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As I already said, I must’ve achieved some kind of resonance with this game, because I didn’t have any trouble with the egg after reaching the volcano.

I finished the game on Friday.

All in all Amerzone was a very good experience for me. I had some problems in chapters 1 (which I find normal, since one has to get accustomed with the game’s logic first) and 6 (finding that Indian cemetery was pretty nightmarish for me), otherwise I almost breezed through the whole thing. I’m glad I’ve played Amerzone in a community playthrough, because Lady K provided almost complete (short, but important) monologues of the few characters I’ve met and hopelessly tried to understand (thanks, once again).
Amerzone sure is short and unpolished in a way or two, especially if you compare it to the game Benoit Sokal made a couple of years after.
I wished I hadn’t played Syberia before Amerzone, because (since I had) I had that feeling of running a “poor man’s version of Syberia” all the time. These two games are (almost) the same thing: an urban, highly-educated person, estranged from nature and its creatures gets a task of fulfilling some weirdo’s dream by making a long voyage to the other end of the world in order to help/meet an endangered/extinct species of animal.
The only difference is that Syberia is much superior and has better means (it has more complex story, interactive characters/dialogues, better music, sounds, graphics, it has SUBTITLES…) in expressing the same idea.

The graphics of Amerzone is superb (especially for 1999), it has weird lovable creatures, and a couple of great puzzles (going up the river and doing stuff in the village were my favourites), so all in all I think it is (still, after all the years since it was first published) a game I would recommend to every adventure game player.

Well, let’s see… a couple of things:

Story:

The story is simple and this in itself means nothing in particular, but I was hoping that it could serve as a kick-start to something more… interesting, perhaps with some new discovery or some particular twist that we would unveil as we progressed, however I found nothing even remotely close to that. The initial premise remains constant throughout the game, there are no surprises during the development, perhaps the deaths of the few characters that we were finding were intended to give a little tension to the journey, but I found them mostly hollow.

Gameplay:

Gameplay consists almost exclusively of picking up and using objects. Conversations simply don’t exist but we are limited to listen to what the few characters we meet have to tell us, at this point I thank Lady K and those who helped me to understand what they were saying, not having subtitles is a problem.

And except for the beginning and the last few minutes of the end I think about 90% of the game consisted of the journey itself, looking for fuel, or getting around any difficulties that prevented us from continuing and that was it. In that sense I didn’t encounter any major difficulties. Unlike rtrooney I never felt like I was falling into Myst territory, or a game like Aura for example (which I found very interesting but where I was totally lost as to what to do), here everything is very clear and straightforward (I have already repeated this several times in previous posts, I know).

Visuals/Sounds/Music:

As for the visuals, I found them correct, although I couldn’t help noticing that the static nature of certain elements, without forgetting that this is not a modern game, it’s more than 20 years old. The same goes for the sound effects, birds, insects, etc. The music, on the other hand, hardly ever appears and although it’s not bad, it’s quite poor. I would have liked a bit more of it. The artwork conceived and designed by Benoît Sokal is very good and I think he managed to impregnate his particular style, almost dreamy.

To conclude:

Despite everything I said above I liked the game, I don’t regret giving it a chance. It’s just that I would have liked a better immersion either in the story, characters or locations in general. I didn’t feel a connection with the story, or the characters unfortunately and I need to care about the characters, to feel them.

I find it funny that GoG’s website talks about “An immersive cinematic adventure with an unforgettable storyline” when I felt that’s exactly what it lacked.

If I had to give it a score I’d give it a 6/10 at best, Ok but forgettable.

What I liked the most:
- Benoit Sokal’s art, The dinosaur-like animal that we use as a means of transport near the end.
What I liked the least:
- Its durability.
- A basic premise that never takes off.
- The lack of puzzles and in general things to do. I never felt like I was solving anything.

I really like travelling around the swamp. The travel animations and sound effects pretty immersive.

Chrissie,
Yes, the lack of being able to save in my version was very frustrating.  It’s funny because in first chapter I was allowed to save and load two games, and I had a load button throughout the game.  After that, however, it was all automatic saves.

I started Chapter 6 this morning, but haven’t made much progress. RL intervened. Hope to finish later today.

Some overall comments:

There is a real similarity between the story arcs of Amerzone and the combined Syberia 1&2 experience.

It’s interesting that the time between S2‘s release in 2004 and S3‘s release in 2017 was filled by the release of two games under the “White Birds Productions” label. Those being Paradise in 2006, which I haven’t played, and Sinking Island in 2007, which I did play as a playthrough a few years ago.

I think it’s unfair to compare Amerzone’s graphics against any other game, except those also released in 1999. Of course it looks rougher than S1. S1 had five years to improve the craft it developed in Amerzone.

The puzzles are semi-fair. As someone said earlier, the objectives are vague, but the solutions require precision. The hydrafloat is out of gas, and you have an empty gas can in inventory. So you fill the gas can, but then have to spend 20+ minutes searching for a hot spot to fill the tank. Ditto the windmill. If you didn’t see the very short cut scene that showed the windmill connecting to the pump motor, you have nothing to hint at what you have to do.

I’ll probably have a few more thoughts when I’ve finished the game.

@rtrooney: good to hear, even if it’s a slow process. Best of health to both of you.

I finished the game. It was about what I expected. I did like the atmosphere, the world and the creatures a lot. The puzzles - I was glad they were there. Pretty decent.

I’m curious about Syberia now.

I would’ve liked to be a bit more active and joyous in this thread; stuff got in the way.

Thanks Lady Kestrel, for leading this playthrough! And thanks to all the participants - I’m not sure if I would’ve finished the game without the subtle directions in the thread.

I Finished Chapter 6 earlier today. I won’t call it a maze, but finding the right set of paths to get to the giraffe’s meeting ground was tedious to say the least. I don’t know what the significance of the bag was. Yes, I figured out how to use it, but wouldn’t a cork be a better choice? I did like the ride though. The graphics seemed exceptionally good during this cut scene.

I also just finished Chapter 7. I paid particular attention to the problems Charo and Veovis had with the egg. If they were posted as spoilers, I read them anyway, and chose not to take the route they took. By doing so, the chapter took less than 15 minutes. (Not including having to watch the credits.)

I remember having an “Oh Wow!” feeling when I first played the game. I didn’t have that feeling this time around. Maybe I didn’t understand that the egg held the last of the white birds. And, despite a re-reading of the various diaries, I don’t completely understand their role in the Amerzonian mythology. Eternal life? Probably not since the woman we met at the village seems to be the last of her kind. All the rest, as chrissie said, seem to be buried in the pueblo cemetery.

I really don’t understand the appearance of General Alvarez in the pyramid. Did he somehow get advance warning of our protagonist’s appearance? And was there to stop her from achieving her objective? Or was he simply there so Lady K could kill off one mor antagonist before the game ended? Who knows. But that made no sense whatsover, other than providing some metal to use later. And that could more easily, and more logically via other, more sensible methods.

Amerzone still ranks in my Top 100. (Although I did not vote for 100 games. More like 40.)

Thanks you Lady K for leading a great playthrough. I enjoyed it. As well as enjoying the interaction with all the other players. It’s been fun!

I added some spoiler tags, Tim.  Not everyone has finished the game yet.

Lady Kestrel - 01 August 2022 07:16 PM

I added some spoiler tags, Tim.  Not everyone has finished the game yet.

I don’t mind. Although the spoiler tags you added, to me, were unnecessary. Saying that finding a path is tedious is hardly giving anything away. Saying I enjoyed a ride gives away nothing other than it might make someone wonder what I’m talking about. Ditto the reference to Alvarez. That’s already been discussed without spoilers. But in doing so, the one spoiler tag I did use, re: the egg, was disabled. And that one, I thought was necessary.

rtrooney - 01 August 2022 07:06 PM

I Finished Chapter 6 earlier today. I won’t call it a maze

I would. Except it was more like “click randomly on an area of swamp and hope it takes me where I want to go.” Even once I’d found the place I needed to find, I was going around in circles on my way back.

Veovis - 01 August 2022 06:30 AM

[spoiler]

Oh, I encountered a game-breaking bug in the last chapter, concerning the egg. I clicked on that place where we are supposed to finally place the egg at the volcano, holding that bird-shaped thingy. That triggered the game to place the egg down, despite not being prepared yet (I hadn’t even found the area in which to prepare the egg yet). After that I couldn’t do anything or even move back from the edge of the volcano. Had to load a saved game.

Maybe this was the same bug Charo experienced?

Could be. I found in the Steam forum someone who wrote a French topic about the last chapter and a game-breaking bug involving the egg, so it’s not just us.

chrissie - 01 August 2022 12:22 PM

Syberia is a beautiful game about following your dream but that’s about as deep & meaningful as it gets on the whole in my mind. 

Amerzone to me, might be the more basic game but has a lot more to offer on a different level……

I agree that the themes are more interesting than Syberia, which was a more personal and emotive game. They aren’t in the foreground in Amerzone, but they are present, and they serve to add deeper dimensions to the game.

Did anyone else feel a sense of sadness throughout? Everywhere we went, things were falling apart, people dying. It was like everywhere in the Amerzone where humans had been there was a corrupting influence.

I loved the overall design, the idea of going on a journey of returning the egg and correcting an old adventurer’s mistake he made in his youth, is lovely. And the imagery of a romanticised Amazon full of strange creatures and endless jungle with primitive tribes.

Even though I’m glad I played it the game itself often felt like a sketch, like an abridged version, or a highlights reel. I think this was appropriate and the game wasn’t too short, but I wonder how it would have played if certain aspects had been more fleshed out (especially certain characters such as the dictator, the priest and the villager girl). 

Thanks to Lady K for leading us all on this journey

zobraks - 01 August 2022 02:41 AM

I had some problems in chapters 1 (which I find normal, since one has to get accustomed with the game’s logic first) and 6 (finding that Indian cemetery was pretty nightmarish for me)

I’m not sure I understand this. Are you saying you found a second Indian cemetery in the swamp, that is different than the pueblo cemetery? If so, I must replay that chapter and try to find it. Obviously it was a throw away location that wasn’t required to finish the chapter.

I enjoyed revisting this game very much.  Getting different perspectives is what a community playthrough is all about, and I’m so glad you all participated in this one.

Tim,
I didn’t find another cemetery either.  I hope they didn’t cut it out of my version.  I may revisit the game again to check that out.