1991. Home computers were still advancing naturally, gaining firepower with every new generation. Better graphics and extra memory let the developers of the era show off all their talent. French designer Éric Chahi was part of that select group, and within two years he created one of the best platform adventures in video game history: Another World. With a superior cinematic feel, heavy use of polygons, and precisely placed cutscenes, Another World managed to deliver a wonderful story full of tension and mystery... without speaking a single line of dialogue.
Some developers are reluctant to revisit their previous work and prefer to focus on the next project, on something new. However, we also find those who decided to document their original creations and share unpublished details with the public. One of them is Éric Chahi, the mastermind behind titles like Future Wars, Heart of Darkness, From Dust, Paper Beast, and probably the most important of his career, Another World.
Thanks to the success of Future Wars and the royalties he received, Chahi was able to work on Another World without editorial pressure for two years, but that doesn’t mean the process was simple. Although Chahi never felt unmotivated, the long working sessions (10/12/16 hours a day) made him think he would never see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the opinions of his colleagues and early reviews quickly confirmed that he was on the right path. In 1991, Another World finally took shape, and even crossed the pond with a slight name change… Out of This World.
Another World: A Mirror to Another World
Chahi describes science fiction as “multiple mirrors” of our world, through which each author can explore their own vision of the future, technology, and fantasy. And Another World proves that from the very first minute, with the arrival of Professor Lester Knight Chaykin at his lab, driving a fabulous Ferrari 288 GTO. We don’t know anything about Lester, other than that he is a physicist with access to a synchrotron, working in the middle of the night and defying an imminent storm. His only company is the security system, cables, lights, and the occasional canned drink. Loneliness is a fundamental element of Another World, representing in some way what Chahi felt during its creation.
And suddenly, chaos. The accelerated particles of the synchrotron combined with the energy of a lightning bolt strike Lester’s desk, sending him to… another world? another dimension? A second earlier he was waiting for data in front of his holographic monitor, and the next he appears underwater, in what looks like a giant pool. The exit from the water is confusing but quick, and we get the first reflection in the mirror of Another World: strange rock formations, an intense wind, and a sky with two moons. As if that weren’t enough, Lester is no longer alone.
The world is populated by aggressive, dangerous, venomous, and fundamentally hungry creatures. That’s when the cinematic component of Another World shows its full potential: There is no interface, no HUD, no energy or health. We have no inventory, no lives counter. Lester is as human, fragile, and vulnerable as any of us. The only courtesy the game grants is a series of codes to repeat levels, but nothing more. Death is part of learning in Another World, and believe me, you’re going to learn.
To that we must add the dominant species, a group of hostile aliens divided into an apparent warrior class, females kept in harems, and a slave key, condemned to confinement, forced labor, and the combat arena. But even in such a hostile environment, Lester manages to form something close to friendship with a slave, “Buddy”, locked in the same cage as him. Chahi himself tells us that Another World is a game about friendship, and cultivating it is essential: The only way to progress in some sections is by helping and protecting Buddy.
Throughout the entire game, it is possible to identify the main influences and sources of inspiration for Chahi, from Dune by Frank Herbert to the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, passing through Frank Frazetta, Richard Corben (his art in Heavy Metal was pure fire), Zdzisław Beksiński, and Akira Toriyama himself (if you look closely, the charged mode of Lester’s weapon is a mini Kamehameha). Likewise, Another World stimulated the creativity of other industry giants, especially on the other side of the world: Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear) and Fumito Ueda (Shadow of the Colossus) have, to a greater or lesser extent, cited Another World, while Keiichiro Toyama, creator of Silent Hill, has highlighted the impact the first scene had on him, when Lester is “swallowed” by another world.
“What if I want it on Windows?”
Believe it or not, MS-DOS was not the first environment in which Another World debuted. Chahi initially focused on the Amiga and Atari ST platforms, and the PC port arrived in 1992 thanks to the work of Daniel Morais. One of the official Another World pages has fantastic details about the difficulties of bringing the game to different consoles, including a fight with Interplay over the music for Super NES and Mega Drive (to the extent of creating an “endless fax” with the legend “Leave the original music!”), and the censorship requested by Nintendo for the blood and alien nudity (erasing a total of three pixels in each case).
If you want to play Another World now, both GOG and Steam offer its “20th Anniversary” version with improved graphics and sound effects. Another option is to take advantage of emulation and streaming resources at the Internet Archive, and if you already have access to the original files, it’s more than enough to load them in DOSBox. If you know what you’re doing, the game lasts less than half an hour, but it’s an unmissable adventure and definitely worth your time.
