Anachronox

[DraQ]

it's quite rare that a game that was released in 2001 supported 1024x780

Actually, supporting 1024x768 has been commonplace since the dawn of accelerated graphics.

Other than that, the game looked impressive back then (doubly so because it used shitty and limited Q2 engine) and has aged unexpectedly well too.
Ok, it has fairly low res textures by modern *PC* standards, but characters are distinct and resemble people despite being fairly low poly, and move in fairly lively and expressive fashion as well. Cutscenes (which do happen to be the meat of this game) are astonishingly well made, not only having no problems portraying even pretty subtle and arbitrary stuff, but there a few moments that go straight into "how the fuck did they do it with a fucking Q2 engine?" territory - take

Spoiler

that cutscene where running troops are reflected in curvy, vibrating armor plate

for example.

In short: any complaint about Anox's graphics is a clear indication of complainer being a 'tard.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Or you could try to make mods for Anachronox.
That's a suicide too.
Sort of.

yeah I've read something about that, is it really impossible? is it about the game engine?

Try the modding tools and see for yourself.

I didn't use them for quite some time, but I can clearly remember lacking information and examples.
Oh yeah, iirc they also managed to fuck the editor up. I remember that QERadiant was retarded from the start, but ION Radiant is both retarded, unstable and a bitch to run.

I'll check if these tools are still stored on my HDD, and I hope I was a fucking noob when I tried them out last time.

 

[Gakkone]

Apart from the humorous writing and the overall funky mood of the setting I thought the game was pretty bad. Perhaps I could've lived with the piss easy and insufferably boring combat but the level and quest desing totally killed it for me. Soooo much running around in those fucking corridors, often just back and forth between NPCs with little player input apart from that. And of course stupid minigames where the developers thought some actual gameplay would come in handy.




EDIT: the graphics are completely fine though

 

[GlutenBurger]

I recall someone once spliced the cutscenes together along with a few snippets of recorded gameplay to string it all together into a movie. I believe the result won some sort of machinima competition.

If it's still kicking around, it would be a decent substitute for anybody who doesn't want to deal with the backtracking and poor combat and is willing to miss out on the Dopefish cameo.

 

[Bubbles]

There's plenty of good gameplay in Anachronox beside the combat, even the minigames are mostly fun.

 

[Jed]

Not a great RPG per se, but such a great fuckin' game. I remember when it came out, people were already bellyaching that it was built on the Quake 2 engine, but if you could see it in the context of it's time--it was truly amazing what they had done with that engine. It just oozed style, charm & heart.

I played it upon release back in '01, and it's still the most memorable game in that era--along with Arcanum, I reckon. It was a flop upon release, IIRC, but to me it always seemed like a strange & wonderful companion to Deus Ex, which came out the year before. Sly Boots will always be a down-on-his-luck, working-class JC Denton to me.

 

[StaticSpine]

BTW, bro posted a link for Hi-Res patch in the screenshot thread, I tried, it works well, believe it'll be useful here

http://www.wsgf.org/dr/anachronox/en

 

[Bubbles]

Is that Rho's solo area? That's the only part of the game I haven't seen yet. Hmmm...

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Is that Rho's solo area? That's the only part of the game I haven't seen yet. Hmmm...

It's time to reinstall Deus Ex Anachronox.

 

[theSavant]

I feel like I should play this game at least once.

 

[Zetor]

Everyone should play Anachronox at least once. The gameplay isn't very good, but some of the areas/sequences are pretty great (I shall KILL you... with DEATH!)

 

[bledcarrot]

Not a great RPG per se, but such a great fuckin' game. I remember when it came out, people were already bellyaching that it was built on the Quake 2 engine, but if you could see it in the context of it's time--it was truly amazing what they had done with that engine. It just oozed style, charm & heart.

I feel like a big part of where this succeeded was in the camera angles and direction in the cut scenes. It sets it apart and gives it a cinematic vibe. They did go a bit over the top some times, making for some rather strange pans that felt a little forced, but I could appreciate what they were going for and for the most part it worked. Combined with the humour it made for a really enjoyable game, even if the combat was pretty annoying.

 

[dextermorgan]

Is that Rho's solo area? That's the only part of the game I haven't seen yet. Hmmm...

Yes it is. I chose her on my very fist playthrough, used Pal on my current one. Still need to do a run with Stiletto.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I've reinstalled Anachronox after huge delay, pity that it work worse on my notebook (the same like the last time), no difference if "power-save" or "standard" performance chosen
Not sure if my machine gonna die or whatever.
My progress? I found some eggheads uniforms and need to pass some test for high IQ from mesna(DU?)?

 

[StaticSpine]

Is that Rho's solo area? That's the only part of the game I haven't seen yet. Hmmm...

Yes it is. I chose her on my very fist playthrough, used Pal on my current one. Still need to do a run with Stiletto.

What's this about? Companio side-quests? Please give some hint.

 

[MicoSelva]

Man, I love this game. It's is like Monthy Python and the Holy Grail of RPGaming - had some of the most memorable moments ever, even if it's not very good in the classic sense.

Too bad I wasn't able to finish it, because I played some heavily modded version and after my machine died, save games proved to be incompatible with vanilla. So, if someone has the link to that machinima, I would be grateful.

 

[DraQ]

Is that Rho's solo area? That's the only part of the game I haven't seen yet. Hmmm...

Yes it is. I chose her on my very fist playthrough, used Pal on my current one. Still need to do a run with Stiletto.

What's this about? Companio side-quests? Please give some hint.

You always have at most two companions with you.

There is a section of the game where you need a particular one, one is unavailable, and you can choose any of the remaining ones to be accompanying you as well. Each of those remaining ones (three at this point) has a different solo mission.

 

[StaticSpine]

You always have at most two companions with you.

There is a section of the game where you need a particular one, one is unavailable, and you can choose any of the remaining ones to be accompanying you as well. Each of those remaining ones (three at this point) has a different solo mission.

Spoiler

Now I'm ath the moment when Grumpos and Rho are offering me different missions. I can complete only one of them?

So, if someone has the link to that machinima, I would be grateful.

 

[codexian reject]

Apart from the humorous writing and the overall funky mood of the setting I thought the game was pretty bad. Perhaps I could've lived with the piss easy and insufferably boring combat but the level and quest desing totally killed it for me. Soooo much running around in those fucking corridors, often just back and forth between NPCs with little player input apart from that. And of course stupid minigames where the developers thought some actual gameplay would come in handy.




EDIT: the graphics are completely fine though

All of this is true. I've played with some unofficial patch and it had keybind for game speed 10x, that allowed to fast forward combat animations, elevators animations and running down empty corridors sections.
Now 10x speed was still not fast anough and I was still spending more time holding this key and just waiting while dying of boredom, than actually playing the game.
If I was more educated back then, I could probably edit the keybind in the config file and increase the speed multiplier even more. Maybe I would manage to finish the game then.
As it was, I dropped it in this comic book villian parody space ship, since it was filled with combat and I couldn't take this shit anymore.

Some of the story bits and a lot of hilarious shit ( like Grumpos talking NPCs to death minigames ) were also present during the gameplay, so this machinima made only out of cutscenes, doesn't give you the whole picture.
I am not sure, if suffering proper playthrough is worth it in the end, though. One is certain, enabling fast forward key bind and making extensive use of it, is the only way to make it barely bearable and even more essential than WizFast for W8.

 

[dextermorgan]

Spoiler

Now I'm ath the moment when Grumpos and Rho are offering me different missions. I can complete only one of them?

Spoiler

Sequence in which you do them doesn't really matter, other than the issue of backtracking amount. You can accept both at the same time, when you choose to do them is up to you. The first time you try to go to Sunder, however, you'll have to take Democratus, Boots, and one other char (Grumpos is unavailable). Third character gets a solo mission (PAL, Rho or Stiletto), which is different for each.

 

[No Great Name]

The first time I played Anachronox, I ended up missing quite a few upgrades to the weapons for some of the characters. Because of this, the difficulty was a lot more difficult for me because more then half the cast were hitting like wimps.

The final boss for example was terribly slow because I had to have Sly spam MysTech in order to do any damage and had Stiletto spam one of her abilities the whole time cause anything else would do close to no damage.

However, I still managed to beat the game. The game itself is honestly not very difficult and there is always an alternative if you have shitty weapons.

What Anachronox does really well is the humor and the setting.

I would include the plot too but it's obvious that it is incomplete (at least I hope that it is). A great example of a plot twist literally coming out of nowhere at the end.

 

[Jed]

I feel like a big part of where this succeeded was in the camera angles and direction in the cut scenes. It sets it apart and gives it a cinematic vibe. They did go a bit over the top some times, making for some rather strange pans that felt a little forced, but I could appreciate what they were going for and for the most part it worked. Combined with the humour it made for a really enjoyable game, even if the combat was pretty annoying.

I think you're onto something there. I also think this cinematic aspect, along with some of the art direction, came from the fact that they knew they were going to get dinged for releasing the game on a relatively outdated engine. This was still the era of the graphics arms-race, after all.

 

[StaticSpine]

Is it necessary to have the excellent weapons for every party member before the final mission or it's not that hard?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

For me, what börked the difficulty were the 8 Cobalt bugs. They really beef up your MysTech abilities.

On my only playthrough of Anachronox, I spent so much time with it that I found all 8 bugs, all ultimate weapons, all the photos... just about everything, I think. And I had Stiletto with me in that sequence people talked about, I've yet to see PAL's and Rho's sequences.

Stiletto's sequence:

Spoiler

It's like a reverse Endor in Return of the Jedi, where the Ewoks are evil man-eating barbarians while the Stormtroopers are the good guys, it's mostly just combat and Star Wars jokes.

 

[abnaxus]

Is it necessary to have the excellent weapons for every party member before the final mission or it's not that hard?

You should only make sure that all your party members are resistant/immune to status effects.