Out of the many games that were shown at GDC this year one title that came out of nowhere yet somehow managed to gain the interest of some gamers was Red Johnson's Chronicles. The adventure based game didn’t receive attention from gamers thanks to its slightly silly title that could be misconstrued as a title for a porn film, but because of its noir visuals and unique presentation. Being a detective based mystery game; Red Johnson certainly has the potential to be something amazing on the PlayStation Network – that’s if the gameplay actually holds up.
Looking at these newly posted gameplay videos for Red Johnson's Chronicles I’m not exactly sure what to think. The game looks really good in motion and I still dig the stylized art and general use of colors, or immediate lack thereof to establish a noir style mood. But the gameplay itself seems rather straightforward even by adventure genre standards. Taking a note from Heavy Rain, the action sequences for Red Johnson's Chronicles seem to be a bit too simple and even the button prompts look like they offer more than enough time to press without instantly feeling that immediate feel of tension.
Other elements in Red Johnson such as its dialog and investigating mechanics seem fairly by the numbers as well but figuring out if they’ll be fun to experience is still the big mystery out there. There was some hope that Red Johnson's Chronicles would become the go-to game on the PSN for gamers who were looking for a Professor Layton style experience but after watching these new gameplay videos I’m not quite sure that Red Johnson will meet such requirements.
