Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is a sci-fi puzzle adventure platform game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The latest release celebrates the more than twenty years that have passed since the initial release of Another World, which has went onto become a retro cult classic having even been recognised in 2012 by the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as one of the first fourteen games to make history.
The story sees a young physicist called Lester Knight Chaykin who is conducting an experiment with his particle accelerator in his quest for answers regarding how the Universe came to be. However, Lester is performing this experiment during a thunderstorm that strikes the laboratory before the experiment has been completed; therefore interfering with the particles and causing a catastrophic explosion that transports Lester from his science laboratory to an alien planet were he must attempt to survive and find his way back home.
There is a quality to the level design regarding the variation of the environments that creates the appropriate feeling of an alien planet as the player is surrounded by huge mountainous landscapes one moment and locked up in a prison the next to a series of gas vents and caves to name just a few of the varied locations. The puzzles are a big part of the level design as there will be regular puzzles to find a way through the area of a level, avoiding enemies without them shooting Lester or killing enemies as players might expect from Another World and in the same regard as games within the genre that possess a similar element of trial and error gameplay, such as Flashback. However, there are the harder puzzles, such as the gas vents that must be navigated with precision timing to avoid being blasted with gas as that would result in immediate death and the caves that start to rumble with gigantic boulders that must be avoided at the risk of death too and it must be said that the variety of the environmental design and puzzles is certainly a testament to the creativity and imagination of the game.
The character design for the lead character Lester, his companion and the enemies throughout the game are exactly the same as they were in the original versions of Another World with any of the jagged edges smoothed over. There are all manner of enemies from an animal that will chase you to plenty of guards that are not willing to think twice about shooting Lester, alongside insects that will bite you, monstrous pods that will swallow the player whole and even a vast pool of water for Lester to outrun, amongst many more enemies.
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition supports the share feature that allows access to upload a video clip or screenshot to Facebook or Twitter and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as they experience the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores your most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so you still have the chance to decide if you would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between your game footage and your reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future.
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition supports cross-buy and cross-save between the PS4, PS3 and Vita. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that the target audience will be purchasing the PS4, PS3 and Vita versions of the game with just a single acquisition. The cross-save functionality allows players to sync the progression of a save file from their Vita to your PS3 or PS4 and vice versa, so they can start playing the game on the Vita on the way to and from work, sync your save game when they return home and then resume where they left off by loading the save game and continuing via the PS3 or PS4 version. The cross-save feature is made possible by uploading the save file to the cloud on one console and downloading it from the other console.
The controls are easy to learn as they are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller, despite the lack of on screen prompts, although there is some input lag that can become frustrating as you will have to factor that into your timing of fast, precision jumps in certain areas. The control scheme consists of pressing O or square to jump; pressing triangle to immediately switch between the re-mastered graphics and the retro graphics and vice versa; pressing X to shoot; holding X briefly to create a shield to block any firing from enemies for a temporary period; holding X longer for a powerful blast from the laser gun; holding down on the d-pad or the left analogue stick while pressing X to kick poisonous insects; pressing left or right on the d-pad or changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move Lester, while holding X during movement will allow Lester to run; pressing the share button takes the player to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.
There is no touch pad implementation, light bar implementation or vibration for the PS4 version, which is disappointing as embracing these newer features would have certainly helped to engross players further into the game. Implementing the touch pad as an alternative to moving the character with a swipe to the left or right to walk or upwards to jump with a tap on the touch pad to perform an action or collect an object, while the light bar could have been implemented to display your current status of health, such as green when at full health, flashing red when near death and a darker tone of red upon death, alongside vibration from the controller following a heavy fall, being attacked or shot at by an enemy or when the lead character dies, although unfortunately none of these features have been implemented.
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is by no means a total overhaul of the graphics from the perspective of other retro revivals, such as Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty on PS4, but it does provide a re-skin of the original assets that is highlighted to its full potential by the ability to switch between the original retro graphics and full HD resolution graphics, which really showcases the re-mastered visuals in a positive light; there are still elements of the graphics that show their age as the character models still look rather basic, despite the noticeable improvement.
The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, settings, help and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. The background of the main menu revolves around the box art of the retro release of Another World; showing Lester standing atop a mountainous landscape with his arms reaching outwards as his companion that he meets along the way is crouched down a few feet away staring at an approaching creature, which is a good throwback to the original versions of the game.
The audio consists of sound effects and music with the ability to choose between the original audio, the original audio with CD console music and re-mastered audio, which effectively provides earlier retro sound, such as the original version on the Amiga or later retro quality sound, such as from the 3DO version or the modern day re-master. The sound effects mostly include general movement, such as walking, running, rolling, jumping with some gun fire, squishing of insects and an atmospheric ambience that helps to bring the world alive, while the soundtrack brings the realisation of what is happening around the lead character to the forefront. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation, which is surprising as it could have provided another layer of tension to the audio, such as producing the sound effects or music.
The trophy list includes twelve trophies with nine bronze trophies, three silver trophies and one gold trophy. The entire trophy list is easy as every trophy can be earned naturally by completing the game, although there are a couple of easily missed trophies, but even they do not require much effort to stray off the path of the adventure and even if you were to fail to gain them first time around, then you could use the level select menu to revisit the level containing that particular area in order to attempt the squandered trophy again. The majority of the trophies are story related, such as the From Bad to Worse bronze trophy for surviving the giant beast, while the Mega Shoot bronze trophy simply requires you to obtain a weapon, which the player will do so naturally as you progress through the game and use it to destroy an obstacle. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around five hours to 100% the trophy list.
There is no multiplayer or online leaderboards, although for what is essentially a retro game; gamers would not necessarily expect there to be. However, it would have been a great addition to see a form of pass the controller co-operative multiplayer, so that the control of the lead character switches between multiple players after the character has died and online leaderboards displaying a listing of who has completed each chapter of the game and the overall game in the fastest times to add some form of co-operative and competitive features.
There are three difficulty levels including easy, normal and hard with the major differences between the easiest and hardest difficulty levels being that the hard difficulty levels will have an increased amount of enemies with enemies positioned in areas that you were previously unable to find them, while Lester is more likely to die during gun fights with enemies as they will be more accurate and inflict more damage with their precision aiming.
The replayability stems from the nostalgia of being able to play a retro classic from the era of the Amiga and 3DO on your PS4, PS3 and PS Vita consoles with some decent graphical and audio improvements with the added challenge of trophies, alongside three difficulty levels providing their own level of challenge. However, a key aspect of the replay value will be simply to play through the game after completing it to test yourself in the sense of if you have remembered your way around all of the puzzles and enemies to attempt your fastest possible run through the game.
Overall, it is as though Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is doing every possible not to embrace the new features of more modern controllers, such as the DualShock 4 and is instead just trying to remain true to its own identity, which may be praised by some and criticised by others, but one thing is for sure and that is if you played any of the retro versions or even if you have not and were just wondering what all the fuss was about, then Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is easily recommendable, especially with such exceptional value as a £6.49 triple cross-buy purchase.
Jason Bonnar
Analysis
- Title: Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition
- Developer: Eric Chahi and Martial Hesse-Dreville
- Publisher: Digital Lounge
- System: PS4
- Format: PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita)
- Cross-Play: Yes (Cross-Save)
- Multiplayer: No
- Hard Drive Space Required: 174MB