Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Part 1
Score: 78% ESRB: 4+ Publisher: Anuman Developer: Microids Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Part 1 is the first of seven chapters of the Microids title of old, and while it definitely shows its 12 years of age, the game translates to the iPad relatively well. As a result, it really isn't a wonder that Microids has made a recent push to bring their older catalog to this new device. Visually, the game doesn't age all too well. The title uses the now regularly seen 360 degree wrap-around style for making an adventure game first-person, and while this was fairly new back in 1999, it will surly feel dated to any newer gamers who will be picking this title up for the first time. Then again, adventure titles aren't really about the visual, and when looked at in the context of 1999, Amerzone looks pretty good. Besides the slightly-warped scenery, the interactive objects like characters seem a bit blocky or blurry by today's standards, but are also pulled off relatively well by the mobile device's processor. The details that really sold the game's age though were the people, most notably, the old explorer you meet. While the character is some 70 years-old, the extra 12 years since the game's first publishing have not been kind to him. Sound has held up well though. Much like its original version, Amerzone: Part 1 is filled with ambient noises to help sell the scenery and voice-acting is good enough to convey the emotion and feel of the conversations. I really enjoyed some of the details in the game's sound effects like the dipping noises you hear while exploring an underground tunnel in the old man's lighthouse.
Gameplay: Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Part 1 starts your character's journey by having him go to a little-explored section of South America in order to help clear the name of an old explorer who once went into the Amerzone and came back with crazy tales that no one would believe. This particular App is only the first chapter of the original game. Not a lot really happens here, except that you get introduced to the older explorer and you accept his request to return to Amerzone and return a large egg to its home. Your mission, for this part, consists of finding your way around his old house and getting to the odd contraption he built that can take you to the South American country. Amerzone fits the standard adventure gameplay style pretty well. The game consists mostly of inventory-based puzzles or puzzles that involve you having read pretty much every piece of paper that you can pick up, and while there is some dialogue in the game, this part at least didn't offer any dialogue-based puzzles to work through. Then again, Part 1 is only a small slice of the overall Amerzone game.
Difficulty: Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Part 1 has a few tougher puzzles that are ultimately more frustrating that gratifying. Sure, there are a good number of problems that are quickly figured out, but Amerzone also has a couple of computer password and lock combination obstacles that are really annoying and require more than just the slightest logical leap. Even if you do have the standard adventure-gaming insight of reading every scrap of paper you pick up, you will still have to trudge through a lot of data in order to find these two obscure pieces of information. These particular puzzles were, by far, the most annoying of those found in Amerzone: Part 1.
Game Mechanics: Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Part 1 is a port from the classic PC and PSOne title, and while I didn't play the console version of the game, I have a feeling the iPad version is more closely related to that one. For one, like most non-keyboard/mouse versions of adventure titles, all of the hotspots and clickable areas are pre-highlighted, so instead of trying to hunt around the screen for the items of interest, you just have to decide which one you want to use. Personally, I feel like this takes away an integral part of adventure titles, that bit of exploration where you try and figure out what should be useful in a scene, but of course, that also gets rid of pixel-hunting, a bane in most adventure titles, and something that can make a console-version unplayable. Amerzone's iPad version offers a couple of interesting viewing options. Basically, you can choose between the standard and inverted viewing choices that will allow you to look around the world with simple swipes of your finger, but the one I found the most interesting, and oddly, the most comfortable, was Compass Look. This feature allows you to use the iPad's digital compass to make the device, more or less, a window into the game. Think old-school virtual reality helmets. Basically, the game puts you in the center of that 360 degree view and lets you move the iPad around you in order to see what is all around your character. While this makes the game very intuitive, it also requires that you either stand up while playing so you can turn your body, or have a spinning chair you can sit in. Back in the day, Amerzone was an okay adventure title. It was the predecessor to greats like Syberia. When viewed with a modern eye, it feels a bit lackluster. That, combined with the fact that this is only the first of seven chapters makes it an iffy purchase. Then again, at only $0.99, it isn't badly priced at all.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy - Part 1 on iTunes Game Vortex’s Amerzone Coverage
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