Anachronox First Impressions

In Anachronox, you play as Sly Boots, a detective who's seen better days. He's living in a weird futuristic dystopia populated by all manner of alien, and he needs to get his hands on some dough, else he'll be fitted for cement boots or the equivalent. Luckily, Boots happens upon a bodyguard job that should help him earn some cash - but soon enough, things go from strange to stranger and Sly Boots finds himself caught in the middle of a sinister galactic plot. Fortunately, together with the companions he'll meet along his journey, Boots might have what it takes to fix things. Of course, it's up to you whether he succeeds or not.

Anachronox is based on the Quake II engine, but isn't a shooter, nor does it look much like one. It's a 3D role-playing game that takes its influence from Japanese RPGs that forsake complex character building for more detailed stories and richer environments. It'll feature a turn-based/real-time combat system reminiscent of the Final Fantasy games, as well as a similarly quirky cast of characters. But to directly equate Anachronox to Japanese RPGs would be a disservice: The fact is Anachronox has many unique and original gameplay and storytelling elements, and seems to have an interesting, well-written story to boot.

Since the game uses the Quake II engine, its 3D characters don't look quite state-of-the-art. However, the developers are ensuring that the characters look lifelike by using motion capture as well as lip-synching technology in order to create realistic motion and believable cinematic sequences. Anachronox will let you travel through a lot of highly detailed science-fiction settings and converse with many different characters, and while the game's been in development for a long time, it still looks promising. Check out our Q&A interview with designer Tom Hall to see why, and stay tuned for our first-hand impressions from the show floor. Anachronox is scheduled to ship by the end of the year.