What exactly does this game play like? Ive read this be called an RPG but also that its somewhat like a point and click adventure. Its got me intrigued, it looks somewhat like Deus Ex and Knights of the Old Republic in terms of the visuals... Any comparison to be made there? Basically, I want to find out what this game is about.

So,
1) What games can this be compared to?
2) How's the story?

Thanks.

1) to it`s main influence - chrono trigger, maybe. but i doubt you`ve played it
2) epic

it`s like a greatest adventure game without inventory manipulations + final fantasy style battles. it`s unique and influenced such titles as KOTOR & Mass Effect someway, i presume

It plays a lot like a JRPG. The story is equal parts epic and hilarious.

It's like a prototype version of KOTOR and Mass Effect, with combat ripped from Chrono Trigger.

From a less laudatory perspective:

1) There is no significant comparison to be made gameplay-wise between Anachronox and Deus Ex (can't comment on Knights of the Old Republic). In my experience, levelling up in Anachronox is pretty unimportant and character skills are developed only by solving puzzles / plot progression. The combat is turn-based in JRPG style, but rather tedious on the whole I'm afraid. The puzzles and adventure elements may also disappoint, as they depend wholly on fetch quests or clicking through dialogue with NPCs.

2) The story is very good and the witty dialogue almost makes playing the game worthwhile - almost.

Anachronox is a game in which you will:

Get slapped with a fish,
Hang out with superheroes,
Feed a man a sock,
Punch a yeti,
Play in a ball pit,
Get defenestrated by a dwarf,
Rock the vote,
Dance for tips,
Collect tacos,
Slaughter a tribe of Ewoks,
And meet the Beatles.

Spoilers!

A bit late replying here, but I've only been playing the game for about 2 weeks.

My feeling about the game is that it's an action adventure (rather than point-and-click adventure) with entertaining and logical puzzles that even an adventure-game-loser like me can solve. If I had to compare it to other games (and that's difficult) I'd say the games that I've played that it 'feels' most like are Final Fantasy VII and VIII, but it takes itself far less seriously.

Not sure how far I am into the game (I've just reached The Hive) but I'm loving it so far. Every NPC has something to say. It's full of a humour that I like (Pythonesque and Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy type humour) and has had me chuckling and giggling a lot , and it's a long time since a game's done that. It's full of subtleties and cultural references, for example after the little episode with a Dr Jude, I realised it was referring to the subject of the Beatles song "Hey Jude".

To me the graphics hold up pretty well and, of course, you can max out the settings of your graphics drivers; I think the engine actually ignores most of them, but massive AA definitely works for me. The music is easily overlooked because it's often ambient, but what I've noticed of it (planet Sunder comes to mind) has been excellent. I'm finding it very immersive and, something I rarely do for long in games, I'm walking everywhere instead of running.

The characters are all interesting and it's full of hidden areas/items. There are also mini-games, which I usually dislike. The ones that are integral to the gameplay can be skipped, which is a GREAT idea, although you'll get a non-critical reward if you persevere and succeed.

Perhaps the most telling thing about the game for me is that it's taken over from Skyrim, which I'm finding tedious now that the "ooh, shiney!" aspect has worn off.

For the price, I don't think you can go wrong with at least giving this game a look.

Hmmm, I've ended up writing a mini-review...

Yup, and maybe you should consider re-posting it as a "real" review. There are some very valid points of critique for Anachronox, so I'm sincerely happy that new players can also love this game the same way I did. ;)

I would say it's pretty much a RPG. You have a party, you gain levels and can equip thingies that influence fighty bits, you advance mostly via talking to people, and let's not forget the staple of essential RPGness, that is breaking into people's houses and stealing their stuff. Also, this is one of the best written games I've ever played, not to mention one of the funniest, although I'm only on Democratus so far, but hey, as soon as I saw "Beefiness" on my skillset, I knew I'll love this game. (-:

It's a definite RPG by the genre description that was generated through hundreds of games before and after this one. I really don't think Anachronox "transcends the traditional genre classification". That's just PR BS, and I'm rolling my eyes every time I hear this said about a game (last time it was an online game magazine, and they said this about Mass Effect 3. Can you believe it??).

Game genres are extremely sketchy terms, but the labels, albeit faulty, normally do help the customer to make a first estimate as to what the gameplay is like.

Almost every narrative game is "role-playing" in the broadest sense. The industry has just somehow arbitrarily glued the term RPG onto games with character stats and level-ups, probably owing to the occurrence of same in pen-and-paper roleplaying games.

It's a Japanese-style RPG, but it does have some unique aspects like taking photos of things for quests. It also has a stronger focus on the exploring and talking to people parts of the game rather than the fighting, and it's really well written and very funny.

These elements make it stand out from many other Japanese-style RPGs, but it definitely falls in that genre.

I do think that people who generally don't like Japanese-style RPGs might still like Anachronox for the aforementioned reasons though.