Actually, the weird thing about this game is that the first time I've heard of it being released was from my dad. He said it was a game that he was actually interested in playing. Since he doesn't really play much games, I was surprised he was interested at all. But, he lost interest, because he said he thought the game would take some commitment and time. Well, I have to say, he was right about that. This is a really long game. Anyways, I gradually became interested, and once it came out, I decided to check it out. The verdict? Well, it's alright.
First off, let me just say, the facial animation is really, really, really impressive. It really made the characters look so realistic, and gave a lot of depth to the game. In fact, the facial animation that was helped with motion capture is really the best part of this game.
Alright, that's pretty much all of the good in this game. Now, I guess I can talk about some other stuff. You play as a detective name Phelps. Most of the game just has you wandering around, picking up objects, examining them, and interrogating people. My favorite part of the gameplay is when you get to interrogate people, because this is pretty much the only time I really felt like I was doing something. It's supposedly an adventure game, but it doesn't really challenge the player much. Once you pick up an object that's important, the game instantly explains to you why it's important and what it means. There's really not much for puzzles, and the game always leads you to the culprit, even if you fuck up on a couple of interviews.
Not that it's a bad thing that they help you find the bad guy, but they never really let you decide who the bad guy is. Well, there's a couple of times where it lets you choose between two guys, but it kind of falls apart(I'll explain why in the spoiler section). But it picks up with all the interrogations you have to do, and it's satisfying to figure out whether they're lying or not. The actors do a really good job of helping you decide. You can call truth, doubt the person, or accuse them of lying by presenting evidence. The iffy thing is that when ever you pick either of those things, most of the time, your character pretty much accuses them of being the guilty person. You can back out when you accuse them of lying, but not when you doubt them though, and most of the time, you're going to wish you could. One time, I put a doubt on person when the guy said he hardly new the victim. This is what Phelps said!
"I need to work with something, tell, were you sleeping with this woman?"
Yea, that's not what I was going for, but it was still the wrong thing to do, so then, I put a truth on him the next time I had to do it, and this is what Phelps said.
"This woman is old enough to be your mother! Tell me, were you banging her?"
Seriously, what the fuck? That accomplished the same god damn thing has he pretty much said the same god damn thing. I guess he was lying, but I never went back to figure out what to do though. But, other than that, the interrogations work well, and it does provide the better part of the game. My dad watched me play the game, and he helped me out with the interrogations, and we had a lot of fun. It was always fun to pin someone who's lying when you see he's starting to move all over the place, his eyes shifting a lot, and swallowing. It was really cool.
This is the part where all of the good of the game ends though. Sure, there are car chases, foot chases, and cover base shooting. They all come in short bursts, but it helps break up the game and prevents it from being to monotonous. Problem, the game is still pretty repetitive.
Going through every inch of the rooms to find all of the relevant evidence gets old rather fast. There's a whole string of cases that have you do the exact same thing through out every case. Then, there's this one part where one of the killers leaves out a trail of poems to give hints of where he's out. This involves reading the poem, and wandering aimlessly until your character finds out where the next place is. And it takes FOREVER for your guy to figure it out. GOD DAMN! I was nearly falling asleep at this part. It would've been better if they just figured out the instant they read it, so it would save a lot of time from just mucking about. It doesn't help the fact that this game is LOOOOOONG. I'm towards the end of it, but it still took me a really long time to get to that part. It's not good to have the player do the same thing for this fucking long.
It's a pretty good game, but it kind of falls short though. There's really not that much freedom with what you can do with the cases, the game pretty much solves the cases for you, and it does drag way too much. But it's still worth checking out just to see what it's like, because it is an interesting game that is worth experiencing. Just don't expect it to be the coolest game ever, or maybe even of this year.
Ok, here's more of the game I need to explain, but it does involve spoilers, so, be forewarned!
On another note, if you guys want some pretty cool adventure games, well at least I think they're cool, then the Sam & Max games are really good! I definitely recommend that game. Also, there's the new Monkey Island games as well. Also, the Back to the Future games are surprisingly decent as well. There also others I may not have mentioned, but you just have to look hard enough. Also, they're all probably on steam, so, they're not really hard to look for anyway. But like I said, it still doesn't make this game not worth checking out. I'm saying go ahead, but there are other cool games as well.
First off, let me just say, the facial animation is really, really, really impressive. It really made the characters look so realistic, and gave a lot of depth to the game. In fact, the facial animation that was helped with motion capture is really the best part of this game.
Alright, that's pretty much all of the good in this game. Now, I guess I can talk about some other stuff. You play as a detective name Phelps. Most of the game just has you wandering around, picking up objects, examining them, and interrogating people. My favorite part of the gameplay is when you get to interrogate people, because this is pretty much the only time I really felt like I was doing something. It's supposedly an adventure game, but it doesn't really challenge the player much. Once you pick up an object that's important, the game instantly explains to you why it's important and what it means. There's really not much for puzzles, and the game always leads you to the culprit, even if you fuck up on a couple of interviews.
Not that it's a bad thing that they help you find the bad guy, but they never really let you decide who the bad guy is. Well, there's a couple of times where it lets you choose between two guys, but it kind of falls apart(I'll explain why in the spoiler section). But it picks up with all the interrogations you have to do, and it's satisfying to figure out whether they're lying or not. The actors do a really good job of helping you decide. You can call truth, doubt the person, or accuse them of lying by presenting evidence. The iffy thing is that when ever you pick either of those things, most of the time, your character pretty much accuses them of being the guilty person. You can back out when you accuse them of lying, but not when you doubt them though, and most of the time, you're going to wish you could. One time, I put a doubt on person when the guy said he hardly new the victim. This is what Phelps said!
"I need to work with something, tell, were you sleeping with this woman?"
Yea, that's not what I was going for, but it was still the wrong thing to do, so then, I put a truth on him the next time I had to do it, and this is what Phelps said.
"This woman is old enough to be your mother! Tell me, were you banging her?"
Seriously, what the fuck? That accomplished the same god damn thing has he pretty much said the same god damn thing. I guess he was lying, but I never went back to figure out what to do though. But, other than that, the interrogations work well, and it does provide the better part of the game. My dad watched me play the game, and he helped me out with the interrogations, and we had a lot of fun. It was always fun to pin someone who's lying when you see he's starting to move all over the place, his eyes shifting a lot, and swallowing. It was really cool.
This is the part where all of the good of the game ends though. Sure, there are car chases, foot chases, and cover base shooting. They all come in short bursts, but it helps break up the game and prevents it from being to monotonous. Problem, the game is still pretty repetitive.
Going through every inch of the rooms to find all of the relevant evidence gets old rather fast. There's a whole string of cases that have you do the exact same thing through out every case. Then, there's this one part where one of the killers leaves out a trail of poems to give hints of where he's out. This involves reading the poem, and wandering aimlessly until your character finds out where the next place is. And it takes FOREVER for your guy to figure it out. GOD DAMN! I was nearly falling asleep at this part. It would've been better if they just figured out the instant they read it, so it would save a lot of time from just mucking about. It doesn't help the fact that this game is LOOOOOONG. I'm towards the end of it, but it still took me a really long time to get to that part. It's not good to have the player do the same thing for this fucking long.
It's a pretty good game, but it kind of falls short though. There's really not that much freedom with what you can do with the cases, the game pretty much solves the cases for you, and it does drag way too much. But it's still worth checking out just to see what it's like, because it is an interesting game that is worth experiencing. Just don't expect it to be the coolest game ever, or maybe even of this year.
Ok, here's more of the game I need to explain, but it does involve spoilers, so, be forewarned!
Another big problem with this game is the story. Not that it's bad or anything. In fact, it is easy to get into. It's got the feel of it's time period down pretty well. One of the problems I had was that Phelps is kind of a blank slate. Well, he is until towards the end. But, why take that long to finally develop a character? We don't really care for him until towards the end when he's finally put into a thick situation. Anyways, the problem is that this story is going to feel familiar to a lot of people. My dad pretty much gave off the whole ending to the game just because stories like this have been done before in the same time setting and in the same place. It turns out towards the end that everything is pretty corrupt. The police is owned by a higher power, and there are certain things they can't really investigate because the rich guys have too much control. My dad told me there's going to be stuff like this in the game before any of this even happened.
Oh, and the reason why the whole choosing the guilty person falls apart is because it's going to turn out it's a different guy all along, but the game isn't going to let you figure that out until it finally wants you to. This is what I want to see improved in the sequel. It needs more freedom of what you can do and when you can charge a suspect, because right now, it all feels too structured.
Oh, and the reason why the whole choosing the guilty person falls apart is because it's going to turn out it's a different guy all along, but the game isn't going to let you figure that out until it finally wants you to. This is what I want to see improved in the sequel. It needs more freedom of what you can do and when you can charge a suspect, because right now, it all feels too structured.
On another note, if you guys want some pretty cool adventure games, well at least I think they're cool, then the Sam & Max games are really good! I definitely recommend that game. Also, there's the new Monkey Island games as well. Also, the Back to the Future games are surprisingly decent as well. There also others I may not have mentioned, but you just have to look hard enough. Also, they're all probably on steam, so, they're not really hard to look for anyway. But like I said, it still doesn't make this game not worth checking out. I'm saying go ahead, but there are other cool games as well.