Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy has quite the history, this remake bringing back Benoit Sokal’s Amerzone from 1998, which itself was based on a comic strip from 1986. Amerzone was the first major adventure game Sokal was behind, setting the foundations for its better known cousin, Syberia. Microids’ remake has a lot to live up to from a reputational perspective, and it generally does.
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy puts players in the shoes of a nameless journalist, who has their first big break with the opportunity to interview the explorer Alexandre Valembois. Valembois has agreed to speak about his trip to the mysterious South American country of Amerzone, which took place approximately 50 years prior to the events of the game. However, the invite for an interview takes a turn and it leads to the journalist embarking on a trip to Amerzone to return an egg.
This isn’t any old egg that you buy by the half-dozen, but one that ties into the mythology of the indigenous people of Amerzone, holding within it a unique species of bird that is believed to bring good luck to Amerzone. It may seem like a superstition, but since the egg left the country, Amerzone has fallen into a military dictatorship and the indigenous groups have been all but wiped out. Getting to Amerzone is no easy feat since the country’s borders are closed with any interlopers shot on sight. Luckily for the journalist, Valembois has built a vehicle called a Hydrofloat that has all sorts of modes that allows someone to travel from the Brittany coast of France to the secretive South American nation and within it too.
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy is the very definition of a point and click adventure game. There is no free movement for players. Instead you look in a direction where an arrow appears, press a button, and the character will move along a predetermined path on their own. You can watch the walking animation or choose to skip and be instantly be transported to the next location. In most areas, you will find items to interact with that will either be useful items that you put in your inventory or provide you with information.
You see, aside from attempting to return the egg to its rightful place the journalist is documenting their journey too. Along the way, different investigations will pop up and you can decide to dig further into these by exploring each location thoroughly or moving on and focusing on the main path. Naturally, you will come across items related to these side investigations, and most will draw you in. Amerzone’s environmental story telling is excellent providing a lot of contextual information so you can piece together what has happened in the past, whether it is to do with Valembois’ own story or something completely different.
Amerzone’s main story is fine and does move along at a decent pace. It has some good writing but there are moments which could have benefited from having a bit more of a build-up or not being quite so predictable. You can guess what will happen with the main story beats pretty early on, but with a game like this the journey is more important. The Traveler mode will have more documents and clues to find in the environment to help with puzzles, along with a hint system that will eventually give you the answer if you get stuck. The Adventurer mode, meanwhile, provides fewer clues meaning you will get stuck more often and have to connect the clues yourself to find solutions.
Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy does look very good with environments that have lots of detail to them, from thick foliage in the jungles to some nicely designed beaches on Shipwreck Island. There are some minor performance issues here and there with a bit of stuttering, but on the whole the game performs fine too, and it’s hardly an issue for this style of game. Amerzone’s music is well done too with tunes that fit the atmosphere, though there are moments of silence that could have been filled with song.