Re: L.A. Noire (PS3/360)
I am not sure why people keeping thinking this is a sandbox game or was ever advertised as one. It was never intended to be a sandbox game, and was always known to be a linear game. Criticizing it for not being something it was never intended to be makes no sense to me.
My final review of LA Noire. Very long, but extremely little to no story spoilers involved.
I said it was long didnt I? Anyway, I'm officially moving on from this one. See you next April Rockstar!
Spoiler
After doing everything possible in the game (minus the DLC that is sure to be more of the same). The game falls short of a GOTY candidate imo. While an excellent first shot at it, the game misses on a few areas.
As a cinematic driven game, choosing to mask the game's linear....ness with a sandbox coat was a miss in my book. Because of that, and the Rockstar name, the game was inevitably going to be compared to open world games like GTA and RDR. Because of that, the game felt extremely limited and I felt handcuffed by the gameplay. I basically couldnt do anything . Outside of investigations, there is more or less nothing to do. You walk around, you drive, maybe do a street mission if youre really bored. Collecting film reels and cars felt more of a last second add on when they realized they hadnt put in enough toys for the sand box. This is why many gamers feel that the world/map of LA Noire is wasted, a set piece game is what was called for for this movie based adventure game.
The investigative game play was done very well in my opinion. Very detailed objects of interest. But the teasing of random items became annoying by the end of the game. I played with rumble on, so when trying to clear a map of all clues, picking up 2 bottles, 4 cups, and a useless trumpet seemed like a cheap way to lengthen the time of play.
The acting, voice work, facial animations, and general body physics were top grade in gaming to this day. Story aside, the actors employed for this game did an astonishing job. Sometimes they played up their facial movements for questioning, but that could be understood for the sake of the gamers. Had the actors been instructed to go all out, Im sure people would complain about the difficulty.
Back to the game's handcuffing. Missions are extremely linear, especially action scenes. This is made painfully obvious in chasing scenes where the suspect gets random speed bursts and/or super physics to prolong a chase. The game even "force-holsters your gun for you" as you can only shoot when the game says you may. That is as linear as it gets folks. I know you play an officer of the law, but this is the game policing the gamer. That along with cat like pedestrians who jump out of the way of moving vehicles with ease, and you have yourself a true, 100% adventure game. Also, the fact that you can literally get every single interrogation question wrong in the game and still complete it is another testimony to the game's lack of dynamic game play. The game may adjust to your failure, but in the end, it doesn't. You still get the story information necessary for the subsequent case/ or overlying case. Some may argue that it wasnt Rockstar's intention to make an open world dynamic game and you get what you get with LA Noire, but then why bother making such a detailed world for so little payout?
I know Ive made it pretty clear that I hate the main protagonist Cole Phelps but I dont think I could stress this enough. He is the same note throughout the entire game with little to no character development (is there such a thing as character regression?). His 5 partners, highlighted by Vice Detective Roy Earle had more interesting aspects than he. The fact that they left 99% of Cole's personal life in the dark from the player who is controlling him was a giant miss-fire by Team Bondi and Rockstar. The only reason I sympathized with Cole throughout the game is because I was Cole. This isnt a knock on the actor. Cole is played great for what he is, even though he seemed a little bi-polar during interrogation scenes. Almost every supporting cast member was more interesting that Cole, especially his Military Unit Squad mates Courtney and Jack.
The arching storyline for the game needed a better focus. I know this was more of a case by case game, but without that major story line from beginning to end, the game fell apart after vice desk. I know the "drug case" may be considered the over arching story, but that just means that Traffic Homicide Desks were absolutely pointless (even though they were awesome). The newspaper videos served as the glue of the main story. As you did cases pertaining to homicide, you got a paper "reminding" you of what the overall game is about. That seemed cheap to me but I can understand why it was necessary.
I know I may have painted an extremely negative picture over the game, but to be clear, this is a fantastic adventure game. It may have casted it's net too wide by trying to be a sandbox adventure game though with little to no...sandboxyness? With a good story, fantastic acting, and innovative investigative game play, this game will be a great stepping stone for sequels and well developed DLC for LA Noire and other titles looking to explore the genre. I have full confidence that Rockstar will comeback, and absolutely blow the door off of the next LA Noire (esque) title, using this as a stepping stone.
As a cinematic driven game, choosing to mask the game's linear....ness with a sandbox coat was a miss in my book. Because of that, and the Rockstar name, the game was inevitably going to be compared to open world games like GTA and RDR. Because of that, the game felt extremely limited and I felt handcuffed by the gameplay. I basically couldnt do anything . Outside of investigations, there is more or less nothing to do. You walk around, you drive, maybe do a street mission if youre really bored. Collecting film reels and cars felt more of a last second add on when they realized they hadnt put in enough toys for the sand box. This is why many gamers feel that the world/map of LA Noire is wasted, a set piece game is what was called for for this movie based adventure game.
The investigative game play was done very well in my opinion. Very detailed objects of interest. But the teasing of random items became annoying by the end of the game. I played with rumble on, so when trying to clear a map of all clues, picking up 2 bottles, 4 cups, and a useless trumpet seemed like a cheap way to lengthen the time of play.
The acting, voice work, facial animations, and general body physics were top grade in gaming to this day. Story aside, the actors employed for this game did an astonishing job. Sometimes they played up their facial movements for questioning, but that could be understood for the sake of the gamers. Had the actors been instructed to go all out, Im sure people would complain about the difficulty.
Back to the game's handcuffing. Missions are extremely linear, especially action scenes. This is made painfully obvious in chasing scenes where the suspect gets random speed bursts and/or super physics to prolong a chase. The game even "force-holsters your gun for you" as you can only shoot when the game says you may. That is as linear as it gets folks. I know you play an officer of the law, but this is the game policing the gamer. That along with cat like pedestrians who jump out of the way of moving vehicles with ease, and you have yourself a true, 100% adventure game. Also, the fact that you can literally get every single interrogation question wrong in the game and still complete it is another testimony to the game's lack of dynamic game play. The game may adjust to your failure, but in the end, it doesn't. You still get the story information necessary for the subsequent case/ or overlying case. Some may argue that it wasnt Rockstar's intention to make an open world dynamic game and you get what you get with LA Noire, but then why bother making such a detailed world for so little payout?
I know Ive made it pretty clear that I hate the main protagonist Cole Phelps but I dont think I could stress this enough. He is the same note throughout the entire game with little to no character development (is there such a thing as character regression?). His 5 partners, highlighted by Vice Detective Roy Earle had more interesting aspects than he. The fact that they left 99% of Cole's personal life in the dark from the player who is controlling him was a giant miss-fire by Team Bondi and Rockstar. The only reason I sympathized with Cole throughout the game is because I was Cole. This isnt a knock on the actor. Cole is played great for what he is, even though he seemed a little bi-polar during interrogation scenes. Almost every supporting cast member was more interesting that Cole, especially his Military Unit Squad mates Courtney and Jack.
The arching storyline for the game needed a better focus. I know this was more of a case by case game, but without that major story line from beginning to end, the game fell apart after vice desk. I know the "drug case" may be considered the over arching story, but that just means that Traffic Homicide Desks were absolutely pointless (even though they were awesome). The newspaper videos served as the glue of the main story. As you did cases pertaining to homicide, you got a paper "reminding" you of what the overall game is about. That seemed cheap to me but I can understand why it was necessary.
I know I may have painted an extremely negative picture over the game, but to be clear, this is a fantastic adventure game. It may have casted it's net too wide by trying to be a sandbox adventure game though with little to no...sandboxyness? With a good story, fantastic acting, and innovative investigative game play, this game will be a great stepping stone for sequels and well developed DLC for LA Noire and other titles looking to explore the genre. I have full confidence that Rockstar will comeback, and absolutely blow the door off of the next LA Noire (esque) title, using this as a stepping stone.
I said it was long didnt I? Anyway, I'm officially moving on from this one. See you next April Rockstar!
Comment