Recent reviews by RadicalR

Let me start this review as clear as I can be.

This game is a passion project - with all the highs and lows that comes with that status.

I will break this review up into several parts - World, Gameplay, Story, Music and Sound, concluding with an overall section.

-- World --

When I started playing Pixel Noir, I was immediately struck with the melancholy tone of the world - It reminded me of those old noir novels such as Sam Spade. The pixel art gave me fond memories of rainy days, playing Shadowrun on the Super Nintendo. The city that you explore is depressing, run down, and as the game states, slowly dying. As a private detective, you will solve cases throughout the city and hopefully uncover the biggest secret of them all. Needless to say, the world has me enthralled and immersed.

-- Gameplay --

Pixel Noir's gameplay is divided into several sections.

At its core, Pixel Noir is an turn-based RPG - you explore the world and engage in battle. The battle system is a lovely cross betweem Super Mario RPG and Grandia. You will have the ability to perform timed attacks, giving you the chance to deal significately more damage. Also, as the battle rampage, you and the enemy will have a turn order - if you can attack the enemy while they are performing an attack, you will cancel their attack and resetting their turn order. Conversely the same can happen to you, so be aware of the enemy's actions. There are also skills you will learn through manuscripts scattered through the game.

There are times when you will have the option to solve cases. This will require you to search for clues and deduce the truth. This is recommended as you will receive points, which are used to level up your skills that I have mentioned above.

As you explore the overworld, you will have the ability to use Detective Sense, which will allow you to sense out hidden items. This can range from common healing items to more valuable items, like attachments for your weapon. So it's advised to check every location.

You'll also have the ability to upgrade your weapon (via buying it from the shop or Black Market) and customize it with attachments that'll not only improve the stats on your weapon but also may improve related skills.

-- Story --

You play as the Detective who is haunted by his past - a bit cliché, but one small twist that I do enjoy, is that the haunting is literal - as in the good Detective has hallucinations of monsters. To avoid spoiling much, you ultimately embark on a mission to uncover the truth of what happened the night it all went down. You are joined by a wide variety of characters who all have their reasons for wanting to assist the detective. The characters are colorful, if not slightly stereotypical.

While the story does not have multiple endings, it does have a branching storyline; so it has some replayability if you would like to see how a decision would have turn out differently. The game *does* feature a New Game+, so all of your items, skills and levels will carry over.

-- Music and Sound --

Pixel Noir comes with, in my opinion, one of the better - if not the best - soundtracks I've heard from an indie project. The music, if separated from the game, may sound generic to some, but in the game, it fits the world like a glove. The sound design is fantastic - for example, when you walk into a building, the music is filtered slightly to reflect the fact. When a car drives past you, the Doppler Effect is applied realistically. It's the little details like these that makes their dedication to the package that much more inspiring.

-- Overall --

Now I do need to address the proverbial elephant in the room. This game had a very rough launch - the save corruption bug that made many players lose their progress, to name one. The good news is that bug has been finally squashed as of patch 1.5.1. However, there are still a large number of bugs, text errors, and odd but usually harmless behavior. The developers have been been transparent with the players and tirelessly working on patching these bugs. I believe that as an indie group less than ten people, we should not use the same standards on these developers as we would a triple A company.

That being said, I feel like this game has the potential to be my game of the year. I would encourage people to pick this game up and give it a try - Steam does have a two hours refund policy.

Highly recommended. You play as a samurai that has a pretty degree of choice in the events of the story. You can even leave at the very beginning of the game.

You can team up with the good guys, bad guys, or just beat down everyone, if you're so inclined.