''The Secret of the Nautilus'' (french: Le Secret du Nautilus, known as ''The Mystery of the Nautilus'' in the US) is a 2002 adventure video game, inspired by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the '' Voyages extra ...

's science fiction novel ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...

''. It was developed by

Cryo Interactive Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1990, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo. History Cryo was formed by members of ERE Informatique ...

and released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

based PCs.

Development

The characters in ''The Secret of the Nautilus'' are based on original 19th century engravings as published in Jules Verne's novel

, despite the game taking place in the 21st century. These characters include Némo, and a giant octopus. The game is similar in theme to The Adventure Company's later games which include

Return to Mysterious Island ''Return to Mysterious Island'' is a 2004 graphic adventure game developed by Kheops Studio and published by The Adventure Company. Based on Jules Verne's 1875 novel ''The Mysterious Island'', the game casts the player as Mina, a shipwrecked woma ...

Return to Mysterious Island 2 ''Return to Mysterious Island 2: Mina's Fate'' is a 2009 adventure video game developed by Kheops Studio and published by MC2 France under their Microïds label. It is a sequel to the 2004 video game '' Return to Mysterious Island'', and is again ...

, and Voyage: Inspired by Jules Verne. An official press release launching the game was published in Aachen in January 2002. In February 2002, Adventure Archiv released a preview and reported the game was due to be released on European shelves in March of that year. The preview displayed the main character with new facial features. Cryo Interactive also assigned the project to the new development studio T-Bot, which incorporated a new game design. The game was also reported to be coming out on CD and DVD for the MAC, however the release dates of these versions were not yet known.

Plot

The game is set under the sea in the 21st century, where during a scientific assignment, a young oceanographer enters into a strange type of submarine hidden on an undersea rock shelf. The vessel turns out to be the famous Nautilus which was abandoned a great many years earlier by Captain Nemo.

Gameplay

The game plays as a ''Myst''-clone first-person adventure game, in which the player navigates through a series of computer generated screens to interact with the environment and solve puzzles.

Reception

By 2004, global sales of ''The Secret of the Nautilus'' had surpassed 117,000 copies. Süddeutsche Zeitung felt that while the game would attract fans of Jules Verne, they would become dismayed by the game's "combintion puzzles". Reviewer Four Fat Chicks felt the small hotspots, and timed sections let the game down.

References

External links

''The Secret of the Nautilus''
at

Microïds Microids (formerly Microïds) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners (including Activisio ...

at Metacritic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret of Nautilus, The 2002 video games Adventure games Cryo Interactive games DreamCatcher Interactive games Microïds games Windows games Windows-only games Works based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Video games based on works by Jules Verne Video games developed in France Video games with underwater settings Single-player video games