Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition

When the original Another World came out I only had to chance to play it late after school, before extracurricular computer class. This game (and Spacequest II and a polish game called Electrobody) is what hooked me on PC gaming. The graphics were amazing in the original and this version only improves on them. While no longer the technical bleeding-edge nobody should be disappointed by the visuals. There is lots of beautifully detailed backgrounds, great character animations and some nice effects. The game play itself is fast-paced and requires quick thinking and even quicker reflexes so expect to die a lot. Fortunately this improved version has a lot more "save-codes" than the classic one, so dying is not that harsh and time-consuming. Make no mistake, this is not a typical platformer featuring obese plumbers - most of the time you will be running from dangerous things, running into even more dangerous things and generally fighting for your survival. The story of this game is also nice, although it does not get much exposition - no long and unskipable cut scenes here. Still, the events that play out may easily make you care about the protagonist and character(s) you meet. This game has one of the best and most emotional endings in the whole genre. Sounds and music is excellent and greatly help the player to get into the right mood and state of mind for this game. I recommend this game with both thumbs up!

I went into Another World expecting an interesting experience. What I got was something a whole lot different. I had read over and over that Another World was a classic, a game that revolutionized gaming in the years to come. However, I didn't feel it deserved to be a classic at all when I was playing it. This game is the epitome of frustration. I never once felt like I was having fun playing this game, because my mind was filled with hate and frustration at it. Some sections in the game are ridiculously hard and there was one section I did in particular about 50 times which was unbearably frustrating, and it turns out I could not do it because I had not gone to a specific place and seen a specific thing, which is really annoying. The game was creative though. I felt it is one of those games you either love or hate. I can see why people call it a classic, but as a game I don't like it. Trail and error games do not sit well with me if the solutions are not easy to figure out (who likes dying the same way over and over? I'm trying to figure out where to go and I can't because some dudes are shooting at me. Oh I'm dead so I get teleported all the way back over there when they could have teleported me closer). Needless to say, I was happy when it ended. Not to say am not happy that I know what people are talking about when they're referring to this game, but having played it I can safely say I'll never play it game, unless I feel like torturing myself. For $6, it's worth a shot to try and experience a classic. But know that you may love it or hate it, but at least you experienced it. And now having played it, I can safely say that I'm not a huge fan.

So, this game definitely took me back to my SNES childhood days. I remember renting "Out of this World" and thinking, wow, the graphics and animation is amazing - unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was a very difficult game, and, had I had the patience back then to give it a chance, I would have enjoyed it much more. I was only able to get a few levels into the game before giving up. The End...? When I saw that GOG had this game for sale, I though to myself, "AT LAST! A chance for revenge!" So I dropped the $9.99 and off I went, back to "Another World". This time 'round, I had much more patience for the game, and was able to appreciate it fully. It was a fantastic journey, albeit a very short one. I finished the game in 2 sessions. One was about 2 hours, and the other was about 1 hr. So, as far as adventure games go, this one is very very short. Another issue I had with it was the lack of sound. I don't remember the experience I had with the original, but this one seems to have very little sound effects. Many scenes are almost entirely silent. I did notice faint sounds here and there, so I turned up the volume, but this made the laser pistol noises VERY loud in comparison. There arent any options to change specific sound levels, so I couldn't do much there. I'm not sure if its a problem with my computer (a Dell with built in sound card), or what. All in all it was a fun ride, but I felt it was too short for 10 bucks, and I wasn't able to get absorbed into the atmosphere due to strange sound levels.

Another World is a decidedly unique piece of gaming art that could fairly be called a masterpiece. The only strong complaint I have is that it is very short (surprisingly, given the occasional brutal difficulty). At under 4 hours, it doesn't have the value of many GOG titles, particularly at its current $9.99 price point. VISUALS and AUDIO: Simple, but beautifully so. I remember when this came out and it was ever so cool - the vector-based design gave interesting, *flowing* forms, and that has translated to the upgrade. The new remastered backgrounds are lovely, and the flat details and lines work quite well, a nice piece of stylized design. I played in both modes, and really nothing is lost by selecting the new, higher-resolution and higher-bit-depth graphics - the overall palette and the absolutely gorgeous atmosphere have been preserved (unlike an earlier port that re-drew everything and seriously messed it up). The new music is true to the original and frankly works better, since there's a limit to what you can do with low bit-rate audio. Sound effects, like the visuals, are sparse and highly effective. Sounds warn you of hazards, help cue you in to what enemies are doing, and add little touches to environments. This game has also mastered something sadly overlooked in many modern games - effective use of silence. You are meant to feel lonely, and you will. CONTROLS and GAMEPLAY: Another World has very simple controls and takes the interesting step of telling you almost nothing. The manual has three pictures, telling you that you can walk, run, or jump; kick or crouch-kick; and with a firearm you can shoot, charge briefly for a shield, or charge longer for a shield-buster shot. You have no HUD, no health meter, and no measurements or feedback beyond the world you see. You meet no-one in the game who speaks a language you understand, and there is no text to instruct you in any way - after the opening animation, the game starts dumping you in medias res, and in medias a pool of water with some threatening tentacles you must escape. It has a very artsy feel, but at the same time it *really works* - you act on instinct and there is nothing to get in the way of immersion. Since discovery is such an integral part of the game experience, I won't spoil anything by discussing further mechanics in any detail. Suffice it to say that you will occasionally have to operate devices, which handle so naturally that you may not even notice you weren't told anything. At other times, you will have to try new approaches to pass obstacles or solve puzzles; if you pay attention to objects in the world and watch the actions of other characters, you will learn what you need to do. You need to keep your eyes and ears open to survive in a strange world, and paying attention will be rewarded! The world is chock full of things trying to kill you, and this is a classic action/platformer, where you are meant to learn by trial and error. Oops, that thing poisons me. Oh dear, there are spikes at the bottom of that pit. That monster is WAY too big to fight, I gotta run. Crap, dead end, what do I do?! OH&*@$ who is that, and what is he about to AHHH! It will take a while to get into the feel and flow of the game, but the process is organic and pretty natural, as are the emotions that it raises. Not only are there moments of real, visceral fear, but I really ended up caring for the companion that I eventually meet, pretty impressive for a game without words. I am really surprised at the flow the game manages to attain despite the frequent deaths; it must have something to do with the immersive draw of communicating only through action. The first major challenge can be pretty tough (it took me days to get past when I tried this as a kid [I didn't get far]), but once you beat it you'll get a checkpoint, don't you worry! Beyond that, all I can say is to keep trying - if you're stuck, ask yourself what *you* would do in that situation. If you're confused, you're probably supposed to be; it is another world, after all.! STORY/ACTING: There is simultaneously not a lot to say here and everything that matters - this game is tremendously atmospheric, and it manages to communicate a lot without any words whatsoever. You will interact with someone with whom you cannot communicate, and you will understand while still feeling the isolation of the language barrier. Important story elements are told not only through action but also through little details you many not even directly notice - again I will not spoil anything, but when you're done, sit back and think about what you learned about the world on your desperate journey through it. This is not to say that you will know everything - indeed, there is still plenty of mystery, in a way that is not contrived at all. I have to mention that there are a couple really awesome/amusing moments that come from the natural controls being effectively context-sensitive without helper subtitles - in one particularly tense moment, your reflexive action will have Lester do something just great, and you'll probably finding yourself laughing "I just did WHAT? Win!". DIFFICULTY: Brutally hard at times, but short enough that it didn't kill me. The game never holds your hand at all, so the learning curve is very steep, to say the least. That said, once you get past the first challenge, you'll have a good grasp of the controls. As I mentioned above, this is an old-school game, so expect to die a lot trying different solutions to problems, or just trying to win a challenging fight. There is one section of the game where inadequate exploration (or impatient triggering of a certain irreversible action) can leave an important element uncompleted, making it impossible to progress at a significantly later stage of the game. At that point, you will be able to discover what you did wrong, but you'll have to go back several checkpoints to fix it, and then replay what I consider the second- and third-hardest sections of the game. I am not sure what to think about this - in one sense it is legitimate difficulty because by that point you should know better than to trigger major events before you explore fully (I did not fall into this trap myself), but at the same time, it would be incredibly frustrating. In one other section, the way forward doesn't open up until a particular event occurs that you can prevent; it is not immediately obvious that you should allow it to happen, and the one environmental clue (from said event partially occurring) may be subtle. That one is more excusable as a puzzle, though. Despite all the trial-and-error, the game is surprisingly short; I beat it in one evening, in under 4 hours. Most of the hard sections immediately follow a checkpoint (with one notable exception due mostly to mild path branching), so trying one fight 20+ times doesn't take all that long. It is a bit frustrating to die time after time in such rapid succession, and those sections feel a lot longer than they end up being. Once you get past the hardest (well, there is one other section that is pretty easy with tricky use of the environment that would otherwise be a *really* hard fight), your skills will be honed to the point that you should breeze through the remaining combat. Only one of the platforming parts is really challenging skill-wise; the rest are mostly timing/placement tests or puzzles. LEVELS, STRATEGY, and OTHER ELEMENTS: Little can be said here without spoiling some of the experience, so I'll speak in generalities. Despite the limited color palette and simple graphics, the different areas have distinct characters. Despite the simplicity of the controls, there is some variety to the gameplay; although this leads to further trial-and-error and death, it is sometimes kind of fun for that very reason (one section near the end will have you desperate and clueless, but your flailing actions all have interesting or amusing effects, and the checkpoint immediately before will make the discovery process more fun than frustrating. THE VERDICT: This is a very solid 4. The game's difficulty comes from actual skill challenges, yet they are surmountable, so it functions well as a game while telling a great story. The length makes the value a bit of a question, but it's gorgeous and unique. I don't know that it would continue to work for a 10-hour game; sometimes something works in a short story but won't carry a novel. I definitely enjoyed it more than anything else of similar length, but most of those were free (Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress spring to mind). In the end, I want it to earn that 5, but there just isn't enough to the game to justify full marks. It's certainly a great way to spend 4 hours, and if it ever gets a 75% off flash promo, it's a definite buy - but until then there are plenty of other games on GOG that offer more value, even if they're not as beautiful.