Game:

Salammbo: Battle for Carthage (2002)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 38:12

2,426 views

32

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6iNuXuk2gdjbTjf2wDyKlU_1H6Hmdh3C
Developed by: Cryo Interactive Entertainment / DreamCatcher Europe SA

After the game "Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen" (1998) and "Ring II: Twilight of the Gods" (2002), artist Philippe Druillet joined forces with Cryo Interactive to come up with an interactive experience, based on his comics of 'Salammbo', which are based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert. Again, the artistic results are magnificent, fresh and completely unique. And finally, after the questionable game-design in the Ring-games, THIS Druillet-game contains logical game-design which is easy to follow.

'Salammbo' used the same engine as 'Atlantis III', I guess. Pity the makers didn't render its graphics in ultra-resolution, like they did for the DVD-version of 'Atlantis III.' I'm sure the graphics were made in much more detail compared to the now somewhat blurry renders of it in the game. Druillets' art-direction deserves better images. But we have to be lucky the game was released at all; Cryo went bankrupt in 2002, with Salammbo still unfinished. Luckily, it was picked up by "DreamCatcher Europe SA" which completed the game in 2003.

===

STORY-NOTES (OUT OF THE MANUAL)

You are Spendius, a slave in the ancient city of Carthage. Salammbo, the most beautiful girl in the town, surprises you as you are trying to escape. Instead of calling the guards, she agrees to help you get away - provided that you deliver a message to Matho, the leader of an army of mercenaries camping outside the ramparts.

And so begins an adventure in which in a brief span of time, starting as a fugitive, you will become a general. It's up to you to influence the story by leading your troops to victory!

* The Sources

- The 3rd Century BC: Carthage is battling against its mercenaries who have revolted against it. The Greek historian Polybus devotes a book to the "unforgivable war" of unparalleled brutality. It is through him that we know the characters Spendius and Matho.
- The 19th Century AD: Gustave Flaubert draws inspiration from Polybus' text to write his novel "Salammbo." He creates the character which gives the novel its title.
- The 20th Century AD: Philippe Druillet publishes a comic strip which translates the plot of Salammbo into his personal universe, a tormented world in which fantasy mingles with history.

===

TECHNICAL NOTES

* I played the game on a Windows 10 machine (64-bit)
* Cinematics and close-ups of characters were a bit pixelated when playing on my NVIDIA-videocard and my cursor disappeared in the main-menu. (same problem can be seen in 'Atlantis III' and 'Atlantis Evolution.')
* To solve these two problems, I used the wrapper 'dgVoodoo.' (http://dege.freeweb.hu/)
* Copied the files D3D8.dll, D3DImm.dll, DDraw.dll and dgVoodooCpl in the game folder with the Salammbo.exe file.
* Started the game, ingame changed the color-settings to 32-bit.
* For more information about how to configure dgVoodoo: http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/Readme.html


© Cryo Interactive Entertainment / DreamCatcher Europe SA.

Other Statistics