Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy

aka: Amerzone: Das Testament des Forschungsreisenden, Amerzone: Das dunkle Vermächtnis, Amerzone: El Legado del Explorador, Amerzone: Il Testamento dell'Esploratore, Amerzone: O Testamento do Explorador, Amerzone: Testament Odkrywcy, L'Amerzone: Le testament de l'explorateur
Moby ID: 3973
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Description official descriptions

In 1932, Alexandre Valembois was a young explorer who, with his native friend Antonio Alverez, wanted to make a name for himself by exploring the mysterious Amerzone region. Befriended by the natives of the region, he witnessed a strange ritual involving a giant egg of the famed white birds. Wanting to prove that the white birds existed, Alexandre stole the mysterious egg and betrayed the natives' trust Returning to France, nobody believed Alexandre or his journals about the Amerzone. Sixty years have passed and the world has changed. World War 2 has come and gone, the Amerzone remains unexplored and closed off to outsiders by it's despotic leader, Antonio Alverez. Monsieur Alexandre Valembois is an old man at the end of his life, living alone in a lighthouse and wishing to fix his mistake. At this time, a young reporter comes to visit the old Alexandre Valembois regarding his adventures...

Amerzone is a first person adventure game, similar to Myst, taking place between different rooms and areas. The player assumes the role of the reporter and must unravel the clues left by Monsieur Valembois, travelling over several picturesque locations and eventually reaching the fictional Amerzone region. The adventure game takes place over a series of areas. The player can click on arrow icons to change the orientation or to move to different areas. Objects of interest change the cursor to a magnifying glass icon. Objects that can be interacted with or picked up change the cursor to a hand icon. An icon of gears represents a mechanism which must be manipulated before it can be properly used. The player's inventory can be accessed at any time.

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Credits (Windows version)

74 People (61 developers, 13 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 68% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 43 ratings with 2 reviews)

Decently fun to play

The Good
I would say, as everyone claims this game to be a Myst clone, it has enough going for it to be it's own game. Being an adventure game, I'm fairly certain the majority of players won't appreciate it, but being the open minded individual I am, I would say it's decent fun. Six years later, the game was still enjoyable, although there are a few eyesores. The game plays in the point and click fashion, however unlike a favourite of mine, Lost Eden, the movements between spots isn't animated - it's point, click, transport, point, click, transport. There isn't even a fade effect or anything between spots.

The game starts off with a cutscene with a postman, and I must say I find it odd that the first cutscene is the most pixelized of them all. The graphics are decent to look at, including the water effects, which, when moving, are great. The voice acting isn't great, but it's passable. However, I do wish their had been more attention to cinematics in the cutscenes. The story is dramatic, but slightly lessened when it's introduced to you by clicking on a stiff, still man, which then progresses immediately into a closeup 3 minute explanation (before dying). Actually, a lot of characters seem to die right after talking to you in this game. After that, you have freedom of movement. Well, somewhat. You can look 360 degrees, and of course move where you are permitted. I have to say, I absolutely love the animation of travel in the game. You really get an amazing sense of movement and like you're actually in a little machine travelling across the water. The sound effects are also very well done. Music, where available, is nice.

The Bad
Some people may not like the fact that you're on your own for the most of the time. There are only four or five characters, and only two which are still alive when they're done talking. Also, some things aren't explained and seem to only exist for the sake of being there, making the game seem more like a game than actual places. For instance, in a village, once you have ingredients, you see a woman in her shed. Somehow, without communicating, she knows exactly what you need and performs the ritual. In another area, some freaky Rhino steals your grapnel. It's too fierce to directly take on, so you wander aimlessly through the forests - and happen to come across a tranquilizer gun. But even though I'm bashing the game here, overall, it's an enjoyable experience, if you can get these little oddities.

The Bottom Line
Amerzone is not a game for everyone. People with patience will enjoy it, action lovers will hate it. It's puzzles are relatively easy, but total newcomers may become frustrated with it. The cutscenes are excellent, the story is decent, and the extras - journals, letters, the like, are well done, although I only read the first page of each of them, then promptly never looked at them again for the entire game. I'll repeat, it's a good game for newcomers to this genre, or if you're just looking to escape your boring apartment for a wild exotic jungle. For my final rating, I'd award Amerzone, a 3 out of 5.

Windows · by ThE oNe (180) · 2005

Another "Myst-clone" that just doesn't measure up.

The Good
An old scientist and explorer implores you to travel to the Amerzone and return an item he took from there in the 1930's - the egg of an unknown species of birds. This intriguing story will take you to an imaginary land. You meet all sorts of interesting creatures and visit unusual places.

The overall interface is pretty easy to use with a simple arrow cursor directing your travel and actions. The graphics are very pleasing to the eye and nicely rendered in the 3D environment. Sound effects can be heard for the various actions you take and you can hear the whistling wind and waves crashing on a beach. All this adds to the realism. There is no real background music, so you feel you are really "there." Musical cut-scenes happen when you have solved some of the puzzles and enhance the feeling of accomplishment.

Object-oriented puzzles are well integrated into the story and I never felt they were unnecessary. They're not particularly difficult if you have paid attention and studied the written clues.

The game is contained on 4 CD-Roms, and I was pleased there was no disk swapping at all.

The Bad
A few technical bugs and glitches caused me to dump to my desktop occasionally. This usually happened when I moved too quickly through a scene. Sometimes the graphics loaded slowly and, I think, overloaded my system's resources. I learned to save more often in anticipation of these few glitches.

The Bottom Line
While enjoyable, this game does not live up to the box advertisement which defiantly states that it is "better than both Riven and Myst combined." It will appeal to players who enjoyed those games, but it does not provide nearly as many hours of play. It does have easy-to-medium difficulty puzzles, lovely graphics and music, nice sound effects and an interesting plot. A nice interlude, but not in the least equal to its mentor.

Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2009

Trivia

Comic

Amerzone is based on a graphic novel by Benoît Sokal L'Amerzone. Published in France in 1993 by Casterman, it is part of the Inspecteur Canardo series started back in 1978. Canardo is Sokal's best known character. In Canardo, most of the characters are animals (Canardo himself is "somewhere between Philip Marlowe and Donald Duck") but the universe is much like a dystopian Disney: very dark, filled with melancholy and disillusion.

The original comic book tells the adventure of the P.I. Canardo, hired by Valembois' family to find the old explorer, who was missing since he went to Amerzone on a last expedition. Valembois hopes to find the legendary White Birds before he dies...

The game differs a lot from the graphic novel, which is more dark and violent, but the background universe and the country of Amerzone itself are very similar.

Title

Amerzone is actually a pun on Amazone (french for the Amazon river) and "amer" which means "bitter".

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by curacao.

Android, iPhone, iPad added by Kabushi. PlayStation added by Xoleras. Macintosh added by Zeppin.

Additional contributors: ClydeFrog, Jeanne, JRK, Pirou Julien, formercontrib, MDMaster, Zeppin, Jordi Vilalta Prat, Patrick Bregger, rubinho146.

Game added May 3, 2001. Last modified March 20, 2024.