A classic, mind-bending adventure you would be crazy to skip.
The bare story couldn't be simpler: Your friend, an infamous professor, has gone missing after making a groundbreaking time-travel discovery concerning the lost civilization of Atlantis, and you must retrace his steps through Easter Island, Egypt, Maya, and the Anasazi desert, in order to find him.
Taken as a graphical piece, Timelapse is astounding. The beautifully rendered scenes, though dated by today's standards, are still at moments breathtaking, with only occasional distractions in the form of faulty animations and some cheesy acting. The locations also benefit from being (almost) completely devoid of people, leaving these places as creepily beautiful testaments to the past civilizations they represent.
And the puzzles are quite an adventure in themselves. Integrated seamlessly into the civilizations (the creators obviously did their homework), the puzzles range from brain-teasing to absolutely teeth-gnashing. Examples such as shooting an arrow through an obnoxiously small hole, or solving a mind-twisting slider puzzle, can take up large amounts of your time and patience, but Timelapse rewards its victors well, and you will always feel a great sense of relief upon solving a particularly difficult puzzle.
However, this game isn't without its flaws. The journal that the professor leaves for you is massive, and necessary to read if you're playing on your own, so expect to spend a large portion of your exploration reading the sections that appear in each new location. Also, the fact that you can only hold one item at a time, although necessary for certain puzzles, can be aggravating at times. Does this nameless, faceless protagonist have no pockets, or free hands??
Regardless, Timelapse is a grand journey that will draw you in and refuse to let you go. If you're an adventure game fan looking for a classic to tackle, then look no further.