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Anachronox

Anachronox (pronounced ) is a 3-D, third person computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Ion Storm games studio and released in 2001. Development took roughly three and a half years. more...

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The game is built on a heavily modified version of the Quake II engine, heavily rewritten to add improvements such as a wider colour palette and more complex character animations (including facial expressions).

The gameplay was heavily influenced by console RPGs such as Chrono Trigger, one of Tom Hall's favourite video games, although character statistics and item collection have been simplified and the emphasis is on exploration and story-telling rather than RPG-style character building. Although at first it appears to take place in a gritty, cyber-punk universe, the game is actually fairly light-hearted (being an absurdist parody of the genre), with a quirky sense of humour. However, the underlying story is quite serious and some of the in-game cutscenes carry a surprising emotional weight.

The player plays the part of Sylvester "Sly Boots" Bucelli, a down-and-out detective in the slums (known as "The Bricks") of an alien world called Anachronox. Anachronox sits inside a giant, hollow sphere called Sender One, which is the centre of the galaxy's network of space-lanes.

Recruited against his will to investigate a mystery concerning the very nature of the universe, Sly travels throughout the galaxy, meeting many characters along the way, some of whom can join the player's party. Some of these characters are PAL-18, Sly's robotic buddy; Grumpos Matavastros, a grumpy old professor; and Stiletto Anyway, a leather-suited assassin.

The development team was only able to complete about 50% of the game, so it ends on a major cliff-hanger. The second half of the story was going to be covered in the sequel, but the game's poor performance in the retail market coupled with the dissolution of Ion Storm suggests that no sequel will ever be made.

Anachronox was notable for the quality of its music and is considered by fans to have one of the best game soundtracks.

Since its release, three unofficial patches have been released - two by Joey Liaw (one of the game's programmers) which provide such improvements as taxi-cabs between distant points, greater stability and enhanced save game functionality - and one by fans, which fixes most of the remaining bugs. These are not stand-alone patches, so all three must be installed in the order of release.

Anachronox was a commercial failure. This fact, coupled with the poor performance of Daikatana, another Ion Storm release, contributed to the collapse of Ion Storm's Dallas branch. The game nonetheless developed a cult following, largely due to its off-beat, humorous storyline.

In response to favorable input about the game's story, Jake Strider Hughes (the game's cinematic director and producer) independently spliced together the game's cutscenes into a three hour long machinima movie, which has since been distributed over the internet.