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[elwes]

I have "The Naked City" and "The Consul's Car" downloadable cases up for grab if anybody wants them. First PM in my inbox gets it.


I just traded the game in. Overall, I enjoyed it, but the game really did wear on me after awhile. The driving stopped being fun when I realized how detrimental it was to your end score. I made my partner drive for the last half of the game because I was tired of getting 10 feet from a case mission, only to get an emergency call and have to turn around and drive HALFWAY ACROSS THE CITY to get to it. I swear, they needed to put those emergency calls closer to the important case areas. Most of my car damage was gotten driving to and from those far out places for a 3 minute side mission.

I had turned off the helping hand options at the start of the game, but it quickly turned them back on part of the way through the game because it was obvious the clue finding/interrogation game mechanic wasn't really affected by making the clues harder to find. The game's real meat was the storyline and not the gameplay itself (which was a little disappointing).

I know they set out to make this game as un-GTA as possible, but I feel that that hurt the game as well. The fact that the ONLY gameplay in the game involved clue finding and interrogations made the game mundane very quickly. I would've killed for some other side stuff to do, since the city was amazingly massive and detailed. I felt like I never wanted to go anywhere and explore because there was no payoff. In fact, exploring and experimenting is blatantly frowned upon with everything going against you at the end of a case. I would've loved to drive rampant through the streets, finding rampable areas to test the cars on.

All in all, it was a cool idea for a videogame and I'm happy I played it, but it just made me want GTA V.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I have to admit, reading one post that talks about how amazing the game is followed by another who is being slowly tortured by it has triggered bursts of laughter whilst reading this thread. it's either a pure hatred or pure fondness - there is no middle ground. You're either FOR or AGAINST. Has there been any other game as this divisive?

I don't know, I haven't read any opinions that flat-out hate the game. There are some things that can be appreciated, without a doubt.

 

[Gen X]

The adventure genre is one of my favorite "genres", and I appreciate deep, stimulating experiences but I agree, this game falls short on many levels. So the Homicide cases were riveting to you? There's some things this game does well, but just because someone doesn't share your excitement over it doesn't mean they only appreciate "dudebro" games.

Problem is the game has been massively dumbed down for the masses. The people who want more of a challenging crime based game are left wishing it was more and the other people wish there was more to do. It's like the game can't quite make up which style it wants to be.

After this game I am going to be cautious of any more high rated Rockstar games. Something is incredibly fishy or, the reviewers only got a very limited time to play before writing a review about it. There is no way this game deserves anything over a 9 imo.

Don't get me wrong, there are parts that the game does well but it's not the game it deserves to be.

 

[Y2Kev]

It's not noir. Aside from a few "inspired" scenes and lines, it doesn't share any thematic similarities to noir. It's noir in the same sense that anything from the 40s would be noir-- an old record player, a hat, a suit, my grandpa, a car, a hairstyle.

The game is a repetitive snoozefest with the novelty to carry it through the first two acts before it falls flat on its face. This is not a detective game or a police simulator-- it's an on-rails walking adventure game. At no point does the player have any real agency to affect the story beyond extremely minor variances; at no point does the game expect the player to think independently or creatively (in fact, doing so penalizes your ranking). The game railroads the player into its rigid conversation "decision" system in between forcing the player to walk around and hit X a lot and exhilarating chase scenes. And there are so many chases...it's like you are playing an episode of Cops.

The facial animation is very visually impressive, but the mechanics are not there to make it meaningful. The mechanics are so limiting that the actual action sequences in the game are embarrassing. The writing is extremely uneven, with characters bouncing around from one pole to the other in seconds. There are holes so large you can step through them while holding six copies of MGS4. This is a game that is masquerading as testing a player's intellectual mettle--can you investigate? Can you listen? Can you pay attention? Can you think?-- without so much as allowing the player to screw up.

LA Noir is not noir. Its brio is impressive and nothing else is. Some people are really into the atmosphere, and that's great. I'm happy it tickles that itch. But there's nothing to this atmosphere. It's as if the entire world is a soundstage and you keep trying to peek behind it but can't. I mean, the opening of Indigo Prophecy, for example, managed at least trick the player into believing he had a large degree of control over what would and would not happen. It was an illusion, but it was incredible because you were playing it from both sides! This game can't give any real meat to the investigations and it just needs to color in half the picture!


I'm still playing it. I guess I don't hate it. But I have to play one case at a time or else I zzzzzz into space. This is just so half-baked. If this is what passes for "not dudebro," then we're really in trouble.

 

[semiconscious]

It's not the worst game ever, but I find that this is one of those games that, while I'm playing it, I wish I was playing something else like Mario or some other kind of actual game. Hopefully this is not the direction that the industry is headed in.

after i finished l.a. noire, i desperately needed to play a real video game. & i've been replaying wind waker ever since, & enjoying the hell out of it...

i'm pretty convinced the 'mature' game thing (as it exists for the most part, anyway) just isn't my thing. i had fun with me2, & really liked rdr, but, for the most part, games that don't take themselves seriously go over much better with me. &, surprisingly enough, when these games do occasionally veer off into 'touching moments', i consistently find them far more effective than those in the 'mature' ones...

 

[Rezbit]

Just finished it, overall rate it a "decent." Found it really compelling for the first half. Did start to lose me towards the later cases, and I mainly started playing for about 30min to an hour a day, helped me to not get too burned out by it (as admittedly the pace does drag). As someone who doesn't really play nor understand adventure games I liked gathering clues, and I liked the interrogations too, even if they could be a bit bipolar. I liked that it tried something different in a setting I'm not familiar with, so I guess I was their target audience. Gunplay and driving wasn't brilliant but serviceable, reminded me of GTA/most other clunky sandbox games.

Ending of the game spoilers:

Spoiler

I actually kind of liked the start of the arson cases, but I could tell it was going to attempt to ramp up with a big conspiracy story. Knowing that they pretty much vandalized Cole's character from Vice on, as in he became really unlikeable as a protagonist, and giving you control of Jack pretty much told you the whole story. May as well have just had text pop up saying "Hey, the main character is going to die so he is kind of redeemed and doesn't seem like a jerk anymore." Pretty meh ending, which happens so so so often in games. Why can't they get endings right?

Oh, just to address Gen X and Y2Kev's points: I am definitely the sort of person this game is aimed at. Very little experience in adventure games and the Noir setting. Even if it was an illusion, the investigating was streamlined enough for me to find it easy and not frustrating, so it was something new in a game for me. I also enjoyed the overall setting...it was like being in LA Confidential. Just some random counter thoughts.

 

[Y2Kev]

it was like being in LA Confidential

To me, it was like being on the soundstage for LA Confidential. But not actually in LA Confidential.

 

[elwes]

I think comparisons to Heavy Rain are unfair. This is just so half-baked.

I agree with what you said, but I especially agree with this. When I beat the game, I immediately went to Google and typed in "LA Noire alternate endings." I was shocked to find out there are none. Heavy Rain had it's fair share of problems, but at least the choices you made actually did something to the game's narrative. What's the worst that could happen after you beat a case? Your boss yells at you? As far as I know, there are no choices in the game that inhibit your ability to move forward in the narrative. For the kind of game they billed this as, to not have ANY way to affect the storyline is just embarrassing.


Also, screw the fact that I couldn't skip dialogue. I replayed a few cases to get a better score, only to find out that there were very few instances where I could read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and skip ahead. Fastest way to get on my shit list is boxing me in to watching a cutscene if I don't want to.

 

[Y2Kev]

I agree with what you said, but I especially agree with this. When I beat the game, I immediately went to Google and typed in "LA Noire alternate endings." I was shocked to find out there are none. Heavy Rain had it's fair share of problems, but at least the choices you made actually did something to the game's narrative. What's the worst that could happen after you beat a case? Your boss yells at you? As far as I know, there are no choices in the game that inhibit your ability to move forward in the narrative. For the kind of game they billed this as, to not have ANY way to affect the storyline is just embarrassing.


Also, screw the fact that I couldn't skip dialogue. I replayed a few cases to get a better score, only to find out that there were very few instances where I could read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and skip ahead. Fastest way to get on my shit list is boxing me in to watching a cutscene if I don't want to.

I took it out because I didn't want to start a war. But I think the two games need to merge, basically.

 

[chubigans]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really liked Heavy Rain a lot more.

I liked Heavy Rain quite a bit actually, but I figured LA Noire would be leaps and bounds beyond with the way you get to interact with the characters, detective work, etc.

I think it's a personal issue more than anything else. I'm not saying Heavy Rain was the better game, but for me it was a more enjoyable experience.

 

[chubigans]

The pacing is fucking terrible. I realize what the game is centered on and I get that but please, you couldn't throw in different tasks or something to break up the cases? It's a really bad design choice to just move straight into the next case when you haven't even had time to go piss after finishing the last one.

Yeah, it's pretty strange just jumping from case to case. There's no real sense of time or accomplishment as you get promoted...just a bunch of short story missions.

I wonder how a game would work where it would just be one case...you're following the trail of a serial killer, gaining clues, and when you catch him the game is over. But you have to do it in a way to make sure you have enough evidence, and there could be moments where you just missed the killer, etc. That would be infinitely more engaging than all of these small crime stories.

 

[Papercuts]

Yeah, it's pretty strange just jumping from case to case. There's no real sense of time or accomplishment as you get promoted...just a bunch of short story missions.

I wonder how a game would work where it would just be one case...you're following the trail of a serial killer, gaining clues, and when you catch him the game is over. But you have to do it in a way to make sure you have enough evidence, and there could be moments where you just missed the killer, etc. That would be infinitely more engaging than all of these small crime stories.

That's what I thought LA Noire was going to be like, a major case for you to track, with a ton of people to interact with and potentially arrest. 21 is waaaaay too much, none of them end up memorable at all.

 

[Y2Kev]

That's what I thought LA Noire was going to be like, a major case for you to track, with a ton of people to interact with and potentially arrest. 21 is waaaaay too much, none of them end up memorable at all.

I thought each desk was 1 case. One meaty case. They don't really give a number of cases enough time to develop. In that sense, homicide works, but it requires a real suspension of disbelief to make it work in the...other senses.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

As mentioned, the poor pacing is killer, and the fact that I'm not doing any fucking detective work doesn't help either. The gamey "interrogation" system is not influenced by anything meaningful. I spent a lot of time walking around randomly looking for evidence that I thought would be helpful, in the end you barely use 1/3 of the evidence you pick up.

I'll say it and not be ashamed but I enjoyed Heavy Rain much more than this. There were a lot of issues with that game too but the atmosphere and what I got out of the game was leaps and bounds above this one.

I'm at the point where I will probably never return to the game, and I hate to say that because I had SUCH high hopes for the game. But honestly, the closer release came, and the amount of what we saw, had me worried. I have a huge collection of adventure games, and continue to spend the money on new games in the genre, I'm always for folks trying to bring something new to the table. This game is so confusing because the more I play, the less I feel in control. Nothing really matters, in the end.

 

[TheExecutive]

It's not noir. Aside from a few "inspired" scenes and lines, it doesn't share really have any thematic similarities to noir. It's noir in the same sense that anything from the 40s would be noir-- an old record player, a hat, a suit, my grandpa, a car, a hairstyle.

The game is a repetitive snoozefest with the novelty to carry it through the first two acts before it falls flat on its face. This is not a detective game or a police simulator-- it's an on-rails walking adventure game. At no point does the player have any real agency to affect the story beyond extremely minor variances; at no point does the game expect the player to think independently or creatively (in fact, doing so penalizes your ranking). The game railroads the player into its rigid conversation "decision" system in between forcing the player to walk around and hit X a lot and exhilarating chase scenes. And there are so many chases...it's like you are playing an episode of Cops.

The facial animation is very visually impressive, but the mechanics are not there to make it meaningful. The mechanics are so limiting that the actual action sequences in the game are embarrassing. The writing is extremely uneven, with characters bouncing around from one pole to the other in seconds. There are holes so large you can step through them while holding six copies of MGS4. This is a game that is masquerading as testing a player's intellectual mettle--can you investigate? Can you listen? Can you pay attention? Can you think?-- without so much as allowing the player to screw up.

LA Noir is not noir. Its brio is impressive and nothing else is. Some people are really into the atmosphere, and that's great. I'm happy it tickles that itch. But there's nothing to this atmosphere. It's as if the entire world is a soundstage and you keep trying to peek behind it but can't. I mean, the opening of Indigo Prophecy, for example, managed at least trick the player into believing he had a large degree of control over what would and would not happen. It was an illusion, but it was incredible because you were playing it from both sides! This game can't give any real meat to the investigations and it just needs to color in half the picture!


I'm still playing it. I guess I don't hate it. But I have to play one case at a time or else I zzzzzz into space. This is just so half-baked. If this is what passes for "not dudebro," then we're really in trouble.

I agree with this entire post. You pointed out all of the flaws and playing this game one case at a time is the only way to play it. Otherwise the issues stated above can really wear on you. I like the game due its desire to do something different but I also hate it for not doing enough.

 

[TheExecutive]

Yeah, it's pretty strange just jumping from case to case. There's no real sense of time or accomplishment as you get promoted...just a bunch of short story missions.

I wonder how a game would work where it would just be one case...you're following the trail of a serial killer, gaining clues, and when you catch him the game is over. But you have to do it in a way to make sure you have enough evidence, and there could be moments where you just missed the killer, etc. That would be infinitely more engaging than all of these small crime stories.

You described exactly what I thought this game was going to be. However, it feels like a bunch of DLC patched together with a laughable overarching story.

On a side note:
What the hell is with the "fake" clues? Why have them in the game at all if you are going to immediately tell me that they arent relevant. Its like Team Bondai had different gameplay systems in place and R* decided that it would be too hard for the masses. There are very little other reasons to have them in the game other than "they are there so yeah..."

 

[Y2Kev]

^^ Shenmue envy.

 

[semiconscious]

Exactly, this game is far from noir, meaning it doesn't carry any of the established themes of "Noir" fiction/film. I agree on every other front, poor character/story development and confusing as well. Case by case, this game is bringing me down hard. I can't find the motivation to go on simply because there is nothing keeping me engrossed.

It's not noir. Aside from a few "inspired" scenes and lines, it doesn't share really have any thematic similarities to noir. It's noir in the same sense that anything from the 40s would be noir-- an old record player, a hat, a suit, my grandpa, a car, a hairstyle.

finally the amen chorus shows up :

yeah, it could've been (& hopefully, any sequel/spinoff will be). like, for example, it could've actually been 'noire' ...

if nothing else, it would seem team bondi has redefined what the concept of 'noire' is for a new generation: '40's l.a. + crime + ability to turn off color. & the fact that you play a guy with a badge, a partner, & a nice house in the burbs, who spends his days policing the underworld, rather than a disreputable loner / private eye living in the middle of that underworld, makes no difference. no getting sapped from behind, muscled by big men, taken for a ride, slipped a mickey, or seduced by a siren? makes no difference...

this game may be a number of things, including a very good episodic crime drama (which i think it is). but 'noire' it ain't...

 

[bender]

This is a game that is masquerading as testing a player's intellectual mettle--can you investigate? Can you listen? Can you pay attention? Can you think?-- without so much as allowing the player to screw up.

You can screw up during the investigation segments and this does alter (lengthen?) the rail you are being forced down. It's too bad that they went with a presentation that constantly tells you if you picked the correct answer or not. Hiding the music cues, text on the HUD and check marks in your notebook may have helped immerse the player. However that feeling probably would have been short lived with the myriad of other issues.

 

[Y2Kev]

Well, you know what would be neat? If when you didn't have enough evidence to charge someone, you couldn't charge them and you lost.

 

[bender]

I thought that was possible? And I don't think you'd want that as the cut scenes and conversations can't be skipped

 

[Y2Kev]

Is it? I was forced to charge someone in the case I replayed. Maybe it doesn't apply for all cases? Or maybe I still had too much evidence?

 

[bender]

I'm not sure but I thought I'd read that if you don't have enough evidence you can't charge someone. Maybe that only applies to cases where you have to choose which suspect to charge? I could be stupid*.

*probably am.

I stopped after completing the homicide desk and 5-starred everything except the Golden Butterfly.

Spoiler

Because the game didn't like my choice of suspect even though both were wrong! sigh

 

[Solo]

Damn, popping in this thread makes me feel like I made the right decision in skipping this. I was going to wait until Black Friday sales, but some of the vitriol being thrown around in here makes me think I won't even bother with that.

 

[TheExecutive]

You can screw up during the investigation segments and this does alter (lengthen?) the rail you are being forced down. It's too bad that they went with a presentation that constantly tells you if you picked the correct answer or not. Hiding the music cues, text on the HUD and check marks in your notebook may have helped immerse the player. However that feeling probably would have been short lived with the myriad of other issues.

I have a really hard time believing that it immersed people in the game moreso than having them. The game was designed to have them on and turning them off just turned into a hassle. I tried it with the clues and decided that mashing x constantly wasn't my idea of immersion. As for the chimes... it doesnt matter because once you have asked the question its over and there are very few cases where getting the wrong answer actually has any consequence at all for the story.

I truly do like this game but it constantly lies to your face by calling itself something that its not. I guess I am more disappointed than anything.

 

[TheExecutive]

Damn, popping in this thread makes me feel like I made the right decision in skipping this. I was going to wait until Black Friday sales, but some of the vitriol being thrown around in here makes me think I won't even bother with that.

Nah... pick it up for cheap and play a case whenever you get bored with whatever other game you are playing. It's still worth a playthrough.

 

[chubigans]

I stopped after completing the homicide desk and 5-starred everything except the Golden Butterfly.

Spoiler

Because the game didn't like my choice of suspect even though both were wrong! sigh

That brings up another point: I never got to choose in that case..instead I ended up having to

Spoiler

do a chase sequence

at the end. I was very surprised to hear that other players had a completely different experience.

The thing about that is, I have no idea why my experience was different. I didn't feel like my choices resulted in the end of that case being different for me. It just seemed like the same linear path that the game had been taking me through and I assumed it was the same ending for everyone.

Weird stuff.

 

[bender]

I have a really hard time believing that it immersed people in the game moreso than having them. The game was designed to have them on and turning them off just turned into a hassle. I tried it with the clues and decided that mashing x constantly wasn't my idea of immersion. As for the chimes... it doesnt matter because once you have asked the question its over and there are very few cases where getting the wrong answer actually has any consequence at all for the story.

I truly do like this game but it constantly lies to your face by calling itself something that its not. I guess I am more disappointed than anything.

Well, I'm saying the should take it farther and remove any hint of you being right or wrong beyond the case summary. I don't need a video game to remind me that it is a video game every few minutes. I dislike everything about this game beyond the facial animation technology and the world Team Bondi built. Luckily I went in with really low expectations so I'm not disappointed.

Damn, popping in this thread makes me feel like I made the right decision in skipping this. I was going to wait until Black Friday sales, but some of the vitriol being thrown around in here makes me think I won't even bother with that.

I still think it's worth trying. People have different tolerances. I can't stand this game but Heavy Rain was right up my alley despite the many narrative faults.

chubigans, I might be misremember the case name.

 

[chubigans]

chubigans, I might be misremember the case name.

Nah that's the right case. There was a discussion a few pages back on that one.

 

[bender]

I think I was in that conversation. Gosh, I have a horrid short term memory.

 

[Rahxephon91]

Just finished it. Really great game. One of the best of the year so far.

 

[VeryGooster]

Just found this on the Rockstar site. Sorry if it's a repost:

More and in larger sizes on this Flickr page.

 

[Buckethead]

I agree with a lot that Kev said but I also see a lot of it as sequel material.

As far as the story goes I saw it as purposely disjointed/unstructured. I liked it.

 

[Amir0x]

I have to admit, reading one post that talks about how amazing the game is followed by another who is being slowly tortured by it has triggered bursts of laughter whilst reading this thread. it's either a pure hatred or pure fondness - there is no middle ground. You're either FOR or AGAINST. Has there been any other game as this divisive?

My opinion has been pretty divided. So I don't think it's either/or. I gave the game a fairly middle-of-the-road criticism.

 

[Cheech]

Arson cases were great. Putrid ending. Looking forward to the sequel.

 

[VeryGooster]

Damn, popping in this thread makes me feel like I made the right decision in skipping this. I was going to wait until Black Friday sales, but some of the vitriol being thrown around in here makes me think I won't even bother with that.

This game is not going to be for everybody, I'll say that much. I personally loved it, criticisms notwithstanding.

 

[DarkKyo]

Is it possible for every option available in a question during an interrogation to be wrong if you don't have enough evidence? I feel like that's the jam I'm stuck in right now...

Spoiler

I'm interrogating Tiernan and McCaffrey at the moment and there doesn't seem to be any correct answer on the first question with Tiernan...

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I'd almost be happier if this game was a whole lot of nothing, ala Heavy Rain.

My problem -- well no, it's not a problem, it's actually the thing that has me still playing a case a day and enjoying it -- is that the core-investigation tool-set is really, really nice. The bits surrounding the investigation that interpret its output are mostly unsatisfying, else satisfying on a very shallow level.

The positive side of this is that a sequel could be genuinely fantastic without requiring a fundamental re-imagining or re-building of the game. Next time try and make a game, or hell, even a choose-your-own-adventure book rather than an interactive novel with barely competent stealth and action sequences, though, Team Bondi.

Given the crazy stories you hear about this game's development, it's a wonder it even shipped, so good on them for that, I suppose.

 

[Spirit3]

I have to admit, reading one post that talks about how amazing the game is followed by another who is being slowly tortured by it has triggered bursts of laughter whilst reading this thread. it's either a pure hatred or pure fondness - there is no middle ground. You're either FOR or AGAINST. Has there been any other game as this divisive?

Actually my friend and I might be the only two people in the world (doubtful) that like the game, but are/were not as amazed by it as we originally thought we would be. I don't get the hype, it's a fine adventure game but it still has alot of the GTA trappings and feels like it guides your hand too much. However, it has a compelling atmosphere and some interesting design choices (the foot chases for example).

 

[Deleted member 30609]

oh, and playing this game really cements my opinion that the standard 'centred behind the player, moderately zoomed-out' camera angle is horribly dated.

Nowadays I'd much rather see a closer camera-angle with the character slightly offset (rule of thirds and all that, it's just nice).

 

[pakkit]

oh, and playing this game really cements my opinion that the standard 'centred behind the player, moderately zoomed-out' camera angle is horribly dated.

Nowadays I'd much rather see a closer camera-angle with the character slightly offset (rule of thirds and all that, it's just nice).

This game needed a First Person mode so very bad.

The engine seems optimized to support the excellent facial animations...and not much else.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Problem is the game has been massively dumbed down for the masses. The people who want more of a challenging crime based game are left wishing it was more and the other people wish there was more to do. It's like the game can't quite make up which style it wants to be.

After this game I am going to be cautious of any more high rated Rockstar games. Something is incredibly fishy or, the reviewers only got a very limited time to play before writing a review about it. There is no way this game deserves anything over a 9 imo.

Don't get me wrong, there are parts that the game does well but it's not the game it deserves to be.

I really doubt it has anything to do with Rockstar itself. I think you're right on that most reviewers only play for a limited time before putting out their reviews. Also (and this has been going on for a long time), the gaming media seems to have a hard on for games that try not to be games, but rather "interactive experiences." Which to me screams "Hollywood blockbuster imitation."

 

[The Lamp]

It's not noir. Aside from a few "inspired" scenes and lines, it doesn't share really have any thematic similarities to noir. It's noir in the same sense that anything from the 40s would be noir-- an old record player, a hat, a suit, my grandpa, a car, a hairstyle.

The game is a repetitive snoozefest with the novelty to carry it through the first two acts before it falls flat on its face. This is not a detective game or a police simulator-- it's an on-rails walking adventure game. At no point does the player have any real agency to affect the story beyond extremely minor variances; at no point does the game expect the player to think independently or creatively (in fact, doing so penalizes your ranking). The game railroads the player into its rigid conversation "decision" system in between forcing the player to walk around and hit X a lot and exhilarating chase scenes. And there are so many chases...it's like you are playing an episode of Cops.

The facial animation is very visually impressive, but the mechanics are not there to make it meaningful. The mechanics are so limiting that the actual action sequences in the game are embarrassing. The writing is extremely uneven, with characters bouncing around from one pole to the other in seconds. There are holes so large you can step through them while holding six copies of MGS4. This is a game that is masquerading as testing a player's intellectual mettle--can you investigate? Can you listen? Can you pay attention? Can you think?-- without so much as allowing the player to screw up.

LA Noir is not noir. Its brio is impressive and nothing else is. Some people are really into the atmosphere, and that's great. I'm happy it tickles that itch. But there's nothing to this atmosphere. It's as if the entire world is a soundstage and you keep trying to peek behind it but can't. I mean, the opening of Indigo Prophecy, for example, managed at least trick the player into believing he had a large degree of control over what would and would not happen. It was an illusion, but it was incredible because you were playing it from both sides! This game can't give any real meat to the investigations and it just needs to color in half the picture!


I'm still playing it. I guess I don't hate it. But I have to play one case at a time or else I zzzzzz into space. This is just so half-baked. If this is what passes for "not dudebro," then we're really in trouble.

Totally agreed. It's funny you mention Indigo Prophecy...I was hoping this game would be kind of like the great parts of that game (the investigation and clue-finding)....yet, unbelievably, it didn't even hit that level of interest.

Interestingly, I still like the game even though I don't think it's all that good.

I think I'm going to try the game again later, intentionally skipping as many clues as possible and answering questions as wrong as possible. I want to see if I can actually FAIL as a police officer and still see the game carry out as smoothly as it does if you bother trying.

 

[DarkKyo]

I'm surprised this hadn't been posted yet... Gabe from PA's take on Cole.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I'm surprised this hadn't been posted yet... Gabe from PA's take on Cole.

That's pretty awesome

 

[The Lamp]

That pant leg crease at the right ankle is bothering me....it almost cuts his leg off.

 

[Jhoan]

I beat the game earlier myself and I played it in black and white without the rumble/music cues save for when I was extremely stuck, but for 90% of the cases, I played without it. End game spoilers:

Spoiler

I thought the ending was decent; I'm neither shocked nor satisfied, so I can't say that I liked the ending. The way Cole died was abrupt so that got me annoyed and I was at least hoping that there would be a cut scene showing Kelso and co. trying to look for him. They pulled a off a RDR with John's death, except that I thought John's death was more tragic and surprising. I was expecting Kelso and Cole to open up their own P.D. business. The whole church sermon in the ending was pretty meh, and I thought the game would have been fine without the WWII flash backs. I had a feeling that something bad was gonna go down when they decided to pull off a GTAIV and turn the last couple of missions into shootouts. I don't know where the story can go from here.

In terms of the illusion of freedom, I thought the game held the player's hand way too much throughout the ride so there was barely any room for improvisation and when you did improvise, the game would punish you for it, so I wished the game was more open ended in terms of the choices and whether or not you choose to kill suspects in street crimes ala the True Crime games. Driving was o.k, but as many people have said, the penalized you for driving which I did throughout the whole game.

If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I would say a 7.5 as well even though I experience a couple of frame rate drops. The music was pretty good as always if a tad bit too repetitive and the V.A. was good, but I'm not all that impressed with the facial animation system as there's something that looks off about it; I think it's the way characters blink that looks fake but other than that, it was good.

The shootouts were decent I suppose, so no complaints there for the most part and I used free aim. Although it would have been nice if the game had Euphoria physics ala RDR and GTAIV because I missed shooting someone on a high place only to have them stagger backwards or forwards to fall to their death; the shots didn't have any weight to them. But other than that, I can't recommend this game to anyone on the fence at 60 bucks. 30-35 bucks is the sweet spot and maybe at 40 but I just bought it because it came with a $20 off a game and a free game.

 

[Tom Penny]

I just got 100% in golden butterfly yet got 3 stars. WTF is that shit?

 

[bender]

I just got 100% in golden butterfly yet got 3 stars. WTF is that shit?

Spoiler

If you accuse Hugo, the game penalizes you and thus the three star rating.

 

[GillianSeed79]

All right, I just finished Golden Butterfly and I've got to dig back in this thread to confirm my complaint. As blacked out ahead, spoilers for this case is a comin

Spoiler

I think I know what the game WANTED me to do, but fuck that. This is a detective simulation. Please don't spoil the rest of the game, but the police chief is a twat who cares more about public perception than solving crimes. Yes, the child molester had oppourtunity, perhaps motive, but no damn jury would convict in that case. A guy like that, motive is sex crime, not robbery. Plus, there's no evidence the victim was bound. The evidence against him is circumstantial at best, especially the rope thing. All evidence points to the husband, who I charged. Yet I apparently failed that case? The child molester guy would walk in a heartbeat. End rant

I know it's just a game, but that's a cheap ploy.