Everybody loves rotoscoping: Let's Play Out of this World!

Some door-repair tradesman from Planet X is going to make a fortune when this is all done.

Relevant?

Having hoisted Gus up from the tunnel to relative safety, Buddy runs off to the right. Let's follow him!


Uh, actually, let's not. Time for Angus' ultimate secret technique: Background no Jutsu!


Running left before you head to the right puts our hero on a different plane, allow him to circumvent whatever unpleasantness await him inside the building.





Hey Buddy, what's the hold up? Get it? Heh heh. Eh, all right, I guess we should go help him out.


Continuing to the right, we pop out on the other side of the...shed thing that Buddy is holed up in. Time to launch a surpise attack!


Attacking from behind distracts the guards...


...which affords Buddy a perfect opportunity to work the guy with the Star Wars helmet over.


Gus makes with the snap-crackle-pop, and helmet guy won't be following us any time soon, so let's book.






Uh-oh, it's a dead end. Angus can't make that jump and...


Gyaaaaaaaaah! That's some lateral thinking, there Buddy. Our lumpy friend turns backs off so he can get a good runup to try the same thing:


...but it doesn't go so well for him.

For some reason, whenever I think of Out of this World, this particular scene really sticks with me. Buddy is going to spend the next 5 to 60 minutes hanging from this awning, depending on how many tries it takes the player to get through the next section. And considering how obtuse one of the puzzles is in the upcoming area, it could actually take well over an hour to figure out how to advance before you can finally get around to saving his ass.

But don't worry, we totally will.

First, however: INTERMISSION!

About a month ago, I was in Japan - hence the three week period without any updates. It was while I was in Osaka's Den Den Town that I stumbled upon an outlying branch of Super Potato...which was awesome, as I didn't even know that one existed outside of Tokyo. In fact, credit where credit is due: it was my girlfriend who noticed the sign and pointed the store out to me before I spotted it. Yep, she's a keeper.

Anyway, while I was there, I saw something very awesome, and now I want to share it with you guys. You see, Super Potato has the habit of adorning their shelves with cute, hand-drawn images of classic videogame characters. And while I was perusing the Super Famicom carts, I came across this little gem:


That's right, a picture of Angus trying to make friends with the alien hunters from the beginning of the game. What's more, it's attached to a copy of Out of this World's sister game, Flashback. How awesome? So awesome.

But that's not all! If you zoom out...


...you can see the same image adorning a whole bunch of other carts! Strangely enough, they didn't use this picture for the copy of Outer World, which is the Japanese release of this very game. Also note that, while the price isn't visible, it must have been at least 2000 yen, since I didn't snap that cart up for myself while I was there.




Anyway, that's enough digressions for now, I'm sure you're all worried sick over Buddy. Well don't be, I'm here to tell you that he has the forearm strength of an olympic freaking gymnast. Still, I suppose we might as well try to help him. Of course, being that we're stuck on a rooftop and can't proceed to the right, our only choice at this time is to leap off the building and hope for the best.


Thanks, conveniently placed awning! Note that it is possible to completely miss the awning if your jump is off, resulting in some classic Decelration Trauma.






But that's not how it happened.


Instead, we find ourselves exploring this tastefully-appointed...building...place. It's extremely hard to screen-cap, but if you hang out on this screen, blaster fire will assail you from the foreground, peppering the back wall with (temporarily) glowing red dots.

Proceeding to the left:


We come across a troupe of guards who have apparently heard of our reputation. That's right, run! Run, or you'll be well done! One of them, however, doesn't manage to make it out before the gate shuts. He grabs the bars and pleads for his friends to open the gate, but they're kinda jerks and they leave him to hang. Let's go give the kid a thrill, shall we?


Point your gun at this putz and he raises his hands in surrender. Cleverly, though, he uses this pose to press the secret panic button on the ceiling, which closes the door between you and him (as well as the door on the second level). Doing this is of vital importance, naturally, but I'll leave you to wonder why until the next update. Note that you can, if you so desire, simply choose to blow this door down and barbeque the unlucky sod. Doing so is not only something of a dick move, though, it also leaves you vulnerable to fire from the offscreen guards. So the slow guy gets to live another day, while Gus heads off to take care of some more pressing business.

Things are getting hot... Are we nearing an end here? Or is there plenty more? Will you explain the flag at some point or does the game get around to it eventually?

Loving it! I heard that you can get this on your modded PSP too, anyone else hear that?

Jordan Mechner wishes that he had come up with Another World, and cries himself to sleep when he realizes that he didn't.

I genuinely did not know, but it explains why the guards are so thuggish and rugged (they're Australian SAS, one of the most fearless squads around), and how come you can't communicate with Buddy but he's willing to help you out (he only speaks Australian, but he'll help his mate out, 'mate' taking its usual meaning of 'bloke I just met').

I never noticed that the trapped guard presses a panic button. Maybe the animation was missing on the SNES version of the game.

Just a quick update for you folks tonight, wouldn't want you to think I had forgotten about you. Last time, we found the alien kid who was always picked last to play soccer and threatened to disintigrate him, resulting in him locking a pair of doors on us. But why did we even do that?

I dunno, let's go upstairs.




Hey, it's a guy behind a door. Let's relieve him of that obstruction.


This guy's another one of them bomb rollers, which would be kinda worrisome if it wasn't for the fact that we're sitting on the other side of a stairwell from him. One has to imagine that this guy spent hours convincing his alien commander to let him sit behind this door with a bunch of rolling charges, ready to decimate foes as they charged up the staircase, each meeting a grisly death in turn. Somewhere in the back of his mind, maybe he heard that voice that told him he'd be better off keeping the door open. Maybe he did, but he pushed it down and set out to boldly live his dream. And you know, I think maybe there's a little bit of Rolling Charge Alien Guy in all of us somewhere, you know?

...

Angus lets him roll a couple glowy charges down the stairs before ending his pointless existence.


Gus takes the teleporter/lift on the left side of the screen down to the lower level and totally smokes the guard below. This wouldn't have been possible if the World's Slowest Alien Guard hadn't closed the door up here for us earlier, buying us the time we needed to charge up a shot and take him out. Thanks, guy!




Zoop!


Oh hey, it's another one of those power lines. By this point in time, Gus has pretty much figured out that not blowing these things up is a recipe for a painful death somewhere down the line. So:




Now that's all well and good, but we've hit a dead end here. With nowhere else to go, Angus takes the teleporters back upstairs and then follows the stairs down...to...


Huh?


Now, let me put things on hold for a minute here so that I can say something. I love Out of this World a lot, I think it's a gorgeous game with incredible atmosphere and a compelling story that is told entirely without words. Not even Valve has ever managed to work the narrative into the gameplay to the extent that this one guy did, programming away on an Amiga by himself at the dawn of the 90s. But with that said, even I think Eric Chahi deserves a great big FUCK YOU for this particular puzzle. Because you see that hole in the floor? That hole only exists because we let Bomby McRollerson live long enough to send 3 or 4 of his charges down the stairs before lighting him up like a Christmas tree. And that same hole in the floor, as completely out of left field as it seems when you first see it, is the only way to progress any further into Out of this World. You don't want to know how many hours I wasted here the first time that I made it this far before I figured out what the key was. Generally speaking, I would off the guard after he'd rolled out a single charge, creating a small crater in the ground of the screen below without breaking through the floor. Linking that crater to the guy upstairs and realizing that the thing to do was to let him send more bombs down there before killing him required a leap in logic that my 13-year-old self found exceedingly difficult to make.

Compared to, say, throwing a pie at a Yeti, which I figured out in about 30 seconds. Though this puzzle is still more logical than hiding in a library waiting for Mordack to decide it's nap time.




So now that I have that off my chest, let's send Gus down there to see what's what.


It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Obtuse puzzle design seems to be a common feature of PC games from the late 80s and early 90s, and takes many forms. And yeah, to be fair, you can solve the Yeti problem in KQ5 with a "try everything" approach (whereas this is a "find the right conditions by possibly foolish trial-and-error technique" approach). At least the solution here makes sense in hindsight. The same can't be said of many Sierra adventure game puzzle solutions.

This place is a little on the dark side. Whaddya say we light it up?


Yeee! Another thrilling moment in a game filled with thrilling moments. Mind you, it's cooler to see in action, since each shot lights up the screen temporarily; maybe I should have made this a video Let's Play...

Of course, if we hadn't shut down that power line last time, things would have gone a little differently:


Toasty.



Anyway, as Gus keeps moving to the right, this is the next thing he sees:


Although that's not actually an accurate statement, most of the time. Because of that little hole on the left side of the screen, added to the fact that the lights take about two seconds to come on in this particular screen, most players will accidentally drop down without even seeing this area, ending up here:


Aww look, it's a kitty! He's safely behind bars, though, so Angus is free to explore as he sees fit. Not that I would personally recommend that course of action to Mr. Gus, however, because whether he goes left or right, he will be greeted by a scene resembling this:


Most unfortunate.




As you may have gathered, we should probably be sending Gus to have a look at that switch before dropping him down below. This involves either inching him into the screen in question and stopping before he falls, or else hopping at random and hoping that he clears the gap by accident. I'd vote for the latter, myself.


Anyway, there's a switch here. Angus applies his scrawny physicist arms, as well as a few basic equations for torque balancing, and gives her a solid crank.




By now you folks should be used to the concept that any switch found in Out of this World is generally in need of a good flippin'. Usually, the reason why isn't really explained until after the fact, and that's the case now, as well. This particular mystery switch, however, holds the distinction of providing us with what is undisputably the most satisfying result of them all. Observe!




Chow time! The switch opens up the cages for the black beasts, and the resulting scene is pure bedlam. Angus makes a break for it while the guards are distracted; apparently they're not very good at multitasking, at least when one of the tasks involves being gnawed on my hungry panthers.


Note the skeletonized beast in the above image.




This kind of scene should be pretty familiar to you all by now. Lots of convincing laser blasts passing by on another layer of the z-axis. If you dawdle, however, Gus will eventually get barbequed, so we'll just keep a runnin'.



Zoom!

2nd floor: boys clothing, housewares, linens. Gus can't figure out what to do with that thing on the right, so he heads left.


Oh man, it's Buddy! Walking left causes a walkway to extend beneath our pal's feet, allowing him to drop down safely after holding on to that broken awning for the last four weeks. I bet you people had forgotten all about him, hadn't you? You're all terrible.





Buddy wastes no time heading to the right, where he demonstrates proper teleporter technique to Angus, who still refuses to believe that such technology could even exist. It's not easy being rational sometimes, let me tell ya.

Clearly skeptical, Angus decides to mimic his companion's arm gestures, despite the fact that they couldn't possibly cause something as scientifically as teleportation to occur.


Nope, still not buying it.

Following Buddy down the hill, Angus finds himself commandeering some sort of tank-like alien vehicle.


Some doors open, and they are propulsed into a colisseum. Not, like, the alien equivalent of a colisseum or anything crazy like that. Nope, this is pretty much just your straight-up Roman/Australian colisseum, although with admittedly more tanks.

If it was bedlam back down below when the cats were chewing on the lumpy alien dudes, then this place is full-on chaos. Dudes running around shooting stuff, more beasts trying to get their nom on, explosions, rolling charges, the works.




In the upper left hand corner, an instrument panel pops up. We get to steer Gus' hand around and poke buttons to our hearts' content. Some of these buttons will case other button panels to light up, while others have more immediate effects such as:


Something big hits the ground nearby, sending up a cloud of dirt. When the dust settles, there isn't a whole lot left to stand on. Methinks it might be time for us to get out of here, eh Gus?

Mucking around with a few more buttons yields the following result:


What the...?



With that, folks, we have finished our penultimate update! Coming up next time, on the grande finale:

Man, the guards all have pretty terrible aim.

That or, as Half-Life taught us; physiscists are the most badass action heroes of all.

I... it's true.

I think it's the latter. If only I'd stayed in school and become a physicist!

Alien Shootin' is a required course on the way to getting a doctorate in any scientific discipline. True story! Science people never tell anyone about it because the only thing better than being a badass is being a secret badass.

I know that if I were doing highly advanced research in particle physics, I'd be at the firing range every day... just in case.

Come on and finish this MC! The suspense is killing me!

Buddy has big, strong hands.

But we're here, so we might as well go through with this. You may recall that I promised you guys a lot of stuff last time, but I'm pretty sure that anyone who stayed did so for the nudity, so let's get right to that:


Angus' escape pod comes crashing down into this bathhouse, where lumpy, pale-skinned alien women are sitting around in scandalous nudity. Hmm, lumpy...pale...I'm starting to think we might actually be in England rather than Australia.





Crashing this party doesn't make Gus any friends with the local constabulary, however, who waste no time in firing awesome-looking lasers into the background. Angus know that these dramatic blasts eventually come to bear painful fruit, so he gets to hoofin' it.




Moving into the next area, our hero is faced with a hail of decorative laser fire, but also a couple of regular old-fashioned guards. He's got no time to waste, so he lets ol' Blasty do the talking.







Buddy obviously has a few qualms with the way things are run here in lumpy alien land, so it should come as no surprise that he has little appreciation for the artworks in this state-run fortress. That window was obviously a tool of the oppressive regime and had to be destroyed. For freedom.

Reunited, the friends continue to make like a pair of trees and leave

Freed of footing, Angus perilously plummets with perturbing punctiality!


At the last second, however, he is plucked from midair by a helping hand! Whoever could be his secret saviour?



Oof! That's...th-thanks for savin-


Guh! Just, just trying to help, I'm sure. That's their way, you know, always...ugh.


See how helpfully he stalks toward us? You just don't find that kind of caring attitude in the big city.


Thankfully, before our new friend can "help" us any further, Buddy shows up on the scene.



Oh, uh, hey! Good to see you, new friend! But I don't think we need any more of your assistance, we're quite all right over here now. Don't trouble yourself, please! We'll just be crawling this way now, slowly and painfully.


Boy, that Buddy sure has a knack for showing up when we need him. Remind me to send him a Christmas basket this year. One of the nice ones, with the real fruits in it.

From here on, things are remarkable tense and, simultaneously, extremely slow-paced. All Angus can do is crawl...


...until he finally approaches the panel of levers on the far end of the screen. In the meantime, Buddy and Not Buddy trade blows and wrestle for supremacy, switching positions on several difficult-to-screencap occasions.


Oh, hey look, I got one!



Uh, crud. It looks like Buddy wasn't the victor of this battle. As Red Eyes closes in, Gus is going to need to think fast if he hopes to tell this tale to the other physicists in their supercolliding breakroom when he gets back to Arizona.

As big ugly closes in, Gus does the only thing left in his power: he flips a switch.



Oh my, that was conventient. For the record, you do have to time this correctly, otherwise you'll miss Not Buddy - and you only get one shot.


Flipping another switch opens the skylight. Mindful of his pale physicist skin, Gus nonetheless figures that a spot of sunbathing is probably better than lying around on the floor with a bunch of broken ribs. And so begins the loooooong crawl to back to the left:


This part is kind of dull, but only if you don't know what's coming next:


Jinkies! After a set amount of time, lasers start raining down from above in a set pattern. This has a very unfortunate consequence for Mr. Angus: if the player doesn't start moving him to the left as soon as he has dealt with Not Buddy, then they are guaranteed to run into this little problem:




Only by making a beeline for the skylight as soon as it is safe to do so can you get your plucky physicist friend out of harm's way in time. And not without a certain amount of stylish drama!


Angus arrives on the scene and begins feebly crawling his way toward that vaguely dragon-like creature. Why he would want to do that, when everything from slugs to cats to mouths in the floor has been trying to kill him since he arrived on this crazy planet, we may never know. It could be that he's just a little punch-drunk. One too many hits from the snake, as it were.

Either way, if he's heading toward certain death, he's taking a damned eternity getting there.


It's Buddy! He's OK! In fact, the keen-eyed among you might have noticed that he was clinging to the bottom of the screen after losing his bout with Not Buddy earlier. But that's not important; the important thing is that he's safe - and that he and Angus have finally been reunited. For good.

And thus ends our heroes' journey. Angus and Buddy have escaped from the clutches of the lumpy alien fascists, flying away on their transparent dragon. What will become of them in this strange, foreign world? Will their bromance last forever, or will Buddy find a younger, prettier interdimensional voyager to fall head over heels with?

It looks like we'll never find out, because that's the end! The end of Out of this World, and the end of this Let's Play. I want to thank you all for sticking with me as I dragged this four-hour game out to a good four months' worth of LP, but before I get too misty-eyed, we have one last thing to take care of:


As a matter of course, I always watch the credits of a game or movie unless it was really bad. This adds a certain element of closure that I enjoy, even when they are incredibly long, as with any game made by Harmonix. Thankfully, this game has a pretty short tally: Eric Chahi, that one guy who made the music, and a couple of testers. All in all, an amazing piece of work from one guy with an Amiga and, presumably, too much time on his hands. Remember, kids, you can play this gem for yourself freely and legally by visiting the site that I linked in the first post of this LP. This game looks a lot better in motion, and some of the little animation tricks that Chahi uses are impressive even to this day.

Whether you do or whether you don't, I hope you enjoyed this Let's Play. I'll probably do another one some day, just as soon as I forget how much time is involved in the whole process, or maybe if I lose my job or something. In the meantime, however, this has been MCBanjoMike reporting to you from Another World. Drive safely and stay the hell away from any black slugs you run across.

Awesome Mike, awesome. It's good to have someone else play through this and provide amusing commentary throughout!

Now do "Heart of the Alien".

So I guess it doesn't ever actually explain what's going on, huh?

Other then Physicist did something he shouldn't have and ended up in a parallel world? Nope. The story is continued in Heart of the Alien, but it still doesn't go much farther than that. 'Cause Gus dies and then is cremated ceremoniously.

You can always blame LHC.

I've never even heard of the sequel to this game!? Thanks MC that was fantastic! Are you going to show us Flashback next? In that one you get a gun! and a cool leather jacket! or you could do Blackthorne with the tough looking native american and Ork look-alikes (apparantly that is all the artists at Blizzard know how to draw)

Now I don't have to play this game and it can still be removed from my backlog!

The sequel is generally considered inferior and I forget if Eric Chahai had anything to do with it. It's also extremely hard (yes, harder than this game) and only for Sega CD. it costs about 35 - 40 dollars. I regret passing it up at the game store around the corner from me like a year ago.

Well, I suppose as far as closure goes, you can't get much better then having a severely beaten physisist and his lumpy alien pal fly away on a space dragon.