Despite being a commercial success, Eric Chahi's Another World is a bit of a cult mark when compared to Jordan Mechner's Prince Of Persia. Both influenced and cultivated a new structure for platformers to take hold of, but - and I'm not saying as to diminish PoP89's legacy at all - AW's pulse beats much stronger, being found and noted for several games and people even outside of the genre. People, rightfully, bring up Fumito Ueda since he's talked about it and Flashback being a prime influence for his development on Ico with its dual-lead approach and minimalistic storytelling, but even Keiichiro Toyama, Hideo Kojima, and even Suda51 have spoken large praise towards this game, and going through this was a very enlightening experience.
Even without that, there's an alluring feeling to this game that resonates brighter than ever. It's an oppressive game, from how the environment and general layout of the alien world is designed, to there being numerous enemies of both humanoid and wildlife variety needing to be dealt with, and a web of vignettes being sprinkled in as you guide the MC Lester and help his newly made buddy... Buddy, through this whole ordeal. For 1991, the attempt made in order to convey this mood is impressive, with even smoother rotoscoping, poignant sound effects courtesy of Jean-François Freitas, and meticulous attention to detail when it comes to the architecture and feel of the various buildings, caves, and what have you. I made an imgur album showcasing this with the old graphics, but the 20th Anniversary's remastered graphics, the way I played this, has some nice touchups and added detail that help enhance this aspect instead of diminishing it, though in some cases I do prefer the more muted palette.
AW gets some notoriety for being a hard game, and well... I don't entirely agree, but I will admit I got frustrated at some aspects. I actually find the controls to be well done, falling into the same camp of PoP89 and its sequel where you simply need to get used to the emphasized weight and approach, and think it feels much more fluid and snappy even. That said, the action button with your gun and a few miscellaneous maneuvers have a tendency to do That Thing where if you don't fully let go of the button, it'll get 'stuck' so to speak, and you won't do a followup move. Not so troublesome if you're doing mundane treks, but during firefights - of which there are plenty of, especially when they lay down heavy fire - it can get obnoxious, with two instances in particular feeling way too tight in order to succeed properly for my liking. As for the puzzle aspect, I don't find this to be as heavy on the trial-and-error aspect as I was expecting, but even then some of the solutions are just odd, either requiring specific executions, or the direction on what to do being extremely muted and not visualized well.
Overall though, I didn't really mind, cause alongside fitting into that theming I mentioned earlier, checkpoints plop you either around or right where you left off, meaning you can just press on without losing so much progress, though to reiterate I did play the 20th Anniversary remaster so I have no idea if this applies to the older versions as well. Speaking of actually, there's three difficulties to choose from there, I played the whole thing on Normal but there's also Easy and Hard. I believe these affects how combat works out, but I'll admit I never really dabbled and looked into it to really found out what variables and design they alter. Back on topic, there was just enough breathing room and logic solving available that I could get by and figure things out or shoot some guys up without much issue, especially in the caves where you can cut it super short if you have the finesse to do so. On that note, it's a rather short venture regardless, probably clocking in like 2 hours or so normally, or as little as a half-hour if you're a Super Epic Pro Gamer and not fuck up so much, and with it costing not that much to begin with, it'll make for an easy sell. I played it on PC, but I do know it's on all consoles as well. You may not enjoy or appreciate it as much as I do, but I doubt you'll be able to forget it regardless.
Even without that, there's an alluring feeling to this game that resonates brighter than ever. It's an oppressive game, from how the environment and general layout of the alien world is designed, to there being numerous enemies of both humanoid and wildlife variety needing to be dealt with, and a web of vignettes being sprinkled in as you guide the MC Lester and help his newly made buddy... Buddy, through this whole ordeal. For 1991, the attempt made in order to convey this mood is impressive, with even smoother rotoscoping, poignant sound effects courtesy of Jean-François Freitas, and meticulous attention to detail when it comes to the architecture and feel of the various buildings, caves, and what have you. I made an imgur album showcasing this with the old graphics, but the 20th Anniversary's remastered graphics, the way I played this, has some nice touchups and added detail that help enhance this aspect instead of diminishing it, though in some cases I do prefer the more muted palette.
AW gets some notoriety for being a hard game, and well... I don't entirely agree, but I will admit I got frustrated at some aspects. I actually find the controls to be well done, falling into the same camp of PoP89 and its sequel where you simply need to get used to the emphasized weight and approach, and think it feels much more fluid and snappy even. That said, the action button with your gun and a few miscellaneous maneuvers have a tendency to do That Thing where if you don't fully let go of the button, it'll get 'stuck' so to speak, and you won't do a followup move. Not so troublesome if you're doing mundane treks, but during firefights - of which there are plenty of, especially when they lay down heavy fire - it can get obnoxious, with two instances in particular feeling way too tight in order to succeed properly for my liking. As for the puzzle aspect, I don't find this to be as heavy on the trial-and-error aspect as I was expecting, but even then some of the solutions are just odd, either requiring specific executions, or the direction on what to do being extremely muted and not visualized well.
Overall though, I didn't really mind, cause alongside fitting into that theming I mentioned earlier, checkpoints plop you either around or right where you left off, meaning you can just press on without losing so much progress, though to reiterate I did play the 20th Anniversary remaster so I have no idea if this applies to the older versions as well. Speaking of actually, there's three difficulties to choose from there, I played the whole thing on Normal but there's also Easy and Hard. I believe these affects how combat works out, but I'll admit I never really dabbled and looked into it to really found out what variables and design they alter. Back on topic, there was just enough breathing room and logic solving available that I could get by and figure things out or shoot some guys up without much issue, especially in the caves where you can cut it super short if you have the finesse to do so. On that note, it's a rather short venture regardless, probably clocking in like 2 hours or so normally, or as little as a half-hour if you're a Super Epic Pro Gamer and not fuck up so much, and with it costing not that much to begin with, it'll make for an easy sell. I played it on PC, but I do know it's on all consoles as well. You may not enjoy or appreciate it as much as I do, but I doubt you'll be able to forget it regardless.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago