Review: Poker Night at the Inventory

Audio & Visual

We're given basic visuals here, we can pump the graphics as much as we like but the game is laid out very simply. We only really see one room and it's built rather well with very good atmosphere. I wasn't around in prohibition obviously, but this looks an awful lot like what The Simpsons and Family Guy has shown me as examples of underground joints. What's really spiffy here are the models. All the characters look like they were plucked from their respective games with palette and model detail which look flat out amazing. These characters have brought their own games with them in regards to their style and detail levels, which could not be an easy task given the different styles of games all these folks come from.

One odd thing I noticed frequently is that the characters throw in a random amount of chips when they play regardless of their bet. I mean they could bet $100 and they're pushing a stack of those chips in instead of one. The game holds no real visual record of what kind of money they're throwing in as they're playing and I'm not too sure why, but it's odd to see them betting high and putting a couple chips in or betting low and bulldozing a pile of chips in - it sadly takes away from the realism the game built up and had going. Still, it's one negative point in an otherwise clean slate of visual bumps.

The audio is this game truly shines. The voice acting is straight from the original mouths and done superbly! These really are the characters from the games and it's reflected in their words! The dialogue is suiting and extremely well written as you'll see in basic playing banter, and when they suddenly start up in full blown conversations with each other. While that point is wildly entertaining and gets my fanboy bone tingling it does get a little sad to hear the same conversations repeated over and over again in subsequent plays if you've dedicated enough time in-game. It does begin to lose it's charm the fifth time you hear Max talking to The Heavy about getting a new gun.