In the year 1996 the amusing and likeable western hero Fenimore Fillmore appeared for the first time - as comic figure in the 2D point&click adventure "3 Skulls of the Toltecs". At that time "3 Skulls" convinced with a humorous-scurrile story and a game depth, of which many adventure games of today can only dream. 1996 Warner Interactive sold 50,000 pieces of this game in Germany and 180,000 in the total market. (in the USA it only hit the shelves in Texas!?)

Now the Spanish developer Revistronic is working on a sequel: "Fenimore Fillmore - The Westerner". Naturally look and handling are to correspond to the new technique. Fenimore will become a modern 3D-hero, but although do not let miss the classical adventure feeling. Therefore he will be controlled completely by mouse. The mouse-control should be designed easy: If you click on a person, then you speak to him/her. Can an object be taken or moved, then this is also done via clicks.

You shall be able to influence the dialogues by mind icons such as merry, sad or bad, which appear on the right side of the screen. At the bottom of the screen describing texts of characters and objects will appear, as soon as one over-drives them with the mouse. In this area also the option menu will be accessable for saving, loading etc.. The inventory can be called by a click with the right mouse-button.

There may be special situations, in which you must also shoot or hide yourself. It's interesting, that Revistronic was planning a classic graphic adventure and actually wanted to maintain the Disney style of the first part. Since however the new 3D-engine is nearly finished and a Disney cartoon quality in 2D would have cost more, they decided to make it in 3D. Of course some additional graphic effects can be used now, that wouldn't be possible in 2D and the use of different camera perspectives, zooms, panorama views and camera movements are intended. You should even have the possibility to control the movements of your hero during a conversation.

Two modes are planned: Play mode - the player controls his/her character and the camera follows him/her. In the film mode the gamer, after completing one phase of the game, can watch a playback scene - cinema-like. Both, the 3D-backgrounds and characters, will be generated in real time.

Story

Somewhere in the middle west Fenimore rides by the night. He reaches the farm of the Banisters just when a bandit gang wants to make problems. Actually our "courageous" hero doesn't want to interfere, but observes the situation from a safe hiding place. But the surprising contact with a cactus lets him jump up - directly into the bandits' line of fire. The surprised bandits are put to flight by "direct" hits to the hat of the first bandit, the cigar of the next and the gun of the third. Of course the Banisters invite Fenimore to stay and after recovering from an allergic reaction to the dinner, he learns more about the from bandit troubles threatened farmer. Fenimore has to knock off the bandits and their leader, a man called Starek, and has a lot of other tasks to complete. First he should get back his gun e.g., which the young Banister exchanged against his toy pistol!

And of course there is it still something for the heart - the resolut teacher Rhiannon, young, beautiful and - completely Fenimore's type. And naturally our hero must overcome some hurdles, in order to at all come near to her. I don't want to betray too much, but the story promises not only much funny entertainment, a quantity of entangling and unexpected turns but also genuine long puzzle fun. Revistronic speaks of over 30 characters, approx. 100 scenes and more than "300 gags". I had already lost my heart to Fenimore Fillmore in "3 Skulls" and I thinks that "The Westerner" will become really more than only an insiders' tip for the year 2002. At present Revistronic is still seeking one or more publishers to co-finance the game and to market "The Westerner" world-wide on PC, PS2, DC and X-BOX. For the completion the developers set still another period of 10 months.