Anachronox

The Good
Anachronox is one of my favorite games of all time. Built upon the Quake 2 engine most people were turned off by its somewhat dated graphics. I suppose I am one of the few people that can look past polygon count and see the game for what its worth. Most gamers cannot however and the graphics are the only reason this game was overlooked by so many. Despite its low polygon count, this game still has some beautiful areas. This game has the best level design of any Quake engine based game ever. The game is mostly a detective story, but it soon expands to many different planets and sub plots. You will have companions on your trip (7 to be exact), which you will meet a long the way. Each companion plays a pivotal role in the game and isn’t just sitting somewhere waiting to join your group. Companions? You might be saying, yes this game is a Final Fantasy RPG at heart. The battles are FF style, you encounter creatures in a battle area and can choose what each of your characters does. There is a magic system that is a big part of the story so I wont give it away. If you find hidden objects you can make some very powerful spells. There is one big difference from FF style battles though, you can actually see your opponents before fighting them. So instead of a surprise attack and the infamous swirl into a battle arena, you can see an enemy up ahead and possibly do any necessary healing. The battles only make up a small portion of the game unlike FF’s battles every few steps. This game just has a ton of content though, and there is lots to do.

The Bad
While most would say its dated graphics are the bad, I liked the graphics. I dont think most understood that the look of the game was supposed to be comic book or cartoon styling, and just accounted it to bad graphics. If i had to pick anything bad about this extremely fun game, I guess I would have to pick the music which wasn't great. Overall this game has an amazing atmosphere that will draw you in for hours and hours.

The Bottom Line
A funny, witty, well thought out, tight, exceptional title that any adventure fan should play.

If you have the time, read Sam's lengthy review, it really touches on all the points of the game, and I agree with everything he has said.

The Good
This is a very funny, very interesting, and very fun console style RPG. It opens at a slow start on the planet Anachronox, but eventually rises in action very very much. The characters are loveable and funny all the way. A large part of the game plays like an old Lucasarts point-and-click adventure game, which is a VERY good thing. The battles are well done, with some rampantly awesome camera work (also seen in the well-worked-out in-game cutscenes), which is reminicent of such games as the recent Final Fantasy games and Chrono-Trigger.

The Bad
The first half's battles are very, very easy. There are some bugs, some very bad bugs, but nothing that can't be fixed by a small patch that is already released. The game looks a bit dated with the almost 4 year old Quake 2 engine. (But they did an incredibly good job with it, making it look very good.)

The Bottom Line
This is the real deal. A great console flavored RPG with lovely adventure elements and loads of clever humor for the PC. It is destined to be an under appreciated classic of our time. Give a good game a home, will ya?

The Good
Final Fantasy fans will be right at home when playing Anachronox. The game has an interesting, involving storyline, great character development and is overall a lot of fun to play. You team up with seven quirky characters each with their own past (A couple of them are old friends of the main character Sly Boots, and you'll learn his past as you play the game as well), you get to know the characters well and there's great character development despite the shortness of the game. The game's humor is great and pretty refreshing to see in an RPG. You'll find yourself feeding a puss stained sock to a guy in exchange for information, teaming up with a retired superhero, getting bossed around by your mouse pointer (Who is actually a character in the game) and doing many other strange but amusing things.
There are only a few worlds to explore but they jam-packed with mini-games and sub-quests which keep the game interesting. I've read many complaints about the graphics and I must admit they were a tad dated, but the cartoonyness and vibrant colors really added to the atmosphere and humor of the game. I really liked them.

The Bad
The music in this game was a little too cheesy for me. On some worlds it was too techno-ish and and others it was slow and boring. The battle music was the worst, slow and just plain annoying. The game world was originally supposed to be much bigger, but was slashed down to rush the game out into stores after an already long production delay. That's too bad. The game is quite good, but with a few more worlds thrown in and a longer playing time, it could have been even better. In fact the short length of the game was a bit of a letdown. Anachronox isn't supposed to be one of those long open ended RPGs that has over 100 hours of gameplay but I would have liked to see at least 40 or 50. If you plan on playing the game, expect to experience a few bugs along the way. This was a major problem when Anachronox was released, there's a patch out now, but there is still some minor problems. The game wasn't designed to run on any OS newer than windows 98, so XP users may experience even more problems.

The Bottom Line
As you can see from other reviews, Anachronox has quite a fan following. For good reason to, it's a lot of fun. While I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, it's a great game for any RPG fan who's looking for something a little different but that's still a lot of fun.