Salammbo Preview – Welcome to Just Adventure +

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).