The Low Road

When you hear the word "spy," chances are the first thing you picture is James Bond sipping a martini or Ethan Hunt hanging from an airplane. But one type of spy we rarely hear about is the corporate spy, a person who will do just about anything to protect a company's secrets and scope out the competition. That's the root of The Low Road, a charming new point and click adventure game for the Switch with action, thrills, twists and a whole lot of 1970s fashion. It's probably the funniest game about industrial espionage you'll play all year.

Let me introduce you to Noomi Kovacs, an ambitious young woman who recently got hired as an assistant at Penderbrook Motors. Not content to simply make copies and answer the phone, she devises a sneaky plan to get ahead. When her plan works a little too well, she inadvertently gets caught up in a conspiracy that is a lot bigger (and crazier) than she ever could have imagined. Isn't that always the case?

This is a fairly simple and straight-forward point and click adventure game where you move Noomi around with the left analog stick and point at objects with the right. It's the kind of game where you'll pick up items and occasionally have to use them on the various things sitting around the environment, such as using a competitor's flier on the photocopier in order to sabotage your co-workers.

A lot of the puzzles revolve around talking to others and convincing them to help you out. They normally won't, so the trick is to run an errand or perform some sort of task in order to get your way. This leads to a lot of puzzles that are on the easier side, but that doesn't take away from how clever and devious Noomi can be. Seeing her not only get the upper hand, but often run circles around her colleagues is one of the most satisfying things about the game, especially considering how much time they spend dismissing her.

On top of picking up items and tricking the colorful cast of supporting characters, you'll also run into a few interactive puzzles. One they go to a lot is this mini-game that involves you gently trying to pickpocket somebody by slowly and methodically rearranging keys, knives and pills without being caught. There's also an interesting mini-game where you use an old school tracker, as well as a dial you'll need to figure out in order to raise the artificial prison sun. It's complicated.

And that's true of a lot of the weird and often goofy situations Noomi finds herself in. It's one of those stories where it all makes sense in the moment but sounds like a fever dream when describing it to somebody else. I like the crazy cast of characters and all of the secrets you uncover while investigating Rev Inc. There are a bunch of different locations to explore and a voice cast that really sells the inherent silliness of the adventure. Well, except for a couple of characters who sound like they're reading the script for the first time. Thankfully, the weakest links don't get a lot of screen time.

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Speaking of weak links, I do wish the story was a bit more ambitious. For as much as I liked the twists and turns, the whole thing is over quickly and it feels like it's lacking the punch it needs at the very end. I also hate how some of the mini-games control. These puzzles are easy on paper, but the game isn't always good about letting you pick up and interact with items. This was especially true when you were tracking a suspect. Considering how simple the premise is, moving the dials around shouldn't be this cumbersome.

The good news is that the style and characters go a long way to make up for the shortcomings. This is a game steeped in 1970s culture and stereotypes, and every inch of this game oozes with personality. And it's like that from the second you turn on the game and hear the music. Every chapter is introduced with an original song that sounds like it could have come straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. And it's not just surface level, because the game has a lot of heart. The characters don't just play up the cliches, but will buck expectations in some fun and clever ways. I loved hanging out in this era and hope XGen Studios makes more of these games.

They warn you early on that industrial espionage is mostly about sitting at a desk doing paperwork, but that is definitely not the case in The Low Road. This is an utterly charming adventure game with a goofy story, great voice acting and enough twists and turns to keep you glued to the screen. It's maybe not the deepest point and clicker you'll ever play and some of the puzzles are difficult to control, but it has style for days and I loved hanging out in the 1970s. I hope this isn't the last we see of Noomi Kovacs.