Out of This World (1991 Video Game) User Reviews

It's out of this world

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 8/10 · 10 March 2015]

I first played Another World on the Mega Drive in 1993 and I was "blown away" by the animation in the game. I suppose it's sort of quaint in retrospect but it really was pioneering stuff at the time. It's a rather short game, but difficult, and this caused it to get a mediocre review from Mega magazine, my gaming zine of choice as a 12-year- old. I should have stuck with it more back then but I preferred Flashback, its spiritual successor, as it had more action.

You play as Lester, a genius scientist attempting a particle acceleration experiment in a remote laboratory. However lightning strikes the lab before the experiment is over, ripping a hole in space and time though which Lester is catapulted after an explosion. He ends up on a desolate alien planet. He is captured by humanoid Vin Diesel-like aliens and imprisoned, but soon escapes and teams up with a fellow alien prisoner to flee to safety.

The game has you solve puzzles and dodge traps through the prison, a cave system, and a tower. It sounds simple but many small details are important and you have to persist through a lot of trial and error. It's a lot of fun exploring the alien world and feeling the lonely atmosphere, plus the simple friendship between you and your alien buddy is kinda sweet.

Another World will always hold up as a groundbreaking video game and it's nice to see each new generation looking back and discovering it. Further adventures can be had with Buddy in the Mega CD sequel Heart of the Alien.

Not completely sure, but I think this is the first game of this type...

[Aaron1375 · 7/10 · 26 June 2020]

This game is like many others back in the day where it is realistic movement, where it shows cut scenes and it is 2D but it is not a platformer game. Other games of this type include Flashback, Prince of Persia, Lester the Unlikely and others. I do believe this is the first one, though and Flashback was a close second. These types of games always entertained me, my favorite one being Flashback. This one was okay, but simply does not look as good as the later ones which could be forgiven, but it is also all too brief. I replayed it on the PS4 and was like done in a little over an hour. There would also be a Sega CD version of this game that would also contain a followup to this game and it was pretty short too.

The story, a man is working on some sort of experiment in his lab during a thunderstorm. As he begins, lightening strikes at the machine and he is transported to another world! The title I remember for this one is Out of This World, but Another World works too. Well the world he ends up in is very hostile as he has to escape from a body of water filled with tentacles, stomp out slugs before the kill him and he gets chased by some monster! He is soon rescued, he thinks, but then taken prisoner by this huge humanoid men. He wakes up in a cell with another of these creatures and he breaks free and he and the other captive help each other out on their way to trying to escape this city. The second game the roles are reversed as you play the humanoid and the scientist is the one doing the assisting.

The game play is fun and you will have to solve environmental puzzles aplenty, but that is the norm for a game like this. If you've never played it before, you will probably have a longer time getting through it than I did. It is amazing what you remember over the years. You get some cut scenes that either progress the story or show you the characters gruesome demise at the hands of some sort of mouth in the ground or the slugs.

So, it was good for the day and I rented it a few times; usually with something else as it was a fun play through, but then you were done. The Sega CD version is longer due to having the sequel, which not sure, but I think it was only on the CD with the first one as I have never seen it by itself. Kind of an impromptu sequel to try and coerce those who enjoyed the first to get it as well for the additional content. Like I said, I think it was even shorter than the first one. Worth a play through now for nostalgia purposes and 12 easy trophies on PS4.

Constantly dying has never been soo fun and frustrating.

[chunkylefunga · 8/10 · 26 September 2011]

In 1991 Eric Chahi created a science-fiction epic that still stands as one of the most evocative, immersive and challenging adventures of all time.

Another World is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary with a re-release. Another World chronicles the mysterious journey of a lone research scientist named Lester. Working late one stormy night, he finds himself witness to a massive particle accelerator overload. One second our hapless hero is in his lab, the next he's swimming in a pool of water on a completely alien world. From the first second, Lester is running for his life, and this constant race for survival never lets up.

Another world does something very few games do, it thrusts players into an alien environment with no direction or warning, and instant death everywhere. The game can be beaten in less than an hour once you know how, but the keys to survival must be learnt through trial and error.

A spiky death is just a hop, skip, and jump away.

It's frustrating to be sure. At times, Another World feels as though it were designed as a sadist's delight, but there's an incredible sense of satisfaction in getting through each section. Admittedly, the high difficulty level is at least partially due to how locked the controls are with the overall graphics and animation engine.

The game's animation system was revolutionary for the time, but it also made perfect timing a necessity. Lester must be in the right frame of animation to respond to a control function, so the game frequently feels unresponsive. The 20th anniversary addition of pure touch controls utilising various swipes instead of a virtual d-pad doesn't really make the game any more responsive. Another great feature is the ability to switch between the original and enhanced graphics at any time.

Another World was thoroughly impressive when it first came out thanks to its use of real-time 3D graphics. While even the enhanced, high-definition graphics might look rather primitive by today's standard, it's easy to see why the game has endured for so long. Characters are made from a pitifully small number of polygons, with bare bones shading, and the overall colour scheme is kept to a few somber colours.

Yet, with this minor palette and low-level graphics pushing the game, Another World manages to tell an engaging and exciting story with virtually no dialogue or anything other than ambient sound effects and occasional dramatic music. When Lester teams up with an alien prisoner, the game creates a partnership that remains one of the most profound in all of gaming.

So, 20 years later, Another World still manages to provide a distinctive, original, and wholly difficult science fiction experience. Even with the new 'normal' difficulty level, which essentially doubles the number of save spots, the game is an exercise in frustration and trial and error.

For all the complaints, however, this is still a worthy purchase. Whether it's for a veteran gamer who played the original or a newcomer hungry for a challenging sci-fi adventure, Another World remains a memorable journey.

Great Adventure Game

[TERMINATOR180 · 10/10 · 17 February 2002]

I first played this game back in the day, on the Super Nintendo, but they remade it for the Panasonic 3DO Multiplayer, changing the music and updating the graphics. The game is a bit difficult, but once you get the hang of the controls, you won't have too much trouble, but you may need a strategy guide or walkthrough, because the game does have quite a few things that it takes time to figure out.

*** 1/2 out of ***** Stars (Rating Based Upon Comparison To Other Videogames)

Out of this World!

[Movie Nuttball · 2 May 2005]

Out of this World is one of the one of the coolest action video games! The characters, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time! Below is a brief look how I think the game is!

Game Play: The game play is very good. There is really basic controls here and is easy to perform. Novice gamers should have a good time here!

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful especially for the Sega Genesis CD The backgrounds are really beautiful! Difficulty: The game is easy but as it goes on you find out that it will become more difficult!

Music: The music is great! Just fantastic catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. Nuff said!

Overall: I have always loved Out of this World! If you like excellent adventure games, shooters, and more then I strongly recommend you play this game!

To purchase this video game check out Amazon.com!

Superb blocky retro gaming goodness that really did tale you straight to another world!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 8/10 · 14 September 2017]

Thanks to an unforeseen mishap with a particle accelerator gadget and good old- fashioned lightning, dorky young red headed scientist Lester is instantly beamed through the cosmos to an alien planet where, after fleeing the vicious local wildlife, he meets the very unfriendly natives and is stunned and captured in some kind of penal mining colony where he must work together with an unlikely ally to make their great escape through the most deadly of mazes! The scant storyline of this uniquely realised game was told in a very minimalistic way but it's all quite rich in tone and atmosphere. Graphically it's a little antiquated by today's standards but from an artistic standpoint I think it looks beautiful and awesome. The cinematics and environments give it a deep unnerving strangeness that really makes it feel like you're lost in an alien world, and it shows you all you need to know through its imagery and lets your imagination fill in the rest, how it looks reminds me of an old style 50s pulp sci-fi comic book. I really got into this game many years ago on my SNES and I remember before I got better at it dying and dying and dying again!!! As you awkwardly shuffled from screen to screen all you really had to do was survive as everything except for your hulking alien buddy was out to kill you! It was hard but I didn't really mind, the two button control system which was not as simple as it first appeared wasn't too bad once you got the hang of it, and it made you want to keep trying and get farther into it as it was pretty rewarding when you did. I've seen one play-through where somebody got through the whole game I'm under twenty minutes but it took me about forever! It was all really about trial and error and precise timing. Looking at it today I'm quite absorbed by it, the beautiful richness, simplicity and balance of its gameplay make me feel nostalgic and I find it quaintly gorgeous, the visual thematic quality that it has is so epic and immersive, and the way the game was played made you take your time to appreciate that, and so the games like Another World, even though they were of a much slower pace, they engaged you by way of thinking. It was a short game and a product of its time but it was definitely interesting and memorable and deserving of remembrance as a classic that has aged exceptionally well considering how old it is. It was cool then and it is now, this is one carefully constructed gem of a science fiction adventure puzzle platformer that is truly...out of this world! X