Rose-tinted planet: I know there are going to be people who strongly disagree with this statement, but I'll come out and say it right off the bat: Another World which you may also know as Out of This World is a bad game.
Sure, it has a pretty and unique minimalist art style, which is especially impressive considering Another World’s roots on the early-'90s PCs Amiga system, and it works within that era’s graphical limitations. It has a fairly compelling story, too, one that's cleverly delivered without a single word written or spoken. But as a game, one that you play? Another World is anything but good. It reminds me a great deal of how I feel about Dragon's Lair: it's an old, well-remembered game that simply isn't fun. So what's the point of playing it instead of watching a Let’s Play?
Another World puts you in the role of Lester, a scientist conducting obviously hazardous experiments in his laboratory. One thing leads to another, and he finds himself stranded on a Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition Out Of This World places the player in the role of Lester Chaykin, a young nuclear scientist. When an experiment goes badly wrong, Lester finds himself transported to Another World a strange, desolate and very alien land.
The mysteriousness and ambiance of the alien planet is perhaps the single best aspect of Another World. I really enjoyed Secret Money System Review how it let me know exactly what was going on without having to actually tell me, and how it leaves things open to interpretation. Scenic queues, audible grunts, and more are a far cry from cutscenes that pull you out of the experience. Another World feels quaint, but this represents the whole of its charm, because none of its delivery is literal.
Unfortunately, that charm falls prey to complete frustration literally 30 seconds into the adventure and about every 30 seconds thereafter when you have to figure out how to use a stiff, rigid, and completely unacceptable control scheme that makes Another World arbitrarily harder than it should be. To be clear, this is not the effect of a botched port; all versions of Another World have this issue. There is nothing worse in games and I mean nothing than oppressively bad controls. I don't care how good it looks or sounds, and I don't care about how endearing its story is. These are additive qualities. If it's not fun to actually play, what's the point? Another World isn't fun. That's a huge problem.
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