by Letter3 » Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:31 pm
I played the Demo tonight on my ps3 and it definitely intrigued me. So here is my short review from the Demo.
Like the article above mentions, it does have quick events galore, so if you can't stand them, then this game is not for you. The controls are less than fantastic as well, so overall moving around and doing stuff takes 4 steps and 9 clicks/movements when it should just take 2. Holding R2 makes you walk. Moving the left joystick changes directions. The other joystick is used for quick events that require a movement such as down and 15mins to the left to complete a task. Sometimes quick events are ganged together, so you are holding multiple buttons to complete tasks. Overall, I thought the controls were a little annoying at times and would definitely take time to overcome the frustration.
The graphics are pretty good. The rain and overall feel of the game is great and the textures look very smooth and real. The people have to be gigs of data because they are fantastic. I kept staring at the close ups because the eyes are so real looking and the hands and everything has been carefully crafted. At least for the main characters. Some of the randy characters could have been better, which I feel like they dropped the ball on. I mean why spend so much time on certain details, only to leave some things less than perfect. I guess it was probably time and money, but I think they have done the best job to date of realism in a game, at least as far as I have seen.
The storyline was not too in depth in the demo, but from the short trailer after the demo, it looks baller. Basically, you play at least two characters, from what I can tell in the demo and you are trying to find the Origami Killer(no relation to the IceTruck Killer). There is a decision support tree built into the game and you choose from a few questions to ask witnesses, investigators, other people and each question you ask leads to more opening up while others may not be available again and eventually you get cut off, so you hope you asked what you needed to know. The obvious debacle comes to mind, can I really change the outcome of the game or speed of play of the game by asking right or wrong questions? Well I have no idea. I would have to read up more on the game. Games like the GTAs have tried this in the past and it only kinda works with basically a good reward/crappy reward system. I did however really like how the game seemed to be unfolding from the demo and trailer.
Overall, I am not sure. The demo was just long enough to not hate quick events, only strongly dislike them. The graphics were very good in some scenes and somewhat lacking in others. Close ups were good, but sometimes the overall scene seemed to be less than fluid at times and 'generated' rather than natural. I am curious as to the storyline, but there are so many quick events to even just move around and do the littlest thing. I will probably have to play the demo again to make up my mind, maybe rent it for a weekend and see how it goes.
I give it a “Mission Accomplished” status and a “Don’t Buy” rating. Now there's a reason to celebrate!
"Other Thoughts: THERE ARE SO GOOD A GOT TWO"