Face Noir

Neither weak voice acting nor outdated visuals managed to ruin this skilful homage to Chandler. [CD-Action 10/2013, p.59]

Face Noir is a genuinely entertaining adventure for fans of private eye mysteries, and a solid debut for a promising developer, even if it’s only half of a story.

Face Noir is a solid adventure that plays safe instead of taking some risks. There are some new ideas that need to be further developed and a well thought story that often slips into genre cliché. All in all a good debut that could lead to interesting improvements in its second chapter.

Face Noir is a good adventure game, very strong with the basics and limited only by its graphic engine. A nice surprise for an debutant Italian team.

Face Noir is a decent adventure game that suffers, however, obvious limitations in the technical sector and in some questionable choices.

Jack Del Niro is no Philip Marlowe, not a mite. However, if you're willing to accept compromises, then this classical "noir" Detective Story will know how to warm your heart. [Issue#233]

And so, overall, Face Noir isn’t a game I’d recommend. I don’t really like dumping on the debut effort of a new developer, but there just aren’t many positives to work with here.

Face Noir is an adventure game developed by Mad Orange, an Italian independent team. The main character is Jack Maria Del Nero, a detective with the vice of alcoholism who lives in a small and dusty apartment. The America told by Mad Orange is in full commercial crisis and for Del Nero there's a new job from which will begin a new adventure, in jazz rhythm and noir tint.

A boring point-and-click adventure game offering some good ideas. Unfortunately, they are buried under a big pile of junk, unimpressive voice-acting, uninteresting intermezzos, and low production value. This is why a gamer will fall asleep instead of having fun.

For some, the promise of a genuine noir adventure will be enough to capture their interest, but absent a love for the genre, its strange mix of cynicism and romanticism. Even staunch adventure game fans might find that Face Noir has a few too many problems.

As a whole, Face Noir is a forgettable disappointment. Nothing stands out or inspires discussion other than its inherent blandness. With boring dialogue that drags on too long, bad facial animations and frustrating gameplay, even the most committed adventure game players will have a hard time staying involved. There’s potential for something interesting here, but Face Noir simply isn’t worth your time to play.

For the hard boiled gamer with very old style gaming, you may find something hidden in Face Noir that can hold your interest.