Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul, known in Russia as Prokliatye zemli, was developed by Nival Interactive and released in Russia on 26 October 2000. Fishtank Interactive published it in North America on 16 April 2001.
The game mixes role-playing progression, spells and crafting with real-time tactical combat and stealth. The hero can run, walk, sneak or crawl, and quests can be solved quietly or by open fighting. Weapons and armour are crafted from blueprints bought from a blacksmith and from materials found or purchased. The hero, Zak, wakes on the island of Gipath without memory and is hailed as the Chosen; he turns out to be At-Zako of the ancient Joon race and defeats the Curse with the Great Magician Tka-Rik.
Multiplayer has its own quests that are much harder to finish alone. The Russian-only expansion Lost in Astral followed on 27 January 2006.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul | Windows | Apr 16, 2001 | Fishtank Interactive | 1 |
| RU | Проклятые земли | Windows | Oct 26, 2000 | — | 1 |
| RU | Проклятые земли: Затерянные в астралеExpansion Lost in Astral, released only in Russia. | Windows | Jan 27, 2006 | — | 1 |
Version differences
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ContentLost in Astral (2006)
The expansion Lost in Astral, starring a young Joon named Kir, came out on 27 January 2006 in Russia only.1
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GameplayGOG.com
In the GOG.com edition multiplayer works only over a local network (LAN).2
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TextGOG.com
The GOG.com edition offers English, German and Russian, each with voice and text.2
Translations
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English Official
Fishtank Interactive2001Windows · Russian originalReleased · complete
The English version, Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul, was published in North America by Fishtank Interactive on 16 April 2001.1
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English Fan
—2023Windows · Lost in AstralReleased · partial
Between 2021 and 2023 fans made a mostly machine-translated English patch for the text and graphics of the Russian-only expansion Lost in Astral; the speech was left without subtitles.1
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German Official
—WindowsReleased
A German version with voice and text is part of the GOG.com edition, which also includes a German manual.2
Where to play legally today
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GOG Purchase
How to run it today
The GOG.com edition is DRM-free, officially supported on Windows and lists Windows 10 in its minimum requirements; multiplayer works only over LAN.
- Evil Islands on GOG gog.com
Best version
The GOG.com edition lets the player choose English, German or Russian voice and text in one package.2
Reception
The game holds 74/100 on Metacritic. IGN gave it 8.7/10 and Eurogamer 8/10, while NextGen gave it 2/5 and called it absurdly difficult because of random chance. It was a finalist for The Electric Playground's 2001 Best RPG for PC award, which went to Arcanum.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.