A first-person adventure game "Amerzone - The Explorer's Legacy" (PC / PS5 / Xbox Series X|S) developed by Microids Studio Paris in France and published by Microids was released in 1999. It's a remake of the game with the same name .

At the Microids booth in the business area of ​​Gamescom 2024, which opened on August 21, 2024 in Cologne, Germany, I checked out the game while listening to an explanation from Baptiste Taborin, the producer of this work.


The story of this work revolves around the protagonist, a journalist, who listens to the last wish of a certain explorer and goes on an adventure to Amerzone, which is located deep in South America. The creator of the original version is
Benoît Sokal, a Belgian comic artist known for the "Siberia"
series. Just as Siberia is spelled Siberia instead of the original Siberia, the adventure is set in Almaison, which is reminiscent of the Amazon. We will investigate various places to look for birds. The survey targets a variety of areas, including the great outdoors and ancient ruins.

The game is an old-fashioned point-and-click game with an emphasis on narrative and puzzle-solving elements. To move, just point in the direction you want to go and click. With so many storytelling, documentation, and interaction dialogs, moving from point to point is simple, allowing you to focus on the story and solving puzzles while enjoying the game.

In the beginning of the demo version, which also served as a tutorial, you could experience exploring a certain lighthouse.

There are interactions with various objects and puzzles, and it seems to be made with a system based on Siberia. You don't necessarily have to do everything, but the information you get from them will allow you to experience the game's world and story more deeply.

Although we place emphasis on an original experience, even if we bring a 25-year-old game as it is, there will be problems in terms of playability. It gives old players a sense of the time, and makes it more accessible for those new to Amerzone. In particular, information management has been adjusted to give journalists a greater sense of gathering information and approaching the truth.

I was curious about the "authenticity" of this, so I asked around and found out all the materials left behind by Benoît Sokal, who passed away three years ago, and printed them on a specific paper to reproduce the texture, then scanned them. It is said that he made it familiar with the game by doing things like this.

Drawings by the original author Benoît Sokal are used as keys to advancing the Amerzon search.

It was difficult to recreate the art left behind by Benoît Sokal and also support 4K resolution, but the finished product was of a high quality that matched the atmosphere of the game, and the work was more fun than hard work. It seems so.





If you have played the original or the Siberia series, or if you like adventure games who became interested after seeing the screenshots and videos of this work, please add it to your wish list while looking forward to the Japanese version, and keep an eye out for future developments. Why not follow it?

This game was created by faithfully reproducing the original while cherishing the atmosphere of the game at the time, while also taking into account the ease of play and entry into the game today. The Steam and Epic Games Store store pages have Japanese title names and introductory text, but I was told that I couldn't talk about the Japanese language support at this time.