Remakes and remasters give me the opportunity to plug any gaps in my gaming knowledge, particularly when it comes to the PC. Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy originally saw daylight in 1999. Based on a 1986 comic by Benoit Sokal, it saw some critical success, although had the usual limitations of point-and-click adventures. More than a 25 years on, Microids have saw fit to remake the adventure entirely within Unity. It opens the game up to a new audience and certainly makes it more pleasing on the eye.
The story centres around a white bird egg that was taken from the Amerzone region. Legend has it, the egg needs to be returned to restore stability to the South American nation. As a journalist, your journey begins at the lighthouse of Valembois, the scientist in the possession of the egg. As a deathbed command, he tasks you with delivering the egg back to the Amerzone.
Whilst the initial request can feel fantastical, the story has some more grounded elements. Your day job demands a story out of this so there’s an investigative quality that runs throughout. Learning about Amerzone, its people, the egg’s importance and the history of Valembois previous expedition does add a lot of context to the world. It encouraged me to find out as many clues as I could and helped build a compelling enough narrative.
It’s a mostly written history taken from documents, notes, posters and any other leftover scraps. The occasional flashback allows for a more visual attempt at storytelling with some additional monologues. On the whole, it’s the player who pieces everything together with most of the subjects deceased or absent. It allows you to really play the part and the game does a smart job of keeping track of those narrative threads.
How it plays is not too far removed from the original. Despite being a fully-rendered 3D world, movement is handled in a traditional point-and-click style. You move between scenes and pick up objects to either search for clues or add them to your inventory. How it’s mapped on a controller is straight-forward. You can hold in triangle to highlight elements you can interact with and the touchpad will bring up your journal. From there you can revisit any clues you’ve found and any documents.
The inventory is largely used for puzzle solving and, for an adventure game of a certain vintage, the solutions tend to make sense. The locations are largely self-contained and your pockets are never too packed with items. The hint system keeps track of your main objectives and it doesn’t take a lot to deduce things. It’s quite clear in what it asks of you and, whilst you do have Valembois’ journal to dig for some answers, it’s rarely required.
To aid your travel, you have a multi-use form of transport. Initially, it’s configured as a plane but, as the game progresses, you unlock new forms for the vehicle to take. These tend to provide interludes between the usual sleuthing. It settles into a nice cadence of investigating on land before fuelling up and setting off.
It’s not a game I found myself stuck in too often. One early instance was definitely down to me overthinking the situation. Thinking outside the box isn’t really needed and I found connecting the dots to be a simple and enjoyable process. Interacting with objects can feel tactile as you pull and prod at levers. Sometimes you can unlock shortcuts which make each area feel intricate.
There’s seven chapters in all which can break the journey down into manageable chunks. The game’s not massive but these chapters provide decent stopping points for anyone that needs a breather. The game will probably take around six hours to beat and you can revisit previous chapters to uncover any clues you’ve missed. There is also an Adventurer difficulty that implies a trickier time. The hint system can also be disabled.
Visually, the fully-3D world gives the environments a nice sense of cohesion. I played it entirely on the quality preset which, whilst it can be jittery in spots, I found the it to be passable. It didn’t initially bode well with the introduction displaying plenty of pop-in and the odd stutter. There’s some real moments of beauty with the lush jungle and tropical waters providing some outstanding vistas.
You can hurry up transitions between scenes but the inclusion of these give the game a deliberate pacing. It’s methodical, although having to revisit old areas can start to grind. Your character is mute but the rest of the cast is fully voiced. The performances are solid and, despite the more fanciful elements, the story is delivered in a serious manner. Music likes to swell in key moments and does give them a sense of magnitude.
I think Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy is a fine enough remake. The visuals aren’t always polished but there are moments of genuine beauty. The interface remains firmly entrenched in the old point-and-click sensibilities but the puzzles provide plenty to think about. I think the story is well told and the pace at which the game rolls is leisurely. Whilst it may be true to its roots, this remake feels refined.
+ Lightly paced with a slow escalation to the end.
+ Puzzle logic felt straight-forward and not too tricky.
+ An enjoyable, slowly unravelled story.
- Performance can stutter a little during scene transitions.
- Sticks closely to the genre conventions which might turn some people off.