One Against All may be a sequel to a PlayStation Network pixel-hunt adventure, but newcomers to the polluted neo-noir world of Metropolis needn't worry. When Red Johnson's brother goes missing and his finger turns up in your beer, it's not like you need tons of backstory. Only your best puzzle-solving instincts can help you track down the poor sap.
CREEP FACTOR FIVE: After scouring a locker (not shown), Red spouts: "If I were a serious pervball, I'd take a whiff of Abbie's panties. But I ain't no perv!!! Well...maybe one for the road." Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.The vaguely Soviet feel is the least strange thing about Red's stomping grounds. As you poke around a small handful of sharply rendered but disconcertingly static screens of point-and-click hotspots, you'll marvel at how little sense everything makes. Busted cash registers are inexplicably modeled after Sudoku puzzles, equations on shipping containers yield keypad codes, and radio stations broadcast reversed messages for your ears only.
The whole gig is precisely as awkward and nonsensical as it sounds. Of course, old-school graphic adventures weren't exactly known for their logic. But whereas genre classics got by with creative puzzle design and plentiful humor, One Against All trots out only a tired parade of puzzle clichés, and it mistakes cringe-inducing sexual innuendo and stereotyping for tongue-in-cheek cleverness.
You might soldier through tedious interrogations filled with strained dialogue and limp button-tapping quick-time events, but there's just no good reason to subject yourself to yet another clumsy jigsaw puzzle, Morse-code translation, or painful mix-and-match facial-compositing exercise. Your reward for bearing 10 hours of drudgery? A lengthy report-filing sequence packed with all the leisure value of a final exam. You're better off just buying a puzzle magazine at the airport.
Believe it or not, this mess eventually yields a computer password.PUBLISHER: Lexis Numérique • DEVELOPER: Lexis Numérique • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: None • ACHIEVEMENTS: Stringent • COST: 800 Microsoft Points ($10) • RELEASE DATE: September 12, 2012
+ Mildly intriguing alternate-reality setting with 3D environments to tilt, pan, and scan.
– No genuinely fresh puzzles amid the likes of warmed-over algebra and logic tests.
– Hackneyed dialogue and lifeless voiceovers can't prop up the dull, directionless tale.
? Why does the eldest Johnson brother have a different accent?
