Adventure

One Against All is an adventure game, indeed. If you like deep storylines, strong characters and fierce dialogue, then you should give it a try. In One Against All, you will discover a world in which everything is dark, even humor. This time, Red will have to try and save his kidnapped brother and won’t let anyone stop him — not even tough guys like Duncan the bartender or seductive girls like Abbie, the mysterious waitress. In addition to the main storyline, you can also take on missions proposed by a very special maid…

Puzzles

One Against All is also a puzzle game, so if you’re into original puzzles you should give it a try. To move on in the adventure, you’ll have to solve many taxing puzzles. They are very diverse and fit the scenario of the adventure itself. With the game’s contextual help system, you can choose your level of difficulty: you can buy clues, or just try to find the solution by yourself.

Investigation

Questioning witnesses, pushing them over the edge, showing them pieces of evidence that prove they are lying: we expect all of this from you, and much more. You can use your tools, find fingerprints and compare them to your data. You can even search for hidden clues with your UV light. And once you’re done, don’t forget to properly file your report for the judge to convict the one you stopped.

Improvements

In this new installment, the whole team worked really hard to keep all the features that worked (the gameplay system, the environments, the dialogue…) and spent yet more time to enhance the overall experience. We really hope you’ll find the scenario deep and full of surprises. We did our best to bring facial animations, motion captures and the overall graphics to a new level for this game. And once again, we want you to have real value for the money. The game is just $10, and will boast six to eight hours of gameplay — and it will be available tomorrow.

In the meantime, please check out our fanpage for more information. Thanks!

Red Johnson’s Chronicles is the most recent addition to PlayStation Store from French indie studio Lexis Numerique.

PSB: Where do adventure games stand in the modern gaming world?

Djamil Kemal, Lexis Numérique: Adventure games seem to have suffered in the past few years. This can be partly explained by the fact that adventure games were mainly PC focused and that most of the non-core gaming market has moved toward home consoles.

Contrary to what it seems at first sight, we think that adventure has not disappeared but has spread. During the past years, many of the best-selling games have worked because they have a very strong scenario and a deep background. No one would say that Mafia, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption or Black Ops are adventure games, and yet everyone praises the script writers. Hence, going back to the roots and creating adventure games today for gamers that are not into action makes sense.

PSB: What are the inspirations behind Red Johnson`s Chronicles?

DK: Obviously, we were really inspired by classic 50′ and 60′ Noir movies for the scenario. But movies like Pulp Fiction also have their part, as dark humour is an important part of the game. For the environments, we were impressed by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (Alien Resurrection) more personal movies like Delicatessen (anachronisms, packed city) or the vision of Arkham City in Batman (huge city with small streets). Metropolis City, in which the game takes place, is a mix of America, Europe and Asia.

Red Johnson’s Chronicles’ innovation lies in two elements: the mix of existing genres (adventure, investigation, puzzle games) and also in its large ambition for a downloadable title. As in classic adventure games, you’ll explore different environments, talk with different characters and unlock situations. But in addition to that, you will also have to carry a real investigation: search for evidence, analyze your clues, compare them with each other to find a match, and confront your witness to put them over the edge. And last but not least, you’ll have to use both your brain and your fists. To achieve your goal, you’ll have to crack puzzles that are original and that perfectly fit the script. You will also have to fight sometimes. The action sequences are based on Quick Time Events: you don’t need dexterity, but you have to quickly press the right button at the right time to give a jab, a little bit like in Heavy Rain, for instance.

In addition to the gameplay, we hope that the overall game will prove to be very ambitious for a downloadable game. This 8-to-10-hours-long investigation/adventure is set to highly detailed backdrops and we gave a lot of attention to the soundtrack and voice acting.

PSB: Why did you leave PC development and start PS3 development?

DK: The reason we decided to go for home consoles is the amazing emergence of downloadable content. We strongly believe we are living a golden period in the video game industry where we can propose innovating games to a very large audience, try new things and take risks. When you develop a Blu-ray Disc game, the cost is so high that you have to limit your risks by limiting your creativity. The marketing often comes before the creative teams. With PSN, we can act differently.

In addition, this period is really important for us at Lexis as, for the first time in our history, we can discuss directly with our players, without going through a publisher. This changes a lot of things. We’re currently working on several other downloadable games (not all announced) and we can guarantee you that they will be part of the most ambitious titles available on the PSN.

PSB: Can you tell us a little bit more about your previous games portfolio?

DK: Lexis Numérique is now one of the largest European game design studios, but we’re still a small company compared to the huge US teams. Hence, we decided, since the beginning, to work on two major elements: innovation and top quality.

As mentioned above, we created several innovative adventure games, including In Memoriam (aka Missing: since January) and Experience112 (aka The Experiment). But we also brought innovating titles in a field that was, back then, totally ignored by game studios: kids’ games. We created many kid games, including the Uncle Albert series, the Imagine: Fashion Designer series and the Horsez series.

We’re currently working on three PSN games:

Amy: It’s a very ambitious and original survival horror game created by Paul Cuisset, the author of Flashback and the Motor Racer series. We’re going to release new information soon but you can already check out the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AMY.thegame. The feedback so far is really good.

The Pooyoos: If you look at the stats, the PlayStation Network has more than 65 million users. Many of them have kids from 3 to 5. And yet, there is almost nothing for them. Hence, we decided to create a very original and high quality game for kids in which they can learn many things in a very funny way (shapes, colours, music, dance…) and also play with their parent. They don’t need to read anything on the screen once the game is launched.

We are also working on Brooklyn Stories a third game which is probably one of our biggest games so far. We will be releasing more information very soon…

For those of you who are into investigation games and who like noir crime movies, Red Johnson’s Chronicles is for you. We really tried to create a new genre with a mix of classic adventure and innovating gameplay. In this 8 to 10 hour long adventure, you’ll have to solve the murder of one of most hated men in town. Explore dark worlds, find, analyze and use clues that will lead you to the truth. Question suspects, spot their lies, push them over the edge and, when necessary confront them in quick fire action scenes.

If you’re only into first person shooters, Red Johnson’s Chronicles is not for you. But at Lexis Numérique, we believe there is a real opportunity for bringing puzzles to the PlayStation in a very smooth way. In Red Johnson’s Chronicles, you’ll have to crack many different puzzles during the course of your investigation. We worked really hard to make sure they perfectly fit the script so that you always feel immersed. To add this feeling of immersion, we also tried our best to do a “tactile” game. At many occasions, you’ll have to move objects in 3D and, handle them and see how to use them.

Red Johnson’s Chronicles is set in a very unique atmosphere with a quality of 3D environments rarely seen before on PlayStation Network. In Metropolis City, capital of crime, you’ll discover a world in which everything is dark, sharp and deadly. Even humor.

And last but not least: at Lexis Numérique, we decided to make a bet. We believe that price is always an issue but we also think that downloadable content doesn’t mean cheap content. Hence we decided to offer you 8 to 10 hours of unique and immersive gameplay at only $12.99. We worked more than a year to achieve it, spent more than 3 additional months to tune it. And as an independent developer, we preferred spending as much as possible in the game development than in marketing. Hence, if you like the game, please tell your friends :)