A truly cinematic video game.
These aren't top of the line graphics, and that can either be a blessing or a disappointment to a PC gamer. If you have a lower-mid level computer then this game should run without a hitch, but if you have a high-end computer you might be disappointed by the lower-level of graphical quality. The graphics aren't bad by any means, however, and the main characters, the majority of the world, and the majority of the secondary characters look great. Most of the movements are fluid and look realistic and all of the breath/fog/snow effects work nicely. A few times in the game the character animations get a little awkward but this is the exception and not the rule. I have to make a point that the graphical level can be lowered or raised depending on how much your computer can handle, and I was playing the game on the lowest graphical setting (I'm more concerned with smooth gameplay and a strong story when I play) so my review of the graphics are based off of that.
Sound - 10/10
Whatever the game lacks in graphics, it completely covers in sound quality. Every interaction that you have with your environment has a unique and realistic sound effect attached on to it. In a lot of ways the sound is what really pulls you into the game. There were no times in the game where a sound just didn't seem right. Every step, clang of glass, and gun shot sounded exactly as it should have. The sound effects will change in volume depending on where it is originating from. The closer you are to it, the louder it will be. Also, the voice acting in this game is superb. It goes beyond the "passable for a video game" standards and really steps into that cinematic level. When a character is angry or scared, they sound angry or scared. When they are yelling, their voices are much louder than when they are whispering. The background music for each scene only adds to the overall feel of the game and never pulls you out of the moment. This is all very important considering how much the game needs to draw you into what is going on for you to get the full enjoyment out of it.
Story - 10/10
The story is great in this game, not so much because of the story itself (which is very good by the way), but because of how it is told. Everything in the story is fluid, just about everything that you have to do as a character: eat, drink, go to the bathroom, take a shower… are things that you are going to have to do in the game. Because of this, it really draws you in and makes you feel like you are part of an interactive experience vs. just playing a game. There are some parts in the story where they get a little too creative, but it still seems to work well within the context of the game. The whole story will unfold with a very cinematic feel, which shows you how much of an effort they put into making sure the focal point of this game, the story, was as entertaining as possible.
Challenge - 7/10
For the most part this game is easy to play. As long as you have decent hand-eye coordination then there shouldn't be many problems for you. I ran into one part in the game, about halfway into it, that I had to replay for around 30 minutes before I finished it. But the next most time consuming part took me less than 5 minutes. Part of the challenge in the game has to do with which options you choose and how you react to certain situations. If you put yourself in the place of one of the cops in the game and you are questioning a witness you can try to be comforting, uncaring, or firm in trying to get an answer out of them. If you are comforting, the witness might feel better about the whole situation (which could help you later in the conversation) or if you are firm, then the witness might remember certain details that they would have left out otherwise. The challenge is to decide what direction you are going to go with a conversation, and knowing which questions will reward you with the most useful answers. Sometimes, this can be more a hit and miss type of thing, where you think a firm question will get you a more detailed response but in actuality it just sends the witness into a crying fit. So this part of the game is a lot more an art than a science. Since the game is driven by the story, the difficulty of the game seems to have been dropped down a bit to ensure fluidity to everything else.
Control - 10/10
The action sequences are along the lines of DDR(dance dance revolution) where you are told which buttons to press and are given a time frame to do so. As a result you are a left with a system that is easy to learn, but can end up being a challenge to master. During an action sequence the game will tell you "get ready", and then it will tell you to hit the left arrow on the gamepad/keyboard, followed by the right arrow, followed by two up arrows, and all of this has to be done as it is telling you to do so. If you don't do it, you might fall, get hit, or miss a basket, if you do it correctly you will make a spectacular move, and do whatever it is you were trying to accomplish. Basic movement in the game is very fluid and makes it easy to get around, its not a whole lot different then if you were playing most any other adventure game, there is the move forward, turn left, turn right, and turn around keys. The game does spice things up a bit with the use of the mouse. If you walk over to your desk for example, you may be able to look at a picture, look at a book, or sit at the computer. Depending on what you want to do, there will be a specific mouse movement to do for it. This applies to all decision that you have in the game and it isn't complicated at all.
Gameplay - 8/10
The overall gameplay was simplistic without being a bore. Anybody, no matter how much skill you have with video games, can pick this up and enjoy it. And the game will continue to push you a little bit to make sure things don't get too easy. There are some mini-games that work well. All of the movement and basic actions in the game are done in a unique, yet uncomplicated, way. There were a couple parts that proved to be a bit of a problem for me (I feel like I am pretty good at video games), but these can be overcome by a less experienced player by modifying the difficulty level at any time throughout the adventure. So if you are stuck at a certain point, then you can lower the difficulty, beat the part, and bump up the difficulty again. However, I could see how some would have a problem with the simple controls and how the action scenes are done. Also, the game is fairly short, I finished it in less than 7 hours and I feel like I did most everything that I could do within the storyline. I plan on trying out some other things and looking at the bonus material but I don't think that that will add more than 1-2 hours.
Replay Value - 7/10
There really isn't a whole lot of a reason to play through it again. Although there are a lot of options available to you at each point in the game, they don't do a whole lot to the overall story, which always pushes in the same direction. Once you finish the game, you have the option to go back to any point in the game that you would like to play through again to test out some other options. This is a really nice feature if you would like to see how things could have gone in certain situations, but it does affect the replay value of it if you wanted to go from start to finish. But since this game has such a "movie" feel about it, you might want to play it through again the same way you would watch a movie a second time.
Overall - 9/10
This game is one that a lot of gamers will really enjoy. It is a breath of fresh air to adventure games and allows gamers to do some things that they won't get from anything else out there. The controls are for the most part smooth, the sound, visuals, and story are excellent. The only complaint that I have is with the length, but I wouldn't have wanted it any longer if it was going to change the story much from what it was. This was a great game and I encourage anyone interested to give it a try.