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The Westerner - E3 2004 archived preview

Anyone who's ever tried finding 3 Skulls of the Toltecs, the original Fenimore Fillmore game, on eBay or the like has probably noticed just how rare a game it is. Copies have sold for over $200 USD recently. The bad news is, the game probably won't get much easier to find, at least not in the United States. The good news, though, is that there's an all new Fenimore Fillmore adventure coming soon: The Westerner.

We went to go see The Westerner at Planeta DeAgostini Studios' booth with fairly high expectations, but ended up walking away even more excited about this title than before. Quite definitely a traditional graphic adventure in every sense of the term, the game breaks out of the traditional 2D point & click graphic structure with simply incredible 3D graphics, an easy-to-use interface--and best of all, it won't require you to go out and buy a new video card just to play.

The first thing that needs to be said about this game is that there is no possible way it can be construed as anything but an old-school graphic adventure. Based on the demo, gameplay consists of the classic "find item, find item, combine items, use new item" style of gameplay. In playing the E3 demo level, Fenimore had collected six inventory items before even leaving the house at the start of the game. Within a matter of minutes, he had three more items to his name. Dialog abounds, and although the demo we saw had the occasional line still in Spanish, the writing itself seemed solid, so as long as the voice talent knows what they're doing the game should be a treat to listen to.

The Westerner should also appeal to those who like to see a strong graphics engine at work. The PICTuRE engine, developed in-house by Revistronic, uses spline curves to good effect, giving characters a more natural rounded look, instead of the polygonal monstrosities that plagued a few semi-recent adventure titles. The whole game is designed to resemble its 2D precursor closely, so it would be wise to load this game expecting more of a cartoony look, despite the 3D engine. In any case, the graphics are totally gorgeous, with beautiful smooth 3D panning as you point and click your way around the various backgrounds. This may be one of the most successful blends of new technology and traditional gameplay yet, and should especially appeal to those who are frustrated with the direction of adventures like Dreamfall and Broken Sword 3.

Despite a fully 3D graphics engine, The Westerner has surprisingly low system requirements. According to Revistronic's press materials, the game should run fine on a 500MHz machine with 128MB of RAM and a 16mb 3d-capable video card. As far as real-time 3D games go nowadays, it doesn't get much better than that.

Although we still don't know the finer points of the story yet, it seems to be a fairly basic premise: Stop the bad guy, get the girl, and avoid artichokes at all costs. As stories go, it's a bit cliché, but with the right amount of humor from the writing it may be able to overcome that. The short demo we saw at E3 certainly seems convincing on that point. And the most important thing that a traditional, humor-based adventure game such as this can possess is charm--and what we've seen of The Westerner is over-flowing with charm. For fans of old-school Sierra-style adventures, this will almost certainly be the most exciting game of this year for you.

And there's even more to get excited about around the corner, as the third game in the series, tentatively titled Fenimore Fillmore: Missing, is in production right now!

The Westerner, developed by Revistronic, has already been released in Europe and has apparently signed with a North American publisher, although the identity and details are yet to be disclosed. An English language release is expected by the end of 2004.

 

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