(This is the 50th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Game #50. That's a nice milestone hit. We get there with Another World, a short cinematic platformer / adventure title developed by Delphine Software, who are also known for the game 'Flashback' and 'Shaq Fu'. This game is a unique one, so a good choice for #50, as it mixes up actual cinematics with gameplay, something that wouldn't become the norm until much later down the line as we all know. The game was initially developed and released for the Amiga in November 1991 but later came out for the SNES and Sega Genesis as well, among many other platforms.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 6/10

You play Lester Knight Chaykin, a physicist who at the start of the game arrives in his laboratory, rides an elevator down to his main office and starts an experiment. I couldn't figure out what it was about, but wikipedia describes it as 'attempting to reconstruct what happened when the universe was born'. During his experiment, the facility and him are hit by a lightning strike, which teleports Lester to an alien planet. Here, he has to evade monsters for a while until he is taken hostage by the locals. He escapes and helps free an alien creature that was captured with him called "Buddy", who henceforth assists Lester in his escape from this planet.

The manual itself only has a short diary entry from around the mid-way point of the game, where the main character talks about the friend he has found in the alien planet and how the energy weapon works that an enemy has dropped earlier.

The cinematics are mixed in between gameplay sessions of a game that will take you roughly an hour or two, and only 20 minutes if you know exactly what to do, which isn't too hard on a second attempt.

The plot itself is basic, but the inclusion of a friendly, strange creature is the kind of story element that will be used many more times in the future of gaming and that will pull at the heartstrings of many gamers. I doubt this was the first platformer to use this, but 'Buddy' definitely played a noteable and pretty useful role here.

GAMEPLAY | 11/20

This is a platformer / adventure, and your goal is to do platforming, solve some light puzzles, shoot a few bad guys and do so without dying a lot, as the checkpoint system can get pretty frustrating. If there is a particular part you are stuck at, it's not going to be unusual for you to go for a couple minutes of the previous parts over and over again. The most popular comparison I could give here would be the bonfire system in Souls games. Die to a boss and you respawn minutes of running away. Die here to anything and the same thing is true pretty much.

Sometimes, it's not quite clear where you are to go next, so you kind of end up shooting at everything and see if it opens up a path forward for example.

But other than, it's OK. The 'Buddy' character actually is quite useful in that he opens up holes for you to climb in and in general assist you through various means, which was pretty cool to see friendly AI this 'advanced' in 1991.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10

No voice acting. The sound design has no business being this crisp and atmospheric. The echo of your steps when you run around in caves, the sound of the wind howling when you're outside, the sound of the water while you're swimming in it, the sound that translates the power behind those shots you take with your energy weapon really well and so much more is so well done.

The soundtrack is incredibly tense and perfect for the type of atmosphere this game is going for. Most of the game is played in silence and only accompanied by the various ambient sounds, but when the soundtrack kicks in, it only adds to the action.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10

Mostly a good looking game but partly a mixed bag, most notably in its design of the backgrounds in some areas, which look rather uninspired, and characters. On the other hand, you have great detail in particle effects, the cinematics and some of the backgrounds, especially when you first enter this alien planet. But overall, it's a good looking game compared to its 1991 peers.

ATMOSPHERE | 9/10

Very atmospheric, from start to finish. You start the game wondering what this odd looking dude is out to do late at night in his labratory. You continue wondering as Lester is teleported to an alien planet, with weirder and weirder looking creatures and natives. You build an unlikely relationship with this friendly stranger that you rescue, you try to make your escape through dark caves, squeeze your way through vents, use your energy weapon to shoot your path forward and do so while the soundtrack amplifies the tension in the right moments. It's really well done.

CONTENT | 4/10

The big focus on cinematics means there is less space left to make this a lengthy game, or at least so I'd assume. So you're left with good content here for the most part, but not a lot of it at all.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10

The design, apart from the inclusion of cinematics, is pretty basic. You got the old-school issues with an unfair checkpoint system rearing its ugly head from time to time, but other than that, there isn't anything notable to add here.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 8/10

Very unique in the way it tells its own story using, for the time, sophisticated cinematics. If we're fair, it's questionable whether this type of game has a higher fun factor than many of the top-end platformers that would release in the early 90s, as the game has to balance the high quality cinematics with much less content overall, but the concept in itself is promising and brings the medium forward in its attempt to blend story and gameplay together.

REPLAYABILITY | 1/5

Once you've beaten it, there is no extra incentive given to replay it.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 67/100

Solid graphics, great atmosphere and sound, well done cinematics that were unusual for its time. Definitely worth a try.

Reviewed on May 04, 2023


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