All Roads

by Jon Ingold profile

Historical, Time Travel
2001

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Number of Reviews: 14
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting ... but confused, November 16, 2010
by Stumpy (A maze of twisty little passages, all alike (apart from the one I'm currently in))

An interesting experiment in storytelling, this isn't your typical brand of puzzle solving adventure title (there was only really one puzzle in the whole game).

The focus here is on telling the story and taking the reader through it.

The story begins with the protagonist on the hangman's block waiting to be executed, with no idea how, or why, they are there. It then proceeds through a number of seemingly disjointed episodes before coming full-circle with a twist.

Personally I enjoyed the experience, but the major flaw lies in the lack of character development through the telling. Yes, we learn what the protagonist's stock in trade is, and why he's there and what he's doing, but there's no real development of his character or background which for me left the experience lacking a little.

I also found the disjointedness of the scenes to be both confusing and disorienting to begin with. It was only after the story had progressed to a significant degree that the pieces began to fit together (helped by some gratuitous hint dropping in the narrative).

Overall though, a recommended try.

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4 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
Pissed off, December 26, 2009
by Andreas Teufel (Poland)

Confused nonsense about a shadowdancer/assassin in some parallel universe Italy (best setting EVAR!!!11), a story that repeats over and over in some utterly senseless way, a protagonist who is uninteresting in the worst way since he has no personality at all and WE KNOW NOT A FUCKING THING ABOUT HIM.

yeah, it's game of the year (!) material all right!

I am beyond words.

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Exceptionally memorable..., February 27, 2008

There are competing schools of thought in IF. Many in the new school believe the story is paramount, and that puzzles and other game-like qualities are sometimes nothing more than unwanted throwbacks to the primitive days of mere "text adventures". "All Roads" is the first piece I encountered that made me think the new-schoolers might be on to something.

It's been a couple of years since I played this piece, and I don't really recall any puzzles at all. They were there, but they seemed so easily solved that it was clear their main purpose was to keep the reader involved, and not to delay completion of the story. What I do recall is the very intriguing plot, which, like a dense film along the lines of "Memento", kept me both enthralled and slightly disoriented until the very end. As with "Memento", I still can't say I fully understand "All Roads", but I don't hesitate to recommend it.

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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Fun, January 24, 2008
by Dominic Delabruere (U.S.A.)

This story's setting was beautiful, and the story was riveting, although I must admit I'm still rather confused about some of the details. There were one or two moments scenes in which I became stuck while playing this - it took me forever to notice the existence of a certain location, for example, but I've never been very good at puzzles in interactive fiction. The implementation was generally smooth, and the prose was polished and stylish. Overall, it's very fun to play. I recommend it.

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