Game title: Another World
Platform: MS-DOS
Author (released): Delphine Software (1991)
Genre: Action, Platform Mode: Single-player
Design: Éric Chahi
Music: Andrew Dimitroff
Game manual: not available
Download: another.zip
Game size: 1094 kB
Another World, also known as Out of This World in North America and Outer World in Japan, is a 1991 cinematic platformer action-adventure game designed by Éric Chahi for Delphine Software. The game tells a story of Lester, a young scientist who, as a result of an experiment gone wrong, finds himself in a dangerous alien world where he is forced to fight for his survival.
Originally developed for the Amiga and Atari ST and later released for the Apple IIGS and DOS platforms, the game was widely ported to other contemporary systems. Later efforts resulted in several game engine recreations for the game that permitted it to run on modern computers, consoles and mobile phones. In 2006, Chahi independently released a 15th Anniversary Edition for modern computers, and a subsequent 20th Anniversary Edition five years later that adapted the game for numerous consoles and mobile computing platforms.
Another World was highly innovative in its use of cinematic effects in both real-time and cutscenes, which earned the game praise amongst critics and commercial success. It also influenced a number of other video games and designers.
Another World is a platform game, featuring a control scheme wherin the player uses either the keyboard, joystick or gamepad to make the protagonist run, jump, attack and perform other, situation specific actions such as rocking a cage back and forth. In the initial part of the game, Lester is unarmed. He is able to kick at small creatures but is otherwise defenseless.
Later in the game, the player acquires a laser pistol from a fallen foe. The pistol has three capabilities: a standard fire mode, the ability to create force fields to block enemy fire, and a powerful charged shot that can break through force fields and some walls. Eventually, Lester also gains a plasma ball that can be used like a grenade to defeat foes (not featured in the original Amiga release). Enemies also have the same capabilities, requiring the player to take advantage of the three gun modes and the environment to overcome them.
Lester and his alien ally cannot sustain any damage, and the game ends immediately if either of them is struck by a projectile or comes in contact with an animal or an environmental hazard. However, the game uses numerous checkpoints enabling the player to keep restarting at the last point indefinitely. On the Amiga and older consoles without the ability to save a game, the player can write down an alphanumeric code for these checkpoints and re-enter it when restarting the game later. In any given scene, the game provides no clues as to what the player should do next, features no HUD except for an oxygen bar during the swimming sequences, and no on-screen text; and the characters the player meets speak in unintelligible alien language.
The protagonist of the game is Lester Knight Chaykin, a young genius physicist. In the opening cinematic, Lester arrives at his high-tech underground laboratory in his Ferrari 288 GTO during a thunderstorm and goes to work on his experiment using a particle accelerator, attempting to reconstruct what happened when the universe was born. Immediately before the particles reach their intended destination, a lightning bolt strikes the laboratory and interferes with the accelerator, causing the unforeseen particle fusion and an explosion opening a hole in time and space, teleporting Lester to a barren, alien planet.
After evading a number of dangerous indigenous animals, Lester is captured by a race of humanoid aliens and taken to a subterranean prison camp. Lester escapes along with an alien captive known as 'Buddy' and the two of them must evade capture while travelling through a series of dangerous environments, battling alien soldiers and wild creatures while solving numerous puzzles in order to survive. The duo traverse through the prison complex, a cave system and a tower structure. In the game's climax, Lester is severely wounded by one of the aliens but, with the help of his alien friend, manages to kill his attacker and escape. After reaching the top of the tower, Lester collapses but is promptly joined by Buddy, who picks up Lester and the two escape on a dragon-like creature, flying off to the horizon.
