Face Noir

Set in a Great Depression era New York, Face Noir puts players in the role of Jack Del Nero, an ex-cop turned private investigator. After completing a small assignment, Jack makes his way to the bar, drinks a whisky, and returns to the office he calls home. Not soon after, Jack finds himself in a predicament - he's been accused of murdering his ex-partner. With a corrupt city against him, Jack fights to prove his innocence through a series of puzzles and good old-fashioned detective work.

The detective work that players carry out is easily described as looking for an object, finding said object and interacting with it using your mouse. This interplay is never-ending and excessive with ninety percent of these actions being  pointless. Still, players will click on every available option, knowing that there is one hidden clue within the unnecessary filler. Without this clue, players will be lost, searching, over and over, wasting far too much time on something right in front of their nose - a name on a plaque or a hidden entry way.

As with many point-and-click adventure games, Face Noir offers a hint mode, revealing all available options to the player. In the case of Face Noir, hold the F1 key and a dot appears marking their place. The F1 key appears to become very important when playing the game, until you realize close to every single object in the game can be interacted with. This only adds to the annoyance of searching for a clue, as it's now made apparent how little is necessary to solve each puzzle.

The gameplay of Face Noir is typical of most point-and-click games, even the puzzles seem all too familiar, remnant of games long gone. If you've played a point-and-click game before you'll easily catch on to the mechanics of Face Noir, becoming bored of its typicality. The voice acting too, will have players shuddering, wondering if actors were paid for such terrible work. Every single character has the same monotone voice with zero acting skills being used - just a person reading lines. The moment the voice of Jack Del Nero is heard is the moment in which you decide you hate the character. He's supposed to be a drunk, someone who has become comfortable with a rougher lifestyle, but instead comes off as a bland, boring individual with a fake Italian accent. Every time players hear Jack utter the word "dannazione" they'll cringe, and dislike him even more. 

The styling of Face Noir is nothing special, with cheesy cut scenes and mediocre graphics. Many characters look strangely disproportional with human features verging alien-like and zoomed-in interactions giving little light to detail. Often the most obvious way to interact with an object is not the correct way - using car keys with a car seems logical, but moreover, not using them may be the correct method. With the dreadful acting, cut-scenes can be quickly skipped. Subtitles are awkwardly placed at the bottom of the screen, taking away from soaking in any visual experience, and often fonts are changed for no particular reason.

Unlike many games before it, Face Noir adds nothing to the point-and-click genre. It easily meshes into the forgotten side of the genre, and may even push it back - camouflaging itself as something special. While playing the game I could think of nothing less unique than being a detective, solving crimes, and walking around a 1920's Harlem - all while listening to a muted trumpet play on top of a slow bass line.

Megan Bethke, NoobFeed (@XboxBetty)