A New Beginning (Windows)

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Description

In the year 2500 the surface of Earth is uninhabitable due to climatic changes. Mankind has retreated to subterranean refuges to survive. But the situation keeps deteriorating. The protective magnetic field of the planet on the verge of breakdown and upcoming solar flare of tremendous dimensions threaten total extermination of life. A group of time pilots sends back several teams to the past to fight climatic change early enough to avert the imminent catastrophe. The first attempt fails and decimates the teams. Only idealistic young radio operator Fay and ruthless team leader Salvador manage to venture further into the past of the 20th century. While Fay tries to convince retreated bio engineer Bent Svensson to resume his research on his blue algae as alternate energy source, Salvador believes only in desperate measures and is determined to do whatever it takes to fulfill his mission.

A New Beginning adheres to the classic adventures in the style of The Whispered World or the Runaway Series. The player controls Fay or Bent Svensson depending on the section of the game. The game includes typical item combination riddles, machine puzzles and a few dialogue riddles. Most machine puzzles are designed as mini-games that can be skipped if it takes more than three minutes to find the solution. A New Beginning features an inventory, a hot-spot system and a context sensitive interaction menu comparable to A Vampyre Story.

The graphics consist of hand-painted backgrounds and animated cel-shaded characters. The visuals follow a comic or graphic-novel style. In particular, intermediate movie sequences are presented in animated elements that result in comic panel structures.

The UK retail release includes additional content next to the main game:

• Soundtrack disc
• Double-sided poster

A New Beginning: Final Cut is a revised release. There is no free update from the original game to update to the Final Cut version. It contains these differences:

• New language support (7 new languages)
• Steam achievements
• Mac OS X support
• Bugfixes (game crashes)

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "A New Beginning: Odrodzenie" -- Polish title
• "A New Beginning: Final Cut" -- Updated Windows release / Macintosh release title

Part of the Following Groups

• Game Engine: Visionaire
• Setting: City - San Francisco

User Reviews

Promise much, deliver little

Ingsoc (1330)

Critic Reviews

GBase - The Gamer's Base	Oct 19, 2010	8.5 out of 10	85
Alternative Magazine Online	Sep 20, 2011	8.5 out of 10	85
PC Games (Germany)	Oct 04, 2010	84 out of 100	84
Gamona	Oct 08, 2010	83 out of 100	83
4Players.de	Oct 08, 2010	82 out of 100	82
Adventure Gamers	Jun 03, 2011		80
Jeuxvideo.com	Feb 03, 2011	16 out of 20	80
GameBoomers	Aug, 2011	B	75
GameSpot	Jul 22, 2011	6.5 out of 10	65
GameCola.net	Jan 14, 2013	5 out of 10	50

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Trivia

Extras

The original German release by Deep Silver includes a soundtrack CD-ROM. It features the same disc artwork as the game DVD of the publisher's Lost Horizon release.

Final Cut release

The final cut edition is an updated version of the Windows game. It includes full localization for English, German, French and Russian, and subtitles for Italian, Spanish and Polish. It is also the first Macintosh version of the game. Next to the localization options some bugs and errors were fixed. For the Steam release achievements are included.

References

In chapter three, Harvey from Edna & Harvey: The Breakout is sitting on a bench.

Related Web Sites

• A New Beginning (Official game site featuring information and additional media of A New Beginning in German, English and French language.)