Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 160 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10
Facial animations in video games have just made a generational leap.
I traded in Crysis 2 for L.A. Noire (only paid 14.50$ after trade in woohoo!) and boy, does this game make a good first impression! This is a detective game in an open world. Most of the gameplay consists of examining crime scenes similar to those found in Heavy Rain and interrogations with suspects and witnesses. There are also some car chases, foot chases, light puzzles and a few shootouts.
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| This is a game that will leave a legacy, even if it's just for it's facial animation tech. |
Really though, what stood out to me was the facial animation and voice acting. Simply put, this is a game that will leave it's mark even if it's just for the animation. I've played Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, Uncharted 1&2 and Heavy Rain, all of which have great facial animation but this is something else. Team Bondi has created a tool that simply MUST be adopted/bought by other companies. This is a giant leap forward in technology.
It's also not just for show, you actually have to look at people's faces to help decide if they are lying or not during an interrogation. I won't spoil the cases but I will say that so far, I am very impressed with the game. The only thing I'm not a big fan of is that there doesn't seem to be a way to really fail an interrogation as eventually, protagonist Cole Phelps will solve the case either way. We'll see if this holds true for the rest of the game.
Oh yeah and there are a bunch of real actors in this game including Aaron Staton, the actor who plays Ken Cosgrove in TV series Mad Men. He is simply fantastic in his role for L.A. Noire and his performance adds a lot to the experience. SELL YOUR TECH TEAM BONDI!
