User:AndersFeder/Drafts/Another World (video game)

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Cover art of the game. According to Chahi, who painted the illustration himself, this image was chosen because it perfectly reflects the feeling of the whole game.
Cover art of the game. According to Chahi, who painted the illustration himself, this image was chosen because it perfectly reflects the feeling of the whole game.

The rich atmosphere of Another World stems largely from its extensive use of symbolism, a side of the game that probably couldn't have been so well executed if it hadn't been for its special production circumstances: by personally producing both story, graphics, animation, package illustrations and of course program code, Chahi enjoyed total creative control over the resulting game, like any author of a true work of art. Gaining this freedom, was in fact a main motivation for Chahi starting his work on Another World[1].

In the introducing cutscene of the game, the protagonist is shown in a dark, futuristic setting. The buildings around him seem abandoned and in decay. Lester is standing next to his Ferrari in a space notably void of other people. In fact, drafts that Chahi has published after the game was released, show a guard post at the entry to this area, which didn't make it into the final graphics[2]. We can interpret this setting as a society where social institutions (symbolized by the buildings) are deteriorating and where capitalism (symbolized by the Ferrari) and individualism (symbolized by Lester's loneliness and the lack of the guard, who represented security provided by others) prevail. The dark and blue tones of the graphics hint looming danger.

Lester descends into his lab by elevator. The elevator door opens, showing Lester standing in the electronically lit elevator in the dark basement; Lester resembles a messianic figure. Lester's lab is filled with advanced computer equipment linked to a particle accelerator. The computer greets Lester as he enters, indicating a level of intelligence beyond present day computers. The computer screen also shows a model of Lester's DNA. Lester is meddling not only with the fabric of the human body (the DNA model) and mind (the intelligent computer), but also with the universe itself (the particle accelerator); Lester is aspiring to become God, as reflected in the synthesized march rhytms (symbolizing progress) and choir voices (symbolizing spirituality) of the scene's musical score. Lester opens a soda prior to executing his particle experiment, apparently relaxed and unaware of the danger. Outside the lab, however, the skies begin rumbling with thunder (symbolizing divine anger) and lightning strikes, causing the particle accelerator to malfunction and teleport Lester into an alien world.

The primitive alien world that Lester is cast into stands in stark contrast to the advanced society he was ripped out of. In the first scenes of the game, Lester finds himself in a desolate, far-stretching scenery filled with formations of rock (symbolizing a return to prehistoric existence), in contrast to the technologically sophisticated setting he left behind. The ground is shaking, the wildlife is hostile and a savage creature is seen stalking Lester from a distance. The environment is unstable and filled with danger, in contrast to the security of the hermetically sealed, locked-off lab with the greeting computer in the opening scene (the lab had the qualities of a home). In divine punishment, Lester has been alienated to the nature that he controlled in the opening scene. The lack of written text or spoken dialogue in the alien world, underlines this point.

Ingeniously, Chahi has left out traditional metagame interface elements like score counters and energy gauges, which could have guided the player. The ammunition level of Lester's laser gun is shown by the intensity of a small blinking indicator on it, but it is not explained anywhere; it's up to the player to discover its significance. Similarly, in several situations in the game, the brief description of the keyboard interface in the game's manual offers no obvious way out. The player must hit the buttons that intuitively "makes sense" to recover, much like Lester must trust his instincts to survive. The player is as alienated to the game as Lester is to his new surroundings, creating an unusually strong identification between player and protagonist.

Just as Lester is attacked by the stalking beast (symbolizing savage nature), he is saved by shots from two natives of the alien world (symbolizing civilization) but subsequently seized and brought into imprisonment. Contrary to his home world, the alien society is collectivist (the inspiration is clearly Ancient Rome). In the prison, alien slaves are seen mining in the background while others are locked in small, dark cells alongs its long corridors (symbolizing deprivation of personal freedom on account of the collectivist regime). From a tower in the prison, Lester gazes through a barred window upon the enormous alien city. The magnificence of the individual, shown in Lester's messianic appearance in the opening scene, has been inverted and shifted to the community. The bars blocking Lester's view symbolize the imprisonment of the individual by the community.

Lester manage to make friends with an alien inmate and escape captivity together with him. On the run from the authorities, the two work together to ascend through the city. Their movement begins at the lowest social level, in the prison with slaves and prisoners, past the crowds of proletarians cheering at the arena, crashing through the windows to a room of bathing women of the upper class and culminating in the chambers of the emperor. Lester must learn friendship to escape the authorities and free the alien society.

After killing the emperor, Lester apparently dies physically from his wounds but his name lives on as the representative of liberation in the alien society; this is illustrated by how his alien friend (symbolizing the enslaved alien society) picks up Lester's body and mounts a big bird (itself a symbol of freedom) which fly them into the heavens (now bright and calm, symbolizing divine order); on the musical side the progressive, but also funeral, march rhythms have gone silent while the spiritual choir voices remain. The dualism between Lester's death and afterlife is mirrored in how the player is unable to establish whether Lester is merely rendered unconscious or actually dies.

Curiously, Another World was released the same year as the Soviet Union collapsed, ending many decades of Cold War between capitalist and individualist West and the communist and collectivist East. Much of the advanced technology depicted in Lester's lab in the opening scene of the game, is a direct result of the Cold War.