I Am Playing Anachronox

Did you ever play a game called Anachronox? I had never really heard about it until it fell into my lap somehow and with Eidos Interactive and Ion Storm behind it, it sounded great (though they did also release Daikatana so no one is perfect…). Anachronox was released a year (2001) after Deus Ex and is also a science-fiction RPG with cyberpunk aesthetics. I really don't know much more than that about it (I didn't need to, that was enough to have me throw money at it!), but I just started playing it. I only got half an hour into it though before my headphones died, but so far so good.

I have a really soft heart for these late-90s, early 00's computer graphics and Anachronox is a great example of it. The faces, the blocky hands, the claustrophobic environments, what is there not to love? A lot of the graphics often, probably completely unintentionally, give off a really creepy vibe to me but I quite enjoy it (Omikron: The Nomad Soul is another good example of this).

To my great sadness it doesn't seem I can take screenshots from the game, at least not the way I am doing it. But just imagine the above chin in two pixels and you get the idea.

Internet saves me when my computer fails me.

30 minutes into the game I've already been punched thirty times and been thrown out of a window. Since that only gave me a black eye I am clearly immortal. My nickname is Boots (Sly Boots even!) because I am a detective and you can't be a detective without being called "Boots". I've got a dead computerized woman following me, telling me I'm a lazy bum. But she throws shields at me during fights so I guess she likes me anyway. Oh yeah, and mana isn't called mana in this game, it's called "bogue". Or was it "bouge"?

*quick internet search later*

Ok so "bogue" is at least a real word but the definition does not make any sense in the context it is being used in the game.

Anyway. It's quite promising so far, but I know by experience a lot can change. My biggest issue with games from this area is that they can be too confusing some times, meaning it takes me ages either to figure out what I need to do next or to find the thing I need to do next. This game has already shown some promise in this regard however, since it has a nice quest-up-display. I haven't seen a map yet though...

Images from mobygames.com and anachronox.fandom.com.