From the
moment that you encounter the postman riding his bicycle down a country road near
the seaside in Northern France and learn that you are both headed for the same
destination, an old explorer who lives in a lighthouse, you have a strong sense
and eerie feeling that you just might be in for an unusual, exciting adventure.

You,
as the player, are a journalist who has been summoned by the aged explorer who
has been “branded” with questionable credibility for over 50 years.
The old explorer’s tale of travel to the mysterious Central American country,
called Amerzone, and his story claiming that the large egg that he brought back
was associated with native Indian tribal beliefs and rituals involving the proliferation
of great white birds that fly continuously from the time that they are born and
never land seems incredible, yet curiosity and the opportunity for a good story
probably will get the best of you.

Upon entering the lighthouse home of
the old explorer, Alexandre Valembois, the story unfolds as you learn more about
what happened in the Amerzone almost 60 years ago.

The
Amerzone was a sort of “lost world” in which the native Indians for
centuries had lived an idealistic existence, which had at its core their rituals
and beliefs in providing assistance to the birth, life, and survival of the great
white birds.

The “perfect” world of the Amerzone will be changed
forever by three “invaders” who come there, each with their own agenda,
and each with objectives that will have destructive effects on the culture, ecology,
and very survival of this country.

The politician turned dictator, Antonio
Alvarez, is a native of the Amerzone region, educated in France, who wants to
use his power and influence to modernize the country, even though the consequences
of his “march toward progress” will be the destruction of the idealistic
lifestyle and beliefs of the native Indian peoples.

The missionary, David
Mackowski, wants to foist his more modern religious teachings on the native Indians,
in order to “rescue” them from their “misguided” beliefs in
the mythical great white birds.

The explorer, Alexandre Valembois, has heard
the stories of the great white birds and the rituals involving their egg and wants
to make a name for himself. His visit to the Amerzone leads to a relationship
with a native Indian girl, Yekoumani, who nurses him back to good health after
he is injured. Eventually, his greed gets the best of him, he betrays the native
Indians, Yekoumani and their culture, by stealing the egg and bringing it back
to France.

It
is here where the story really begins.

The Story’s the Thing

You,
as the Journalist, have been asked by Valembois to “right the wrong that
he has done” by returning the egg to the Amerzone and to the “nest”
of the great white birds. It appears that the egg is still fertile, and it is
the hope of Valembois that once returned it can be replaced, and the restored
proliferation of the great white birds will regenerate the ritual beliefs and
the culture of the native Indians and relieve him of his lifelong legacy of guilt.

Unfortunately,
Valembois dies before he can advise you about the location and use of his transport
invention, the Hydrafloat, or the location of the egg. If you are to accept his
dying plea and return the egg to the Amerzone, you will need to gather more information
from within the lighthouse and locate these items.

The lighthouse turns
out to be much more than just a home for Valembois, and your tasks become more
challenging as you uncover more hidden secrets and explore the premises.

The
excitement is just beginning, so it is impossible for me to tell any more of the
story, because you are about to embark on a thrilling adventure that will take
you from the lighthouse to the Amerzone jungles, the native village of Puebla,
and eventually the volcano “nest” and home of the great white birds.

The
story is told in seven chapters that are contained on four CDs. I found the story
to be fascinating and riveting, such that you may have difficulty leaving your
gameplay for such mundane things as sleeping or working. The story deserves
an A+.

The Gameplay

This is a first-person perspective
adventure game with 360-degree vision that allows the player to rotate around
his/her perspective and to observe or interact with what is within the current
range of view. The 360-degree rotation feature may take a little time to get comfortable
with, but the speed of “panning” can be adjusted through the options
menu.

The main
menu, which is accessed by pressing the “Esc” key, provides a choice
of options, save game, load game, and quit game.

The inventory is accessed
by right-clicking the mouse, and inventory items can easily be selected and used
by employing typical methods of manipulation.

All movement and actions are
controlled by using the left mouse button. Icons appear at “hot spots”
to indicate direction of possible movement, listening to a character speak, actions
that can be performed on an object, zooming in for a closer look, picking up or
holding an object, turning pages of a book or journal, and exiting back to the
main screen.

You can only listen to other characters speak, as there is
no ability to converse with them or to ask questions.

All in all, it’s a
pretty simple and familiar interface that any adventure game player should be
comfortable with.

Your progress through the game will be linear, in that,
unless or until you solve certain “puzzles” or perform certain activities,
you will not be allowed to finish the chapter of the story that you are in and,
therefore, you cannot go forward to the next chapter. Fortunately, the problems
that you encounter and the solutions that you seek are “right under your
nose,” so you won’t need to backtrack to previously explored locations. Personally,
I like this linear approach. Probably due to my structured, engineering training,
I function better in a somewhat controlled environment, rather than a random environment.
The Gameplay receives an A.

The Graphics/Animation

Since
Amerzone was created by comic strip artist, Benoit Sokal, it won’t come
as a surprise that the graphics and animations are superb.

The wonderful
graphics provide breathtaking visual images of the game’s environments as you
explore the lighthouse, travel the Amerzone rivers, jungles, and villages, and
eventually reach the volcano “nest” of the great white birds. The colors
are vibrant when they need to be, i.e., plants, flowers, birds. In fact, they’re
almost photographic.

But
for me, the real plaudits should be extended for the spectacular animations that
are used throughout the presentation of the game, often to raise the impact that
a particular visualization will have on the culmination of an important part of
the storytelling. At other times, animation is used to bring to life a number
of strange creatures (animals) that inhabit the Amerzone. For instance, my favorite
was an animation that follows a task in the story where the Journalist is required
to free a whale that has been trapped in a fishing net. What follows is not just
spectacular but pure beauty.

The fabulous graphics and excellent animations
cannot really be described. They have to be experienced. Why is it that the French
are so accomplished at graphic presentation? The graphics and animation are
off the scale with an A++.

The Sounds/Music

The sounds
and music are also excellent and provide just the right ambient feeling as you
progress through the various game locations. Never intrusive, the music is nonetheless
captivating and contributes greatly to the overall atmosphere, changing appropriately
as the situation or locale in the game changes.

But it is the sounds that
really got my attention. Whether it was it the unique sounds that were associated
with each of the unusual creatures (animals) that were encountered along the way
or the background sounds that would enhance the feeling of the environment that
you were in, the sounds were always “right” and always would allow the
game player’s experience to be heightened.

At the risk of being judged to
be rather obtuse (or worse), I will nonetheless offer the following experience
from my gameplay as an illustration of the effect and power of this game’s aural
presentation. At one point during the game, I was distracted by what sounded like
a cricket. I was convinced that the cricket was in the house, behind my computer.
I went to get a can of Raid and sprayed liberally behind the computer. Almost
immediately after doing this, I noticed that the cricket sound was “louder”
near the computer speakers. Well…I guess I felt stupid … but impressed
by the sounds. Now admit it … something similar to this probably has happened
to you. Maybe not.

The sounds and music get an A+.

The
Puzzles

Generally, the length of time that it will take me to finish
an adventure game will be determined by the difficulty and frequency of puzzles.

The
puzzles in Amerzone are always solved by being diligent in moving around
and observing what is before you as you explore your environment and collect objects.
As long as you are careful and thorough, you can solve the puzzles without too
much difficulty.

Except for a couple of challenges, I found the puzzles
to be easy to moderate, so you aren’t going to suffer much frustration and can
expect to move through the game at a comfortable pace.

The puzzle factor
did have an effect on the overall game, in that it shortened the game somewhat,
which is the only slightly negative thing that I will contribute to my experience
in playing Amerzone. I wish that it had been longer-lasting.

The
puzzles get a B.

My overall rating for the Amerzone is an A+.

At
the risk of “turning off” some potential buyers of the Amerzone, I’ll
say that this game has the look, feel, and quality of a Myst-like game.
But with a much more engrossing story, excellent graphics and animations, marvelous
sounds and music, and less difficult puzzles to solve, the overall experience
for me ranks right up there near the top of my list.

At a time when good,
new adventure games are a scarce commodity, if you are partial to the true adventure
game (no shooting, jumping, or action/arcade sequences), I would recommend that
you consider Amerzone. Buy it and enjoy it.

You can download a demo
here.

System
Requirements:
Windows 95/98
Pentium 166 (200
recommended)
32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended)
8x CD-ROM drive (16x recommended)

Soundblaster or compatible sound card
2 MB graphics card (4 MB recommended)