Poetry in motion.
Amiga owners got all the pretty games. That was certainly the lament of Commodore 64 and other early computer gamers in the late 1990s. The system, a dedicated powerhouse capable of some astounding visuals for the time (the Amiga's lifespan started in 1985), was home to some spectacularly brilliant games, including Out of This World in 1991. Designed by Eric Chahi, Out of This World (also known as Another World) was a cinematic masterpiece that excelled at provoking both wonder and sympathy through its clever animation, gorgeous art, and excellent pacing.
Whereas many adventure games starred pirates, detectives, and other heroic archetypes, Out of This World handed over the keys to a lonely physicist named Lester. At the beginning of the game, Lester sits down at the controls of a particle accelerator and initiates a test run. An ill-timed lightning strikes cause the accelerator to malfunction, teleporting Lester (and his computer terminal) to a strange new dimension. Naturally, the first inhabitants Lester meets in this new world are far from friendly. After a run-in with one of the creepiest monsters yet seen in videogames, Lester is taken prisoner and sent to a mining camp.
Fate places Lester in a cage with another alien prisoner, one that is sympathetic to him -- especially when Lester (with your help) swings the cage and drops it on a guard. The two of them escape the cage and start working together to flee the prison. Lester is nudged by fate one last time before he escapes prison, too. He picks up a pistol, dropped by the smashed guard that allows him to return fire and generate a temporary shield.
Out of This World earns much of its initial recognition for Chahi's impressive visual work. The game was stunning on the Amiga, and later versions on the PC, Mac, and consoles (such as the Genesis and SNES) were also quite effective. Chahi used a technique called rotoscoping to record real world objects and then animate them inside the game with polygons. For example, when Lester bends down and picks up the gun, the gun is actually a scanned video of a cardboard cutout then inserted into the scene. Lester's running was created by taping an actual person (Chahi's younger brother), and then each frame of movement was copied manually, using polygons in a 2D plane. The result is smooth animation that looks more lifelike than many hand-drawn heroes and monsters. Out of This World is indeed the first 2D game to use polygons to create the game world and its characters, an achievement that made the game a monumental influence.
Out of This World is also influential for its use of mood and expression to guide the storytelling. There is no in-game text to push the narrative and the voice work is not in service of the plot. The sound effects, including the digitized voice samples (which were appropriately alien), were designed to invoke emotion. We get close ups of Lester's face and must discern his motives and feelings through eye animations. The face of his alien friend, both strange yet warm, is another source of narrative. Instead of spelling everything out, Out of This World has an enormous amount of respect for the player's ability to fill in the gaps. Depending on how you imagine the trust between these two unlikely companions is built, you develop different levels of attachment. This allows some decisions by the heroes, especially the alien, to have great weight.
If you doubt the influence of Out of This World, check in with Fumito Ueda, the designer of Ico on the PlayStation 2. He mentions Out of This World as an influence over that landmark PS2 title -- something evidenced by the unspoken bond between the hero and the princess.
The game play holds up magnificently. While many gamers (such as our own Jeremy Dunham) believe the spiritual successor Flashback is a meatier game, Out of This World is still an exhilarating adventure. Because Chahi doesn't lead you by your nose, finding the solutions to many of the game's trickier situations is incredibly rewarding. The focus is exploring and problem-solving, so you must constantly breathe in your surroundings. Is that sphere something you can interact with? Is there a way to get that tentacle monster to actually help you? Some solutions come easier than others, and without a bazillion different commands to worry about (Lester can walk, run, jump shoot, and use a shield), there isn't much interference between you and the game.
Longevity is a complaint that can be leveled at Out of This World, though. Early critics of the game cited its length as a shortcoming, which is something addressed in the console versions of the game. Interplay shepherded the game's release on the Genesis, SNES, and 3DO, and insisted that extra elements, such as additional guards and steam vents were added to up the difficulty. (The SNES version also features some strange editing as a result of Nintendo of America's submission standards. Blood was removed and alien fannies had their cracks removed. Seriously.)
Out of This World features music from Jean-Francois Freitas -- and it is fantastic. The tones are deliriously atmospheric, easily worthy of space on your iPod. It's amazing to think that Interplay wanted to get rid of the soundtrack for the console editions. Fortunately, Chahi and publisher Delphine Software were able to keep Interplay at bay for the Genesis and SNES editions. The 3DO version used the different music Interplay originally wanted.
Out of This World was followed up by Flashback: The Quest for Identity, although it is not a sequel as many assume. (Nor is Fade to Black, which is the sequel to Flashback.) The only sequel to Out of This World is Heart of the Alien, which was released on the Sega CD. Chahi's Heart of Darkness for the PC and PSone is in the same vein as Out of This World and marks Chahi's last original game, but he is again active in the industry. Chahi bought back the rights to Out of This World and has released it for both the GBA and mobile.
Closing Comments
Out of This World is a landmark game for a host of reasons, from the 2D polygonal work to its excellent narrative. I think what strikes me most about the game, even today, is its ability to tell a compelling story without holding up flashing signs. Without text or speech, you have to find the game's emotional core on your own as well as solve its series of challenges. If you want to see a major influence in motion, hunt down a copy of Out of This World for the PC or consoles. Or, if you want the purest experience, dust off an Amiga. The reward is worth the effort.
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