Anachronox

The Good
Anachronox is a brilliant game from ION Storm (Dallas), designed by none other than Tom Hall, the creator of Commander Keen. Unfortunately, lack of funding was a problem, so ION Storm has sadly gone defunct. It all starts above Rowdy's bar, the dingiest bar on the dingiest street on the dingiest section of Anachronox, an abandoned city planet floating inside Sender One (a large sphere with spikes, allowing intergalactic travel and commerce), the largest Sender known to exist. Our hero, Sylvester "Sly" Boots, is in his office.. getting the crap beaten out of him by a mob thug. After his face is pounded, he gets thrown out the window into the bar below. Boots is broke, he owns money to the mob, and his robot PAL 18 (stands for Personal Assistant Lackey) is out of batteries. It's up to you to get him off his feet. You'll travel through the barren world of Anachronox looking for a job, and soon you'll find one with the retired curator of the MysTech museum, Grumpos Matavastros. You're on your way to save the universe.

The first thing you'll notice about Anachronox is the music-- very well done, and definitely surpasses the milestone set by Deus Ex (the opening theme is incredibly well done, it really sets an idea in your brain of how vast Anachronox really is). The game is running on a very heavily modified version of the Quake II engine, but you won't notice-- there's so much amazing architecture around you that the Quake II engine is hardly imaginable to power a vast game like this.

But what exactly makes up the gameplay? If you've played a Final Fantasy game before, you'll know. Transitions from battles are seamless (no flashy entrances), as well as cutscenes (which, by the way, are brilliant. The game's cinematics were compiled into a movie and won Best in Show at the Machinima Awards in 2002.).

Basically, each one of three characters has a circular bar that elapses as time passes. When the bar is full, you can issue an order, such as attack, move, MysTech and Battle Skills. One of my favourite orders is the move action; you can move practically where ever you want in the battle field, adding another strategic aspect to battles. Also, if available, you can use items nearby (for example, in a certain boss battle, you can use a special crystal nearby to replenish your NRG [MysTech power]). ION Storm has managed to cram so many different aspects of gaming into this little round disc that it will make your head spin! You'll receive battle training at Whackmaster Jack's Temple of Beating. You'll vote on various issues to help get yourself off a planet. You'll frantically attempt to open security doors as certain doom awaits. All this and more.

Minigames are also a fun aspect of Anachronox. Each character has a world skill, that will come in handy when you need to pick locks (Boots), hack into computers (PAL), hit an unreachable switch with a loonie (Stiletto), analyze objects (Rho), and bust through walls (Paco). Grumpos' certainly is the funniest, as his is Yammer-- if somebody whose item you need, for example, Grumpos will ramble on about various issues until the person gives in. As well as world skills, other minigames are available. Ox is a simple table-top strategy game found in Rowdy's Bar. Zong, Pooper and Bugaboo are all arcade games you can play on Hephaestus.

The Bad
Patch it. Anachronox is quite buggy once you get it from the store. (But thanks to Joey Liaw, one of the original programmers on Anachronox, you can play using an updated patch with all new features-- Joey programmed it all by himself!)

The Bottom Line
This is my favourite game of all time, simply said. No other game has been such a joy to play and leave you up all night thinking "I wonder what's going to happen next". Get this game now.

The Good
This game is utterly amazing. IonStorm took the Quake II engine and modified so much that it looks nothing like its predecessor. The particle system, the plasma effects, the increased palette of colors. Its all so cool!

The designers took great care to design elaborate levels, with deft architecture and remarkable detail. The twisted levels on Anachronox alone were a tribute to Escher. I especially liked the interiors of several buildings such as the hotel on Sender One.

Sound and dialogue were well done and perfectly fit the loopy attitude of the game. The music was slightly repetitive but otherwise effectively contributed to the game play by setting the mood.

Game play took a little to get use to. Ananchronox isn't a FPS, its an adventure game with upgradable weapons. Main quests are either fairly easy to complete or have an alternate methods if one way is too difficult. The side quests aren't required, but completing them enhances your party by providing skills, supplies or upgrades. You can easily play this game a couple times and not complete all the quests.

Combat involves a little puzzle solving and strategy. Encounters are done in turns, with each character having a cycle of time between each action. You can set up a que of actions in your party so you can watch it unfold. The variety of moves add a measure of challenge. You can move, heal yourself or another party member, invoke a defensive tactic, chose a special attack, or stick with a standard attack.

One of the major aspects of the game is the weapons and attacks. Arms can be swapped, sold, upgraded or replaced. The attacks can be based on the Mystech thats collected. Each character has an affinity for certain Mystech and the effects of the attack generated by the rocks. During fight encounters, mystech plays a major part in fighting off adversaries as they engage in more powerful attacks in return.

The story is the heart of the game. There is a compelling mixture of loopiness and drama, adding the sense of moving forward in the game. You're not just wandering around another dungeon, fighting off generic monsters. You're accomplishing goals and unlocking chapters that make you want to play for just "10 more minutes." Interaction with NPCs is always interesting and quite funny. NPC interaction is also necessary for accomplishing most main quests and all sub quests.

The quality of the body models vary. The IonStorm team took great pains to include textures that bring 'character' the the models. Some models are overly repeated, but once in a while you'll catch an elaborate alien model that was carefully constructed.


The Bad
Even with the unofficial 1.02 patch, the game is slightly buggy. There are movement issues, especially when you gather a party. Stuttering game play, having to move your players around to position them to solve puzzles.

There are a couple arcade games built in to the game that can't be avoided, and are somewhat difficult.

Since the game wasn't totally completed by Ionstorm before they shut down, there are some broken aspects of the game. So saving often is required to complete it.

The Bottom Line
If you are a PC gamer only, this will prove to be a very new experience for you. Try it out and be converted.

The Good
I first heard of Anachronox when saw the ad, on the Deus Ex box. When the game eventually came out I downloaded the demo, and seeing as if was quite a fun and funny game, I resolved to purchase the full game. Having failed to secure a copy, time went on and the game went to the back of my mind. Some time later I was at my local software store, and they had a few copies of the game. I purchased it for about $15 US.

In Anachronox, you assume the role of Sylvester Buceli, aka, Sly Boots. Sly is down on his luck. He has not worked in months, and to make matters worse he owes the mobster Detta, some serious cash. After his latest working over, Sly resolves to get a job any job. He falls into a body guard gig, for a geezer named Grumpos. Before long Boots will travel the galaxy recruit new members to the party, some he already knows.

PC’s range from Boots’ little bot PAL, Dr. Ryo and scientist trying to unlock the secrets of Mystech, to a disenfranchised, super hero, Paco. And many other colorful characters. This is one of the games many strengths, each and every character is useful and unique, no duds here. Not only does each PC have there +/- side in battle but outside battle as well. Boots for instance can pick locks. Each special skill can be upgraded by finding the “master” of a particular skill.

The meat of gameplay is not combat, it is actually exploration and talking to NPCS. You assemble a party of three, and explore the planet that you are currently on, getting clues from the locals, using your skills etc. Not that are not RPG staples like shopping, and combat.

In Anachronox, the combat is turn based, and very similar to combat found in many Asian RPGS, with many Western ideas thrown in as well. In battle you must wait for a gauge to fill, at which time you can attack, defend, use a battle skill, which are found during the game not learned by level, you can also move PCS out of the way, unlike in many JRPGS, use items, and later in the game you can use Mystech, which is the equivalent of magic. In battle you have a health gauge, one for skills and one for Mystech, each corresponding to you abilities.

Battles are actually not all that common. Like in PCRPG Return To Krondor. Anachronox is like Septerra Core a pretty good mix of Eastern/Western RPGS. So saying it is like Final Fantasy as some here on Moby insist in doing is misleading. It is perfect for those that like both different styles of RPGS.

The Mystech system, is quite interesting. There are various effects of Mystech. And power levels. Later in the game you can even make your own Mystech. This is a very deep system, and takes some time to master, but well worth the effort, or you could simply just use the most powerful ones that the game offers.

There are save points in Anachronox, that can be turned off and the game can be saved any where, like in most PC games. The quest is not to long, but is satisfying, with lots of secrets and side quests to find, and complete. The game clocks in about 25-30 hours. The Graphics are very good, it is hard to believe but the whole game is powered by the Quake II engine. And it never looked better, this also shows how long the game was in development. Nice use of Polygons, the people and aliens that inhabit the worlds of Anachronox look great, as do the worlds themselves. Nice lighting effects abound as well.

The music in the game is very good, very memorable, and since it is all in MP3 format you can open the game files and listen to it. The voice overs are excellent, and fit the game very well. Sound Effects also are up to par.

The Bad
This game is riddled with bugs, and you will likely need a patch to run it properly, I needed two such patches.

It is unfortunate how few played this great game. And know that Ion Storm has folded there is slim to no chance of a sequel.

The Bottom Line
A very fun and funny game. One the most hilarious moments has to be when Boots becomes a male stripper, during a mini-game, that offers great prizes as well. Furthermore this is truly an excellent mix of the best parts of Console/PC RPGS. And deserves a bigger audience.