Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy Review: A good remake, still stuck in the past

Amerzone is one of the strangest games I may have ever played. Not only is the content quite unique, but so is the gameplay. I have no nostalgia or memory of the original 1999 version, and I’ve never played anything that has a similar control scheme. I would call it a 3D point-and-click adventure. You are in a 3D space, but you cannot move about freely. Every point in the game is a predetermined position, you can simply look around, interact with objects in the vicinity, or choose to progress to a further area. This took a long time for me to get used to, even several hours into the game, I still caught myself trying to use both joysticks to move around the 3D space.

This game tells a story about guilt, power, conservation, and rebellion, all wrapped up in a fictional place called Amerzone. As the name suggests, Amerzone bears a striking resemblance to the Amazon, even on a map. However, Amerzone distinguishes itself with fantastical creatures like a swimming giraffe, a hippo with horns, and a few creatures that seem a lot like dinosaurs. You play as a journalist who is suddenly wrapped up in a dying man’s last wish to return a vitally important artifact, an egg, to its rightful home in the Amerzone. To do this, you’ll need to follow carefully laid out instructions, explore, and problem-solve your way across the Atlantic and deep into a dangerous jungle.

As I mentioned, this is a completely remastered game from 1999. While I didn’t play the original, looking at comparative footage makes it easy to tell that this new version vastly improves the game’s visuals. The environments are filled out with detail, and the character models are much more modern. There’s no doubt in my mind that this version of the game is now the ultimate way to experience the story. I will do my best not to spoil anything, but this new version also includes several hours worth of new content, so even if you’re a fan of the classic version, there is a lot more to explore here.

Learning the Ropes

Despite appearances, you are not free to roam about in Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy. This is certainly a choice, and one that remains faithful to the original version. As someone unfamiliar with that type of gameplay, it took some time to get used to. Throughout the game, it was somewhat unsettling to move back and forth to specific locations, wait for the character to finish moving before I turn and head in a new direction. It certainly works for the purposes of this game, and I imagine simplifies the complexities of a story-rich first-person puzzle game, but it was not a favorite part of the game for me.

As the protagonist, you are a silent and overly willing participant in the story. There are very few dialogue choices, and there is some optional content to explore, but for the most part, I never felt like there were multiple ways to approach a situation. The puzzles are generally straightforward and clever at times, but there were certainly a few moments where I was at a loss. Thankfully, there are several options for players to help themselves out in these tricky situations. For these reasons, and also because certain interactive items can be easy to miss, you can hold down a button to see everything you can interact with in your vicinity. If that is not helpful, you can also consult the journal for hints. You are only granted a hint when you reach a certain level of progression, usually discovering what the current hint is trying to get at.

The mechanics and gameplay guide you through some fantastical places. The lighthouse at the beginning is a labyrinth on its own, but you’ll also find yourself diving into a lagoon, avoiding capture from soldiers, and using a wholly unrealistic, but fun, transforming vehicle. So while I wouldn’t particularly care to see these controls transferred over to any other game, I can forgive their simplicity as a tool for carrying the player through the story.

Globe Trotting Adventure

The journey starts realistic enough. A journalist is sent to interview an eccentric scientist and explorer, Alexandre Valembois, who lives in a lighthouse in Brittany, . Once there, Valembois beseeches you to return an egg he stole from the Amerzone. He has been planning the journey for years, but is too old to do it himself. The egg belongs to a rare species of white bird, and only a sacred ceremony can hatch the egg. Ever since Valembois left with the egg, the country has fallen into a fascist regime, run by one of Valembois' companions for his journey through the Amerzone.

This request catapults the journalist protagonist into finding the hidden egg, setting up a steampunk air and water vehicle to travel across the Atlantic, venture upriver through the jungle, and return the egg to its rightful place. Throughout this journey, you are able to compare the story Valembois tells through his journal, and compare that to the broken reality left in his wake. This story is about guilt, betrayal, and the dangerous consequences of colonialism. Every character you meet along the way enforces these messages, in one way or another.

As much as my issues with the game's mechanics cause it to feel straightforward, linear, and simplistic, in of the overall story, it also makes the whole journey feel like fate. There is no way to fail in this game, only to be slowed down. You can’t accidentally walk off a cliff, steer the boat into a rock, or get eaten by a crocodile. There are complications along the way, of course, but at every turn, it feels as if the jungle itself is willing the protagonist forward, knowing that they need to reach their goal to restore balance.

Amerzone’s Legacy

A lot has changed in video games and the world since 1999. Proof is that this type of gameplay, which apparently was typical of a first-person point-and-click adventure game, is something I’ve never come across before. This may be a tough hurdle for modern audiences to get over in the early hours of Amerzone. But it would be much more difficult if the developers of this remake had not taken the time to make the world much more vibrant and full of life.

While I haven’t experienced the 1999 version of the game, from looking at footage, it’s easy to tell the advances in how video games are made allowed this remake to flourish where its predecessor could not. The landscapes, from coastal to the swamps of the Amerzone, are full of detail, even if you can’t walk up to and inspect it all. Some of the added content involves the various animals that appear in Valembois’ journal. These fictional creatures might have been difficult to make look realistic all those years ago.

Amerzone’s gameplay still feels quite dated, but it does manage to make itself stand out as a quality remake that still has an interesting story to tell, even twenty-six years later. In some ways, this is a great example of what a remake should be. In other ways, I would argue, it’s a type of game that will never perfectly translate to the modern era.

Final Thoughts

Like I said in the beginning, this is a strange game for someone like me to experience. At times, it did feel like a more thought-provoking Indiana Jones story, while at others, it felt a little bit like using Google Maps street view. I don’t mean to be harsh, but the awkwardness of that segmented movement was hard to get over, even after five and a half hours of playing with it.

This is not a game that is easy to rush through. There are six chapters, each taking roughly an hour or more to complete, and if you choose not to use any hints or clues, you might get stuck here and there. Unless you get truly stuck, this should be a game that’s easy to get through in a few sittings.

I enjoyed my time with Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy. I also think I would have a hard time recommending this to anyone unless they were looking for something very specific, like a relatively short and simple puzzle adventure game. Even then, I’d feel the need to explain to them just how strange this game is, and how the controls work. I wouldn’t blame someone trying this out for a few hours only to realize it’s not quite for them. But if they can get past its eccentricities, they might find an oddly charming first-person puzzle adventure with something to say.