Previous Next

Your job in All Or Nothing is to recover secret files from the enemy base situated at a very secret location. Unfortunately, the base is also populated by vicious guards and their unfriendly tracker dogs.

You aren't unarmed though - you have some explosive charges which can be placed at strategic points around the camp. These charges draw the guards away from you and allow you to complete various tasks.

Firstly, you must retrieve your watch, which was lost when you parachuted into the base. Next you must crack the safe in the main office.

This can be very nerve-racking, as you have to input the correct four-figure code within 30 seconds; if you don't succeed, the alarm sounds and you are killed. But presuming you do manage to open the safe you then move onto examine the warehouses in the base to find the files you are looking for.

Graphics are drawn in a solid 3D colour perspective, giving a sort of side-on view of everything. The enemy base scrolls by as you move around, and perhaps this could have been a little smoother. The camp is not very large, but the ability to enter buildings in the base gives the game extra depth. The movement of the guards and dogs is fairly unintelligent they seem to either run or shoot past you.

There are some nice little tunes and good sound effects accompanying your mission. I especially liked the alarm sound if you fail to open the safe (...something I heard all too often).

It's possible the humour and undoubted novelty of the game could wear off. If you take All Or Nothing as a good challenge, you'll be satisfied; if you're looking for a game to return to again and again, look elsewhere.

A strange game this. A mix of strategy, arcade and adventure. Enjoyable but with a lot of features which are hard to use due to the rapid pace of the game (i.e. although you may have the gun it is very hard to select and use it quickly.)

The controls? Aargh! I have nightmares about this rotate-left/right-can't-work-out-which-way-your-man's-facing stuff. Despite that, this game is very complex and entertaining.

'A real Spectrum classic' boasts the cassette inlay, and while I might argue with that, All Or Nothing isn't bad at all.

Currah speech-unit owners get the added bonus of spoken instructions, and the odd "Stop or I'll shoot!" (Don't bother stopping - the rotters will shoot you anyway...)

The graphics are unpleasantly flickery and the characters mostly stick-like. There were some fun moments in the game, such as getting bitten by the guard dogs and then blowing them up in revenge. But not even that compensates for the overall dullness.