Anachronox

Don't get the title wrong, it's not a FMV, it is a great SF Role-Playing Game, but the cinematics are overwhelming with the camera moving and the characters' emotions showing, it's almost if you're watching a movie. Just what is Anachronox (Uh-nah-chro-nox)? Well, it's a planet located inside Sender One. What's Sender One you say? Well, just play the game and you'll find out. in this dazzling game you play the role of Silvestro Bucelli aka Sly Boots, a down-on-his-luck detective who needs money real fast, so he tries to find a job and ends up saving the universe. Heard it before, you say? Well, not really, because of its excellent humour and character depth, quite unexpected for a video game. The world of Anachronox is fascinating and through the game you feel like a wheel in a great machinery, not like a hero, which is great. It's not clicheed, it just makes fun of some SF clichees. The dialogue is hilarious, the "directing" is beautiful the plot (script) is great (it is based on a real theory - "the multi-bang theory"), what more would you want from a movie, but this is a PC game, so it has other advantages (graphics:good; gameplay:great; sound&music:perfect). It has its part of comedy, drama and action, with incredible one liners ("Do you know the difference between you and the you 5 minutes ago? The you 5 minutes ago had 5 more minutes to live!) and nice special FX 10/10 the best game I ever played, the only game I ever played twice. Go buy it!

I want an "Anachronox" sequel to be made. So I'm hoping this posting will spur interest in the game, and Anachronox will get "Family Guy"ed. I know it's a long shot, but this game is very very under-appreciated and underrated.

The plot development and voice acting in video games is more important to me than the 'latest generation realistic graphics'.

I play games for the storytelling, not the whiz-bang factor.

This game had plenty of Whiz Bang, but mostly, it's got a really great story, great characters, and was my introduction into "turn-based multi-member-party role playing games', and I'm hooked.

They say you always remember your first, and I've enjoyed other RPGs, but Anachronox is still my favourite.

It really is an interactive movie, but instead of playing just ONE character, you get to play 7.

...and while the system requirements were pretty steep to run the game in 2001, now, in 2007, you can crank up the resolution and detail and it's very smooth.

Excellent voice acting, art direction, story, and game play. It's a 10.

As a film, Anachronox leaves much to be desired. While I can forgive the animation being so pixelated because of its pedigree (see machinima.com for more information on this subject), I cannot forgive the cheesy plot, the cartoonish subplots, the poorly conceived and unwieldy band of characters and, most importantly, the god-awful fight scenes. Some of the characters (e.g. PAL and Detta) are virtually unintelligible. Others (e.g. Fatima) have elaborate backstories for absolutely no purpose. If Anachronox were tightened to a lean hour or so, I might be more forgiving. But at almost two and a half hours, it is long and at times quite dull. Sometimes "everything" is a bit too much. Avoid this early experiment and check out newer machinima for better writing and better platforms.

Anachronox is a generally-ignored game-turned-movie by the Ion Storm team. Though the game is usually positive, its best part was its cutscenes which have been compounded to form Anachronox: The Movie (ATM.)

ATM's main character is Sylvester Bucelli ("Sly Boots") whose quest to pay his bar tab embarks him on a Quest To Save The UniverseT. Characters ooze with personality, made believeable by the superb voice talent, through a mostly cohesive and perhaps 'short' plot, though these qualms are minor. (Some cutscenes were cut and the game was shortened.) There's humor in nearly every scene and you probably wouldn't notice. Graphically, all is modeled with a modified Quake II engine- many, many polygons for those unknowing- but all the characters at least look vibrant.

Anachronox has a zany humor sense within a cohesive plot which, if I've seen it prior, don't recall it being done so well.