere, Age of Mythology: The Titans – the world-building, supremacy campaign-playing skills game based on Age of Empires – spanned into the world of gods and monsters. The sequel brought in the gods of Atlantis, and the heroes of Atlantis that fight for Poseidon. While it doesn’t actually include the Lost City, the game features the Atlantean people. The regular citizens are more industrious than their Greek, Egyptian, and Norse counterparts, and can become heroes easier.

A mention of Atlantis in games can’t be complete without the Atari 2600 classic Atlantis, one of the most formative video games to feature the mythical location. The title features rather simple gameplay but does present an interesting take on what happened to the city – it was destroyed by invading Gorgons. Players control gun turrets to protect the defences of their civilization, and gameplay gets harder as players progress through the levels.

The variety of Atlantis-themed games really shows the scope and breadth of game content revolving around the Lost City. Overall, it’s clear that there is still a pull to the Atlantis, even though it’s likely that the Lost City will remain that way. Maybe for games developers, however, it’s best that we never find out what exactly Atlantis does look like – otherwise, a lot of exciting future projects could be as lost as Atlantis was.