[Name] Out of This World
[Target] PC, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD
[Year] 1994
[Developer] Delphine Software

Out of This World [Another World in Europe] was one the first video games that after beating, I had a definite afterglow. The game took itself seriously, and in my opinion, was horribly underrated for being too damn hard. Played by few, beaten by fewer, this game has all but left the collective conscious of gamers.
Out of this World used several techniques employed by several flight simulators at the time. The game is one of the first to favor 2D polygons, as opposed to sprites. In order to create a realistic action of the character, they used a technique called "rotoscoping." This is where footage of an actor is taken, and then polygons are placed over the figure's body for each frame. I believe that the movie "Waking Life" is another excellent example of rotoscoping. However, as far as gaming is concerned, rotoscoping has been abandoned for motion capture. I personally enjoy looking at rotoscoped motion because it requires a human touch. Someone has to manually place polygons or shapes over the actors body. Some would say that this introduces mistakes in the process, but I believe that it allows the artist more freedom than the cold impersonal sensors on a motion capture rig.

This game was first released on the PC, later the SNES and Genesis. The game had one last hurrah on the ill-fated Sega CD. It was a two CD set. One CD contained the original Out Of This World, and on the second, there resided "Heart of the Alien", which was a direct sequel to Out of This World. Of course, I am too damned cheap to buy a Sega CD and Out Of This World, and too damned impatient to wait for them to arrive. The solution to my needs, as many of you know, could be found on the Internet easily enough... but such was not the case, as it was certainly NOT easy.

In google we trust.

First I needed to FIND the damned game on the net.
[Time spent: 1 hour, 30 Min]

Second, I needed to find an Emulator that could work on Sega CDs...
[Time spent: 10 Min]

Then I needed to find out why the fucking thing didn't work, because the ROM and the Emulator were not working in harmony with each other...
[Time spent: 45 Min]

Now that I found out why the damned thing didn't work, I needed to download the most up-to-date .bins for the emulator. But WHERE?!
[Time spent: 20 min]

Kaching!! working perfectly!

Wow. The first thing that struck me was the sound. The sound on the PC, SNES, and Genesis was by far the most detrimental part of the game, because the technology they were running on was rather lacking. Not so on the SEGA CD. The sound engineer obviously knew his shit. In the first opening cinema [One of the first game cinemas EVER], cars squeal, computers make their pseudo thinking noise, and lightning crackles across the gloomy sky all in crisp, clear MP3 format. In addition, frame rate was not a problem at all, unlike on the SNES.

Out of This World was one of the first games that took itself seriously. Over and over, you really REALLY feel like you're in your character's shoes. When swimming in an underwater cavern, you can FEEL your air running out. Your alien buddy encounters many problems parallel to your journey. You help him out, not because you are required to do so in order to beat the game, but because of human sympathy (strikingly similar to the storyline of ICO). One more example of the synergy between gamer and character really sticks out in my mind. In one scene, the gamer is forced to eject from an alien vessel. Outside you can see your ship being damaged by an onslaught of alien weaponry. Another shot in the corner of the screen shows your character's finger hovering over an enigmatic panel of buttons. You find yourself in the EXACT same boat your character is in because you have no idea what these buttons do; all you know is that you have to get out --- FAST. ...and so, you literally are acting out what the character is doing by manically pushing buttons.

PURE GENIOUS!

That being said, the game suffers from what many other pioneering games suffered from - control. This aspect is compounded by the game's inherent difficulty. However, after beating the game on PC, SNES, and Genesis, I think I knew the exact ins and outs of the game. It only took me about 20 to 30 minutes to beat, although my first time through took about 2 weeks of solid playing... with NO FAQS. The game itself has a stop-start mentality to it... if you die, you go back to the last save point. At one point in the game [the caves], it becomes almost impossible to figure what you need to go about doing and WHY. This is a big game-designing No-No.

Heart of the Alien was more Out of this World goodness. It wasn't THAT good, however... The control was WORSE, and the game was even HARDER... everything can, and will, kill you, and often times the designers didn't even leave clues as to where a deadly trap might be. One of their favorite techniques must be placing deadly traps right at the beginning of a new screen, so the gamer has no time to react to them... eesh...and the ending... oh boy... Well, I didn't mind, but I can see why every other person who has played it would truly hate it... I don't think I would have liked to play this game had I not enjoyed Out of This World so much, and the FAQ was crucial.

All in all, I think Out of This World MUST be played. I believe its faults must be noted, but more importantly, this game has what all games should strive for. Even though it was ahead of its time in the graphics department, the graphics themselves only FURTHER the experience, not make it. I believe that this game is the first piece of interactive LITERATURE. For the first time, the gamer plays the story in both the first, second, and third person narratives all at once.

Wow. Inspiring.

- Stu - 11.04.02