First impressions...

[Nightshape]

So I've just spent an hour or so with AP...

 

I can't say if it is good or bad as an overall experience, but there are certainly some very weak elements.

 

Firstly it looks like you guys had a huge production team! Seriously, just taking a look at the credits, so many producers is just plain nuts.

 

There is a serious lack of art direction or artistic ambition in the product. I'm not an artist but I can certainly tell that the product has suffered greatly by not having a strong visual vision. While GFX's aren't everything, words like bland, and generic spring to mind in regards to the colour palette. Then again I don't see anyone credited as art director, it shows.

 

There is just something not right with the rendering.... Looks like everything is using the same damn shader pretty much...

 

What can I say, it seems like it was produced on the cheap... I'll post more later, but I'd be seriously interested in what went wrong. It seems like this game had an extremely painful development cycle.

 

It's sad to see you guys produce something with such obviously low production values.

[fuZZ]

the game is not all about GFX? get over it and enjoy the game for what it was made for???

[Tigranes]

You know, if you've only spent an hour or so, you're only in the Graybox.

 

Maybe you should go to Taipei, Rome, Moscow or Saudi Arabia before you judge the artistic direction? In comparison the starting area is really really sterile.

 

Sort of like Deus Ex's main HQ, in fact. Devoid of life.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

He clearly isn't talking about graphics, he's talking about artistic direction. Learn the difference.

[Tigranes]

Exactly, hence why my post said "artistic direction". I don't think it was a good idea to maek the first area look so sterile, but if the game is based around several very distinct areas, then you'd want to look at more than one of them before making your call.

 

I'm finding stuff pretty decent outside the graybox, nothing too unique or mindblowing, but certainly evokes the mood of the place well.

[RobotMan]

It seems like this game had an extremely painful development cycle.

 

completely agree.

[lockload]

It seems like this game had an extremely painful development cycle.

 

completely agree.

 

I do get the feeliog as soon as the cvall cam ein with 'Do you want to work on fallout 3?' this game was and annoyance that needed getting out of the door

[that guy with hair]

I like Obsidian, but it is impossible to deny how low-budget the game looks. If it wasn't for, say, some of the more modern shaders (or whatever causes things like motion blur), you could easily mistake it for a Playstation 2 game from the early 2000s.

Might be an exaggeration, but either way the OP has a point.

[Raithe]

I think one of the troubles for people percieving things as bland is that unlike the majority of games, the settings are all "real-world" urbanised areas mostly. There's not going to be much thats going to pop out compared to fantasy games with strange cities or shooters like crysis where the locales are usually lush jungles, or alien ships, or cities being invaded and in stages of destruction...

 

<shrugs> Sure you have architectural and art differences between cultures, but when it's all modern-day settings, you tend to be 'used' to seeing things (even cities like Rome and Taipai) on tv. There's nothing going to be new and flashy about them. That suits the setting...

 

I will admit one of the small things that has irked me is the level design with the "multiple routes through" and how often if you start one of the alternate methods, the level shuts off behind you so you can't go back and go another way.. Although to be fair I've only encountered that a couple of times. Doors that you've moved through only 5 minutes before suddenly lock tight and prevent you from returning to explore another way...

 

Still having fun with it tho.

[Jokerman89]

What exactly did you expect a modern spy game to look like? I thought it had nice variety in environments all 5 country look different and all have there own feel.

[Kaftan Barlast]

One thing that bothers me is the lack of animation blending. Each individual loop is good, but the engine just does cold snaps between them. Im pretty sure Unreal3 has built-in animation blending/interpolation, so Im curious what went wrong.

[Nightshape]

After a few more hours all I can say for sure is:

 

Yellow is not an art direction, making everything yellow is stupid and uninspired.

[Libertarian]

I like the graphics. They're supposed to bring out the best of real world locations and they do. While they're no visual stunner, they're not supposed to be artistic in any way whatsoever. This isn't Okami. I don't want it to pull a Conviction and shoehorn in black & white filters. Keep the artistic crap out.

[Paraclete]

I like the graphics. They're supposed to bring out the best of real world locations and they do. While they're no visual stunner, they're not supposed to be artistic in any way whatsoever. This isn't Okami. I don't want it to pull a Conviction and shoehorn in black & white filters. Keep the artistic crap out.

He's not asking for artistic filters, he's asking for ART DIRECTION, you know varied environments with different color palettes etc; not some sepia filter.

[Libertarian]

I like the graphics. They're supposed to bring out the best of real world locations and they do. While they're no visual stunner, they're not supposed to be artistic in any way whatsoever. This isn't Okami. I don't want it to pull a Conviction and shoehorn in black & white filters. Keep the artistic crap out.

He's not asking for artistic filters, he's asking for ART DIRECTION, you know varied environments with different color palettes etc; not some sepia filter.

 

And my response is the same.

[Oblarg]

There certainly was an art direction, of sorts - they talked about it in one of the dev diaries.

 

Moscow is cold and blue, Saudi Arabia is dusty and yellow, etc.

[Nightshape]

It's terrible art direction.

[Oblarg]

It's terrible art direction.

 

Care to give any reasons for that opinion?

[Nightshape]

Look at the game it speaks for itself.

 

Try comparing it to something else with strong art direction, like say Brink, heck even Mass Effect.

[Morgoth]

Look at the game it speaks for itself.

 

Try comparing it to something else with strong art direction, like say Brink, heck even Mass Effect.

Well, it's not stylized like it usually is in SciFi/fantasy games. I thought the locations looked all very well. Rome with it's gorgeous architecture, Saudi with it's shoddy huts/basements, Moscow in cool blue etc.

Edited May 29, 2010 by Morgoth

[Kaftan Barlast]

One telltale sign is that they're seemingly relying very heavily on color grading during post processing to produce a coherent look for each level.

[Nightshape]

One telltale sign is that they're seemingly relying very heavily on color grading during post processing to produce a coherent look for each level.

 

Except its too strong and spanks any dynamism within the scene. A result of a bad approach to colour grading.

 

I just find this whole situation sad...

 

AP isn't a triple A title.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Thats what I meant. They just slap on a heavy sepia or cyan tone and go "There, fixed it" instead of working with textures and lighting and THEN just slightly tweaking it with color grading.

[Nightshape]

Thats what I meant. They just slap on a heavy sepia or cyan tone and go "There, fixed it" instead of working with textures and lighting and THEN just slightly tweaking it with color grading.

 

It should be a correction based gradiant map.

 

A kind of look up table, this stuff is just plain sloppy on Obsidian's part. I've followed these guys for years, and this really is a step backwards for them as a developer, its sad.

[Libertarian]

Look at the game it speaks for itself.

 

Try comparing it to something else with strong art direction, like say Brink, heck even Mass Effect.

 

Brink looks like **** in terms of character models. That's incredibly poor art direction that looks like it's geared toward the tween demographic.