Amerzone
| Amerzone | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | L'Amerzone: Le testament de l'explorateur | ||
| Studio | Microids | ||
| Publisher | Ubisoft | ||
| Senior Developer | Benoît Sokal | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
March 18, 1999 | ||
| platform | Android , Apple iOS , Mac OS X , Microsoft Windows , PlayStation | ||
| Game engine | Phoenix VR | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard & mouse | ||
| medium | CD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German English French | ||
| Age rating |
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Amerzone (French original title: L'Amerzone: Le testament de l'explorateur , in German about Amerzone: The legacy of the explorer ) is an adventure game by the Belgian author and comic artist Benoît Sokal in collaboration with the game developer Microïds . It is about a journalist who promises a dying researcher to travel to "Amerzone" in his place, a country in Central America largely cut off from the outside world , in order to pay off an old debt by completing a mysterious ritual.
Amerzone was first released on CD-ROM in March 1999 for Microsoft Windows . After the rights were taken over by Anuman Interactive , technically improved versions of the game appeared as a download from 2011, also for other platforms, especially mobile ones.
action
In 1932 the adventurer Alexandre Valembois explored a largely unknown region of the Central American country Amerzone on behalf of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle . He learned from the natives about an ancient ritual that has been cultivated for centuries, in which a rare and mysterious species of white birds is helped to hatch from their eggs. The belief in the sacred white birds, which is completely unknown in Europe, and which supposedly spend their entire lives in the air and never land, fascinated Valembois so much that he ultimately abused the trust of the locals. He stole one of the mysterious eggs and brought it to Europe. There, however, no one believed his stories.
The game does not begin until sixty years later. Amerzone is still a largely unexplored country, cut off from the outside world by the ruling dictator Antonio Álvarez. Valembois is now an old man and close to death. The theft of the egg is a burden to him and he wants to undo the injustice. At this point he is visited by the player who takes on the role of a young journalist. Valembois asks the player to bring the apparently still fertile egg back to Amerzone in his place in order to revive the cult of the white birds there. With the help of an invention by Valembois, the hydroflot, a kind of amphibious plane, the player arrives at Amerzone. There it is then necessary to bring the egg to its destination and to complete the ritual described by Valembois.
Game principle and technology
Amerzone is a point-and-click adventure. The game is shown in a 3D environment from the first-person perspective. The camera is fixed at the location of the player and can be rotated freely with the mouse. Objects that can be interacted with are indicated by changing the cursor . Each location contains exits that can be clicked on like objects. The current location is then hidden and the camera switches to a new environment. With the mouse, the player explores the respective environment, interacts with objects or combines objects in order to solve puzzles or to follow the main story.
Production notes
Originally the Belgian publisher Casterman was supposed to take over the production, where Benoît Sokal already published his books and comics. After that was not financially possible, Sokal won the French computer and video game developer Microïds as a partner for his project. After the former development studio was taken over by Anuman Interactive at the beginning of 2010, Amerzone ports for Mac OS X , iOS and most recently Android followed in 2011 . The German version was given the slightly modified title Amerzone: Das Testament des Explorers . Amerzone was a significant financial success for microids; around 500,000 units were sold in the first two years of its appearance.
The locations, plot and some characters are loosely based on Canardo , a comic book series that Sokal created in the 1980s. Especially in Volume 5 ( L'Amerzone ) the later game world of the adventure is outlined. With Syberia and Syberia II , Sokal created two further point-and-click adventures in 2002 and 2004 that refer to the Amerzone game world.
The white birds from Amerzone inspired Benoît Sokal to create the name and logo of his own development studio White Birds Productions, which he founded in 2003 with Jean-Philippe Messian, Olivier Fontenay and Michel Bams .
reception
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Amerzone received mostly positive reviews. The GameRankings review database aggregates 9 reviews to a mean value of 73. The background story as well as the graphics and animations were widely praised in reviews. The mostly quite simple puzzles, the linearity of the game, which occurs especially towards the end, and the largely empty manual of the original edition were criticized.
- Adventure meeting: 75%
- IGN: 5.5
- JeuxVideo: 18/20
- JustAdventure: A
literature
- Benoît Sokal: L'Amerzone . Casterman , 1993, ISBN 978-2-203-33527-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Hans Frank: Test: Amerzone. In: adventure-treff.de. June 25, 2003. Retrieved July 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Gamatomic.com: Microïds Canada: Interview Exclusive. Retrieved April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Amerzone. Retrieved November 20, 2018 .
- ↑ Amerzone. In: uk.ign.com. December 1, 1999, accessed July 16, 2016 .
- ^ Test du jeu L'Amerzone sur PC. In: jeuxvideo.com. February 22, 1999, accessed July 16, 2016 (French).
- ↑ Tom Houston: Throwback Thursday - Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy - Review - German language version. (No longer available online.) In: justadventure.com. August 10, 2015, archived from the original on August 15, 2016 ; accessed on July 16, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
