Enslaved

[d21lewis]

CGI-Quality said:

d21lewis said:

AndrewWK said:

The facial modeling of Uncharted where allright but nothing like Enslaved. I have never played Heavy Rain so I don´t know anything about that. The facial modeling of Enslaved was splendid that is one of the things that makes this game standout.

CGI loves Heavy Rain.  I do too.  It's a great game.  While I appreciate what Heavy Rain did, there were many times where the facial animations crossed into uncanny valley territory and characters just looked unnatural and kinda freaky looking. 

Instead of saying which games look better than Enslaved (which I admit I have a bit of a bias towards since I decided before it even came out that I would love it), I will go the other route and say that Enslaved isn't the best in the business but it definitely sits among the best.  It was made by the same guys that made Heavenly Sword and I think their work was just as good in this game as it was in that--especially since Heavenly Sword used pre-rendered CGI for its praised animation and Enslaved used the game engine.

Heavenly Sword also used the engine, just thought I'd point that out. In fact, it's quite obvious when you're playing the game that's running on the engine and not CGI. The polys are blatant, as is aliasing.

And frankly, it's not about liking Heavy Rain (nor Heavenly Sword ) more than this (ironic, given I prefer Enslaved to HS). It just is what it is, and what it is - Enslaved facial animation was good enough for what it was going for, but not ahead of the top titles in the field.

A quick Google/Bing search of "Enslaved facial animation" yielded results like:  "While the voice acting in Enslaved is excellent, this has just as much to do with some of the best facial animation in a game this generation. Characters emote convincingly, and allow Enslaved to explore their discovery, loss, and revelation effectively as a result - when you see someone cry, it's not presented by a shiny drop running down their face, it's shown in the way their whole face falls and turns."  http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/10/01/enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west-review?page=2

So I'll leave it at that.  And, as a Heavenly Sword owner.....the animation was ahead of its time but it's not the benchmark it once was outside of the CGI.  I'll let the video speak for itself.  Lots of games don't look as good as we remember.  And, since I haven't played Enslaved in about 11 months (played through it again in 3D right after I bought a new TV), Enslaved may be dated, too.  I remember it holding up quite nicely, though.