Salammbo: Battle for Carthage

Salammbo: Battle for Carthage is a first-person perspective adventure video game. It began development at Cryo Interactive, but the company went bankrupt during production. The Salammbo team was ultimately acquired by DreamCatcher Interactive, which finished the game's development.

European cover art
Developer(s)Cryo Interactive, DreamCatcher Europe
Publisher(s)The Adventure Company
Producer(s)Thierry Miquel
Designer(s)Alexis Lang
Programmer(s)Jérôme Bignon
Artist(s)Philippe Druillet
Grégoire Valayer
Writer(s)Alexis Lang
Platform(s)Windows
Release2003
Genre(s)Adventure game
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

Salammbo: Battle for Carthage is an adaptation of Philippe Druillet's comic series Salammbô, itself adapted from the novel of the same name by Gustave Flaubert.

Development

Salammbo was first announced by Cryo Interactive in July 2002.[1] Many of its team members came from the developer's earlier Atlantis III: The New World.[2][3] However, Cryo entered a financial downward spiral and filed for bankruptcy protection that same month,[4] leaving Salammbo unfinished.[5][3] DreamCatcher Interactive ultimately bought sections of Cryo, including the Salammbo team, to form DreamCatcher Europe,[6][3] and Salammbo resumed development under this new label.[6]

Salammbo was released for Windows in 2003.[7] The game is based on the novel Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert and the works of Phillippe Druillet, who was heavily involved in the game's development.[8]

Reception and legacy

The game was reviewed in 2004 in Dragon #319 by Clifford Horowitz in the "Silicon Sorcery" column. Horowitz comments: "Puzzle based, the game is heavy on problem solving and has an intriguing plot that keeps a player's interest from the first scene."[9]

According to Lorraine Lue of DreamCatcher Interactive Europe, Salammbo was commercially unsuccessful, particularly in North America. She noted that "North American players didn't really associate very closely with the characters", a problem she traced back to the game's being "tailored to the French market".[10] In summer 2003, DreamCatcher Europe opted to shutter the game development divisions it had carried over from Cryo.[11] A group of those laid off founded Kheops Studio, led by Benoît Hozjan,[12] in September 2003.[13] Salammbo's designer Alexis Lang was among them.[12] Most of Kheops had been involved in Egypt III before its development was interrupted, and so the team sought and received a contract from DreamCatcher to complete the game independently.[14] Several members of Cryo's Atlantis team also migrated to Atlantis Interactive Entertainment—founded around September 2003—to work on Atlantis Evolution,[15] originally an in-house production by DreamCatcher Europe.[16][17]

References
  1. Staff (July 11, 2002). "Salammbô". Jeux Video (in French). Archived from the original on August 31, 2004.
  2. Jihem (April 9, 2003). "Tests; Salammbo". Jeux Video (in French). Archived from the original on August 3, 2004.
  3. Tichacek, Petr (May 12, 2003). "Salammbo: navrat Crya ve velkem stylu?". BonusWeb (in Czech). Archived from the original on January 4, 2004.
  4. Fahey, Rob (July 23, 2002). "Update: Cryo Living on Borrowed Time". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on February 16, 2003.
  5. Walker, John (June 22, 2015). "I Kind Of Miss Dreadful Adventure Developer Cryo". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on August 2, 2015.
  6. Bronstring, Marek (March 7, 2003). "The Adventure Company Europe". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on October 23, 2005.
  7. "Salammbo: Battle of Carthage". Metacritic. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  8. "Salammbo - Salammbô - Salammbo: Battle for Carthage - Review - Adventure Classic Gaming - ACG - Adventure Games, Interactive Fiction Games - Reviews, Interviews, Features, Previews, Cheats, Galleries, Forums". www.adventureclassicgaming.com. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  9. Horowitz, Clifford (May 2004). "Silicon Sorcery". Dragon (319): 78–79.
  10. "The Lounge; Interview with DreamCatcher Europe". The Inventory. No. 13. Just Adventure. March 2004. pp. 11–14. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006.
  11. Fallen Angel (August 9, 2005). "Benoit Hozjan for Kheops Studio". Adventure Advocate. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
  12. Walter, Johann (November 14, 2006). "Kheops Studio - Benoît Hozjan". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019.
  13. "[afjv] Kheops Studio" (in French). Agence française pour le jeu vidéo. June 12, 2007. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007.
  14. Hoopy (August 24, 2006). "[Kheops Studio] Interview de Benoît Hozjan, co-fondateur et directeur". JeuxVideoPC (in French). Archived from the original on December 6, 2007.
  15. Dickens, Evan (September 26, 2004). "Atlantis Evolution interview". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on October 9, 2004.
  16. "The Adventure Company to Showcase Exciting Line-up at the Electronic Entertainment Expo" (Press release). Toronto: The Adventure Company. May 2003. Archived from the original on March 25, 2006.
  17. Sulic, Ivan (April 30, 2003). "Many New Adventures". IGN. Archived from the original on November 29, 2004.
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