Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition

Regardless of my personal take on it (given bellow), this is a game of the platformer genre and as such relies heavily on trial and error - a.k.a. dying a lot - to move forward, overcoming the obstacles and combat sequences. Another World was designed in a time without the Internet as it exists today (walkthroughs, video guides and the like). It was forged on the principle of ‘death’ and ‘failure’ being a major part of the fun. And when you finally figured out a part where you were stuck for weeks, wow… No feeling quite like that one. Granted, how each platformer deals with that axiom of trial and error is always up for debate. Let alone deciding whether it achieves a healthy balance between ‘fun’ and ‘frustration’ when failing is an intricate part of the playing process. With all of that said, almost 30 years later, Another World remains contemporary in my opinion, didactic to say the least. It deserves to be called a classic, and as such it should earn a place in your gaming shelves, even if you find it to be excessively frustrating. This is such a game that deserves to be played, at least once. Another World is history, a major part of the gaming world and its early days, but it can also be your future. I for one will always go back and revisit Eric Chahi’s masterpiece, as I have done countless times with those that came before and after me.

produced by a high school student in 1991, an incredible new style of play: Adventure-Action. Advent this game, the great publisher this limited to: Point-and-click (for adventure games) And a kid makes the best video game of the moment, working there after school. he invents a world, an atmosphere, (a language) all on 2 disk with great fluidity It creates an engine and publisher, to realize are game. This game is great, but old and not very long. bought it on sale For those who have put less than 4 stars... they have not all understood! Without Another World innovation, would we have good adventure games? Another World, works very well on LINUX. It is played by the controller, there are several levels of difficulty, and automatic backups. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ce jeux est simplement une légende. réalisé par un lycéen en 1991, un nouveau style de jeu incroyable: Aventure-Action. Avent ce jeu, les grand éditeur ce limité au: Point-and-click (pour les jeux d'aventure) Et un gamin réalise le meilleur jeu vidéo du moment, en y travaillant après l'école. il invente un monde, une ambiance, (un langage) le tous sur 2 disk avec une grande fluidité Il crée un moteur et éditeur, pour réalisé sont jeu. Ce jeu est formidable, mais vieux et pas très long. acheté le en solde Pour ce qui ont mis moin de 4 étoiles... ils n'ont pas tous compris! Sans l'innovation Another World, aurions nous de bon jeux d'aventure? Another World, Fonctionne très bien sur LINUX. Il se joue à la manette, il y à plusieurs niveau de difficulté, et des sauves garde automatique.

An insane immersive experience designed by Éric Chahi. I can still remember the first time that I watched Lester walking into his laboratory and experiencing such a great opening cinematic in a video game. I'm still hearing the sounds from the 7-digit numeric password and the amazing soundtrack (from my PC speaker back then), while he's heading to his office to execute "Project 23". It's not only about the rotoscoping animation technique that was used back then, it is also about Mr. Chahi's overall design. The gameplay and the game sequences are so well directed that they will make you experience this story at its fullest even when the game is almost silent.

This game is a timeless classic. It was truly innovative for it's time: cinematic storytelling, no user interface on the screen, context-related actions. Its main strength is however the amazing atmosphere that oozes out of every pixel. It simply is a beautiful game; the movements, the colours, the amazing music and sounds; everything just comes together perfectly. It has the real chemistry that every real developer aims for, and which has been painfully absent in a lot of modern productions. The high-resolution version was already available on Eric Chahi's site. Good to see that GoG is selling this as well, plus some extra goodies.

Originally released in 1991, Another World was developed by a single person and was very ahead of it’s time. It achieved a cinematic style by creating seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes using in-game polygonal models and by removing all user interface. There is no HUD at all. Also, the game features events where the gameplay completely shifts from the basic controls and unique actions have to be performed, sort of pioneering the contextual action mechanic. Another World is also a game about dying and retrying. A lot. Most of it's challenges could be described as puzzles - not the kind of puzzle you figure out as much as the kind you interact with in every possible way until you stumble into a solution. Failing to figure out the solution will often mean death. Dying means restarting in an earlier checkpoint, having to redo a set of things before reaching the spot where you died. The player will often have a split second to perform the single right action to solve a puzzle before getting blasted by a laser or killed in some way. For the stereotypical modern gamer who rage quits over “unfair” deaths, enjoying Another World is probably impossible. Combat is a highlight of the gameplay. Gun mechanics are elegant and simple. Press the action button once to shoot, hold it a little to generate a shield, hold it longer to generate a powerful shot that can destroy enemy shields or break down some walls and doors. The bottom line is this game is very easy to praise, but very hard to recommend. It pioneered several ideas that would prove to be extremely influential, but it’s difficult to appreciate them because the game is so damn frustrating. If you love videogames as a medium and want to delve into their history, Another World is a must play. The ending cinematic sequence is seriously something to behold - when you finally manage to pull it off. If you just want to have to have fun with a cool video game, you might wanna play something else instead.