Anachronox

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME
Review: This is the game you must get if you get any this year! The graphics rule the characters can be very funny and the story line is amazing! You may defeat it quikly like me(1 week) or you may take longer either way this game rules!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome blend of RPG and action styles
Review: Tom Hall and his team at Ion Storm Austin have been developing Anachronox for several years now. Many in the gaming world feared that Anachronox would be another Daikatana. John Romero and his team at Ion Storm, Dallas, worked on Daikatana for several years as well, and was released in 2000 to critical disdain, showing up on the "worst of" list for several gaming web sites.

Gamers can breathe a sigh of relief: Anachronox is most definitely not another Daikatana. It's intriguing and different. Comparisons will be made to the Final Fantasy series, but the PC platform hasn't seen anything quite like this in some time.

Although built on the aging Quake II engine, the programmers have done an excellent job with tweaking that engine to render it almost unrecognizable. The most noticeable flaws of the Quake II engine are in the character textures, although the animation for the characters is fluid and life-like.

The dialog is frequently hilarious as well, which brings a much needed sense of humor to PC gaming. Most action titles seem to have forgotten how important a sense of humor is.

In the game, you put on the trenchcoat of down-on-his-luck detective Sly Boots. There are many quests and mini-quests to discover in the world of Anachronox, and along the way, others will join your party.

The combat system is where the comparisons to the Final Fantasy series come to mind. At each encounter, the camera zooms overhead to show the combatants, with a turn-based control system very similar to Final Fantasy. You can choose to take a defensive, or offensive, stance, use inventory items, special abilities, and the like.

Not since Deus Ex (another excellent Ion Storm title) have I found a game to be so interesting and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, Dramatic, Silly, Funny, Stylish, GREAT!
Review: When this game first came out, I saw the names of the characters. "Stiletto Anyway? Sly Boots? This game sounds pretty strange..."
I was right about that. It IS a bit strange, but I shouldn't have let that deter me for as long as it did. I only recently purchased the game, but about 24 gameplay hours later (spread out over a couple weeks), I LOVE it. Not just enjoy. No, LOVE.
There's a lot of detail to be had in the story, something that I find lacking in most games today.
Graphics-wise, I found it to be QUITE good. Mind you, I only have 11MB of video memory on my 600MHz computer, so those good folks who have super powered-up computers and who have been playing the newest games may be disappointed in the graphics. The characters manage expressions (such as a lifted eyebrow or a smirk) that I've never seen before in games.
The battle system is strange at first, but it doesn't take long to get used to it.
Much of the game involves humor to some degree, which makes those dark parts of the plot that much more noticable, and that much more dramatic.
A tremendous amount of detail has been put into the game as far as little sub-plots and things go. I've never seen so many different models in a game, either, it's quite astounding.
It's quirky sci-fi, to be sure, but it has a really enchanting, addicting quality.
I recommend it to those who enjoy comedy with their sci-fi, to those who enjoy RPGs, to those who enjoy adventure games AND to those who want some strong story and fun characters with their game. Well, I guess I recommend it to just about anyone except those who hate comedy.