Welcome Hivers and especially gamers to my retro PC games section. I'm Shandalar and this is a topic close to my heart, as memories always take me back to my childhood years. I have been playing games for over 30 years and would love to share with you the early days of video game history.
This content is for you. I hope you enjoy my stories, reminisce with me, and the quickest of you can win a some Hives in the contest question posted at the end of the topic.
Sit back and relax, we're starting...
Intro
Anotherworld could be described as a platformer from a modern gamer's perspective. It's a project of a single developer who built the engine, drew the animations and moved the characters in two years. Except the soundtrack, it's a oneman show. He released the game in 1991 on Atari and Amiga. Subsequently, other ports were released, including PC MSDOS.
It's a little bit platforming and a little bit not. The game has won fans because of its audio-visual storytelling. It's more of an adventure game in the manner of the more modern and now iconic Mass Effect. A literally revolutionary element was the implementation of short cut scenes and animations during the game. These are created using vector graphics with rotoscoping and very believably underline the overall atmosphere.
Whether it be panoramic views, picking up a blaster from the ground, or spicing up the death of the protagonist. To make the visual enjoyment as good as possible, the game has no interface, nor do we need any inventory. It's hard to compare the whole thing to anything. Apparently, the author was inspired a lot by Dune in the environment and atmosphere. And in the short cut scenes and scripted animations of Manga, where, for example, fast movement is underlined by thin lines behind the characters, or uses blur effects.
Gameplay
The controls are very intuitive and simple. The hero can run, jump and use the action keys to interact according to the specifics of the environment. The combat system is also impeccably handled, in which you have a laser pistol with three modes. The first is normal shooting, the second when you hold the fire button you create a shield field and when you hold the key for more than three seconds you send an extremely powerful shot that destroys the shield field or shoots through a wall. Enemies have the same three combat options and any damage inflicted is fatal.
Back in the days
From my point of view, the game is very hardcore. There was no way to save the progression, and typically after playing a chapter, an alphabetic code had to be noted to load the chapter and continue the progression. The puzzles and fights were very complex, and the player had to create and abandon forcefields with deliberation to serve the enemies as little as possible. It was also completely impossible to just shoot your way through, like in an action movie. Every shot, every forcefield, every move... one ill-advised thing was badly corrected. I remember taking incredible joy in every new screen I visited while playing.
The game completely engulfed me when I picked up a blaster from the ground. I remember the incredible helplessness when my blaster ran out of power after overcoming an overwhelming number of obstacles. And I'll never forget the day I first saw the Intro.
We had a 286 PC, a 20Mb HDD, a 14" color monitor with VGA graphics, and no sound card. Still, even with the PCspeaker screeching, I was totally engrossed. I was about 7 years old, sitting on the floor watching my dad play it in amazement. But I was the first one to play it.
Story
You take on the role of the scientist Lester. At the beginning of the game, he runs an experiment in a particle accelerator to simulate the creation of the universe. During the experiment, however, lightning strikes his lab, disabling the reactor, and the explosion teleports you to an unknown planet under the domination of an alien, humanoid race. Unfortunately for you, a hostile one. An unplanned visit becomes a fight for survival.
In your quest for freedom, you are aided by one of the members of the enemy race with whom you share a cell at the start of the game. This sidekick will occasionally push you to get across a chasm, make himself a decoy, and save your life at the end of the game. So you can be sure he's indispensable. Once you lose him in battle, you can follow him to Valhalla by the quickest route with peace of mind. Then try again and better.
You'll explore the spaces of an alien city, where endless shades of grey will be illuminated by the red glow of blasters. You'll explore ventilation shafts and flooded underground spaces. You'll encounter giant black beasts, poisonous worms, dangerous aquatic creatures and two types of humanoid enemies. You will control an alien tank. Solve logic puzzles and to make matters amazing, at the end of the game you will fly away on the back of a dragon.
Outro
Great news for those who haven't had the chance to play this game is that a remastered version was released in 2013 to celebrate the 20th anniversary. So you can play Anotherworld too, in high definition on the Windows platform.
Hive Race contest
Contest question for 5 Hive for the fastest correct answer.
Guess the name of the game in the following picture.
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