Just the thought of her
brings a strange tingling to my loins. Her name rolls off the tongue
like a drop of fine wine – Salabimbo,
er Salambu, uh Salammbo. Yeah, that’s the ticket, Salammbo!

If ever a game title begged
to be ridiculed, then Salammbo wins hands down. A 1,001 jokes immediately
come to mind and as, we all
know, I have no shame so expect to read them all in this preview
(Is that a Salammbo in your pants or are you just glad to see me?).
But let’s show some respect here, for after all Salammbo is
loosely based on historical events.

This buxom beauty is the
daughter of the Carthaginian army commander and as lust would have
it, she has fallen hard for the rebel leader
Matho. Even worse is that you must play the game as Spendius, an
escaped Carthaginian slave in the year 264 B.C. who spends much of
the game running love notes back and forth between the ill-fated
lovers. You heard me right slave-boy – do my bidding!

While the story was influenced
by Gustave Flaubert’s classic
novel, the game’s visuals were inspired by Philippe Druillet’s
graphic novel which many of you may be familiar with from Heavy Metal
magazine. These are not graphics for the weak of heart! The elephants
look like…well, I don’t know what they look like, but
they sure don’t look like any elephant I have ever seen (at
least not when sober).

Salammbo is a first-person,
point-and-click inventory based game. There are a few timed sequences
and also some unorthodox battles.
Unlike a typical battle scene that would feature heads a rollin’ and
limbs a flyin’, Salammbo presents battles in what is a cross
between Risk and Stratego as you must position battle pieces on a
chess-like grid and outwit your foe.

Now we actually finished
Salammbo almost two months ago and have been patiently waiting
for the North American release to post our
review. Quite simply, if you enjoyed Ring or Ring 2, then you will
love Salammbo. I’ve had some fun taking cheap shots at the
title (I’ll have a Salammbo on rye please), but it is actually
one of those quirky Cryo products that I’ve come to love over
the years.

If you would like to try Salammbo, then be sure to download the
playable demo (http://salammbo.cryogame.com/salambo_uk.htm).