With the new art, achieving the same result takes a precious second, especially given that there are not only unique talking animations for each character, but several per character. The exaggerated, consistent movements could be noticed in the Sniper’s peripheral. A skilled Sniper is capable of quickly glancing at a half-dozen old art characters in a conversation and processing who is and isn’t talking. The old art talking animations were identical from character to character.

They have the potential to fundamentally and permanently change the entire game. There’s a distinct possibility that the new art, and its corresponding talking animations, cannot be adjusted to the way previous changes have been. I said this a year ago when they were released, and my opinion was reinforced when I played a “mixed art” set with kcmmmmm (IE: new character models mixed in with old, on an old map) back in September. The switch to new character models, however, feels fundamentally different. There’s a short adjustment period, and then most players settle right back into the same skill tier they were in before. It’s disconcerting to have to change the way you play after thousands of games or hundreds of hours, but most of the turmoil is temporary. This is the price of getting to help shape the game’s direction, and it’s a pretty fair trade. One of the things any beta tester has to contend with is that most of their arcane knowledge of the game may (nay, will) be rendered useless by the game’s evolution. The first reaction was “these are gorgeous!” The second was usually “what’s the game going to be like once these are implemented?”

Just over a year ago, SpyParty developer Chris Hecker revealed the first new character animations on the game’s development blog.

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