GP	AR	UV	Overall
2	2	2	2

Review by Colin Phipps

All for One was designed with an unusual purpose - to create a level for cooperative play, where 4 players would have to cooperate in order to be able to complete the levels. Unfortunately, that means the original version of the wad, A41_COOP, is only playable if you can get 4 players together. So there's an alternative version, A41_SPDM, for single player (or coop with less than 4 players). Unfortunately it's clear that it took a fair amount of butchery to get the levels playable at single player, and many of the sequences of switches are are rather boring and excessive once you allow for a single player.

The episode has a good storyline, with you starting on a space ship, trying to regain control from the monsters. The levels fit into the story, with new textures added that give you instructions about what you are trying to do. These were really good, adding real purpose to the early levels, but were not used at the later levels, which was a shame. The levels are designed to fit in with the plot, with the early levels being high-tech space ship style, then the space station, and later the planet below.

There are some very interesting structures at the early levels, like the reactor core, and going out of an airlock to fix a hull breach. But the levels lacked attention to some details, such as texture alignment and ceilings on doors. The rooms were often large for no reason. The puzzles were nice, but clearly some were designed for more players, and lost their interest when modified for single play.

The levels had lots of ammo, and lots of health - too much. The author warned that UV was designed for 4 players, so hard for 1, but I found it fairly straight-forward. There were too many hordes of troopers and such that made the fighting tedious.

The later levels seemed to magnify the faults of the early levels, as they became larger, and less consistent. Also, E1M6 suffers from savegame overflows if you're playing with the original engine. There were still nice mazes and puzzles at later levels. However, the levels move away from the high-tech and industrial styles, so the theme of the episode was lost.

Overall, an episode with lots of long puzzles, large mazes and large rooms. But large rooms for no reason, tedious puzzles and endless mazes don't capture the player's interest. With 4 players the levels probably make much more sense, but not many people are going to be able to try it.