Review for Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy (2025)

Originally released in 1999, Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy is one of those characteristic titles, emblematic of a period that punctuated the 90s and that we know better under the name of "French Touch". Cryo, Delphine and, in this specific case, Microids, each delivered adventure games with a strong personality, often shimmering, with singular universes and sometimes questionable gameplay proposals. Among these games Amerzone had a particular aura, carrying high the personality of its author Benoît Sokal and, above all, a popularity quite unprecedented at the time, the game having sold nearly two million copies.

Amerzone presented itself as a variation of the Myst-like subgenre, offering a linear adventure game seen in first-person perspective, with square-by-square movement and a variety of puzzles. Benoît Sokal, comic book author turned game designer and creator of the Syberia saga, passed away in 2021. He handed down the torch to a very young Parisian team, Microids Studio Paris, which delivered, in 2022, the amazing Syberia: The World Before. For their next project, the same team decided to return to the roots of Sokal’s universe by reimagining what could be considered the jewel in the crown of its creator.

“In memory of Benoît Sokal.” These are the words with which the remake of Amerzone begins, and without any suspense about what will follow, it is the game’s main statement of intent. A statement of intent that seems to have permeated every decision made by the team charged with the heavy responsibility of reviving this former glory. “It was like reprising a piece of classical music with a new orchestra,” explained Lucas Lagravette, game director. Concretely, Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy (2025) gives the immediate sensation of not having left the strange and ethereal atmosphere of the original game. By retaining not only the game’s playful structure, but also its point of view and its movements which, unlike the remakes of Myst and Riven, made the radical choice to offer square-by-square gameplay at a time when this type of gameplay had completely disappeared, Amerzone proves to be a curious object. An object completely torn apart by latent nostalgia and constant melancholy. Anachronistic, courageous, sometimes dusty, but, above all, terribly fascinating.

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Amerzone is Joseph Conrad visiting the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. It's Jules Verne reread by Hergé. These are improbable mechanical machines powered by poetry. And, above all, Amerzone is the ascent of a river that plunges the player into a disturbing reverie full of strange creatures. From a lighthouse lost in the heart of wild Bretagne to the edge of a river plunging into an imaginary jungle in South America, Amerzone is a journey more than a challenge. Its enigmas are, for the most part, rather basic, even if carefully integrated into the lore, so well that they are remarkably diegetic. But that's not the point. What matters is the atmosphere – its sweet, subtle, and melancholic ambiance. By going up the river in the footsteps of Professor Valembois in search of a chimerical bird, what interests Benoît Sokal is to throw the player into an exotic universe, sometimes hostile, often fascinating. This is accomplished by transforming the story into a plea against the West and its colonialist excesses by depicting the moral decadence of civilization in the face of wild immensity, like Joseph Conrad before him in The Heart of Darkness (occasionally referred to as "The Heart of Sadness").

Therefore, the game is not necessarily aimed at all types of adventurers. Amerzone relies more on its tempo, its atmospheric work, and its message than on its playful proposition. And Microids Studio Paris has decided to go all-in on this one. All the design choices, the adaptation of the dialogues, the changes in framing, or the decisions to keep certain puzzles go in this direction. Amerzone bets absolutely everything on this antiquated and melancholic aspect. The audacious bet, to say the least, of retaining the square-by-square movement offers, in a rather surprising way, a point of view that older gamers have somewhat lost over the years – a certain tempo and, above all, a particular emphasis on the importance of decorum, on the meticulousness of each detail, on the primordial aspect of observation, remarkably thematic for a title with almost anthropological inclinations.

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The fact remains that Amerzone updates its interface, of course, as well as all the modern comforts that a 2025 game must offer in terms of accessibility and polish (the adventure can be completed in seven to eight hours). But it is above all in its flamboyant artistic direction that the game shows itself to be the most generous. All of the environments are absolutely magnificent. Some panoramas are breathtaking and respect the original atmosphere and style quite spectacularly. The only downside is that it must be noted that on the versions tested (PS5 and PC), the game is sometimes demanding and the optimization often leaves something to be desired. If the original game, finally, was particularly taciturn, the 2025 remake offers a remarkable score by Inon and Ori Zur, already at work on Syberia: The World Before. Between lyrical flights and tribal rhythms, the music is now an integral part of the experience.

As strange as it is delightfully anachronistic, the remake of Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy is a daring title. Like its notable parent, it plays a dangerous balancing act, more narrative, directive, and radical than Myst, but also absolutely mesmerizing. It nonetheless remains the best way to dive or re-dive into this very particular universe. A new, neat and intelligent setting that offers the somewhat unexpected opportunity to plunge back into the heart of darkness.