K
nown as Out of This World
in North America, many
contemporary action-
adventure games have been
touched by the influence of Eric
Chahi’s daring vision. It was one of the
first games to effectively borrow from
the language of Hollywood, with story
sequences and cutaways shot with a
cinematographer’s eye. This heightened
both the atmosphere and the tension of
the action beats: a shadowy creature in
hot pursuit felt all the more threatening
after you’d seen its feral fury in close-
up, while an attack from a leech hit all
the harder for the camera’s focus on
its single sharp tooth and the cut to it
scything into poor Lester’s leg.
Chahi’s decision to eschew a HUD
of any kind – or, for that matter, offer
you any kind of hint of what you were
supposed to do – was a risky move,
and its trial-and-error mechanics
could be frustrating at times (many
players drowned on the first screen,
not realising they were able to move).
But that was part of its appeal: you felt
suitably lost in this austerely beautiful
world, steadily learning how to survive.03
02
An imprisoned Lester formed an unlikely bond with
a similarly captive alien, communicating through
gesture as they made their escape. This led to some
thrilling set-pieces, but there was nothing quite
as satisfying as that initial moment when the pair
swung back and forth in their cage, causing it to fall
and flatten the guard.CLASSIC MOMENT
The setup was masterful: Lester screeched up
to his lab in his Ferrari, entered the building,
and began work on a particle acceleration
experiment. An ominous wind blew outside
before lightning struck, hitting his equipment
and zapping the physicist - and a chunk of his
lab – to who knew where?
CLASSIC INTRO