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[Montresor]

Hmmmm... first case. I can remember only a little about the Red Lipstick murder, Snuggler. Oh well.

*Note: I had started writing this post and got carried away and now it has a shitload of late game spoilers. So best if you don't un-highlight, Snuggler.

If you had mentioned one of the arson cases, I was going to say

Spoiler

the arson boss scolded me for charging, of three possible suspects, the guy who had an outstanding warrant for murder in Detroit. In retrospect it was silly to hang an arson beef on that kind of murderer. Turns out the real suspect I should have went after was the Malcolm In The Middle guy (infamous for his "you're an idiot if you think otherwise!" diatribe in the duck candy episode). Malcom In The Middle guy's family was burned alive in a water heater accident, and said water heater was manufactured by Hephaistos, and Hephaistos was bought out by InstaHeat, and the dude has tons of anarchist pamphlets in his locker, you get the picture

.

Of course, similar to the homicide cases,

Spoiler

neither of the three suspects in that arson case (I think it was The Gas Man) were truly responsible for the fire, and this is something I loved about the game. With only ONE exception (The Golden Butterfly), the right guy for the crime, the guy you needed to charge for the full five stars, was usually the guy that was the best fit for the crime given the evidence. But the arson and homicide desks had very satisfying arcs where you kept putting guys away but Phelps kept questioning if he was nabbing the right guys and eventually big conspiracies were uncovered and the real Dhalia murderer or the real psycho cowboy arsonist was captured/killed at the end of each desk. It felt authentic to me

.

 

[Macattk15]

People hated Heavy Rain but liked this? I get a very Heavy Rain-ish feel from this game. Minus the QTE's of course.

I'm halfway through Homicide I think. I'm liking it but I do get a little bored sometimes while playing it.

 

[Bliddo]

People hated Heavy Rain but liked this? I get a very Heavy Rain-ish feel from this game. Minus the QTE's of course.

Plus real gameplay, minus obnoxious characters.

 

[Rahxephon91]

People hated Heavy Rain but liked this? I get a very Heavy Rain-ish feel from this game. Minus the QTE's of course.

I'm halfway through Homicide I think. I'm liking it but I do get a little bored sometimes while playing it.

Well LA Noire has a good story.

Actually though, I kind of have been interested in replaying Heavy Rain because of LA Noire and because I saw it for $14.99 at a local store.

 

[Snuggles]

People hated Heavy Rain but liked this? I get a very Heavy Rain-ish feel from this game. Minus the QTE's of course.

In Heavy Rain's defense, it didn't have any tedious sections, say like the driving/chasing/shooting parts in LA. No lame action parts, just QTE's and stuff that push the story forward.

 

[fernoca]

Before playing it, I thought it looked quite similar to Heavy Rain...
But after playing it, the only similarity I got was when you were looking around for items/clues and inspecting items.

It ended being a mix of the games I mentioned before (Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood ,Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney, Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption)..and now thinking about it, even a little of: Alan Wake (and how there's an "open world" but for story purposes it seems restricted to maintain the narrative to some degree. Even the driving/shooting ended reminding me of that game, more than GTA as I originally thought. Only difference being that you can actually explore the city in LA Noire. All games I really liked.

But as far as "open-world games" goes, I think LA Noire is my favorite, probably because of the "restrictions" at first, it forced me to play it, get to know the characters, city and the game..unlike in the other games, when you do one/first mission/thing, then you're thrown in the middle of a city/place and you can do a bazillion/random things before going to the next mission.

Now that I finished it, I can actually walk around, explore some more, drive around waiting for dispatch to tell me about some robbery I need to stop...while looking for film-reels, new cars and police-badges to unlock a new costume.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

I think the side missions are even worse.

The side missions are sometimes quite interesting, but what I hate is if you do the main mission, drive to some certain place, suddenly "Robbery/shooting bla at bla bla", you think it's fun, drive there, do the job, drive back to the main mission's location, then again after a few seconds "Robbery/shooting bla at bla bla"..
It just happens too often/soon.

 

[Gen X]

The only good characters of this game are Cole's partners, Captain Donnolly and Jack Kelso. Cole has absolutely no motives and his wife was barely a character.

I tried to reply to this yesterday but I was having issues on my mobile phone.

I'm not sure how far through the story you're talking, but I can assume that for a lot of people if any of the newspapers are missed along the way as you find them that the end of Vice can seem like a total 'Truck wheel out of fucking nowhere' moment.

 

[wetwired]

So I've finished the first case of Vice, rolling back to the Slip of the Tongue DLC for a break before getting back into it. Anywhere here's my impression of the Homicide Desk...

Spoiler

I found the wrap up of the Black Dahlia\Serial Killer arc to be rather disappointing, after about the 3rd homicide case it was obvious there was a serial killer at work. Pretty much after the The Golden Butterfly case, I pinned it on the husband and I felt punished for it, I'm pretty sure that same outcome would have happened if I'd picked the pedo too. At that point I was certain it was a serial killer and all of the homicide cases up to and after that point felt like a waste of time.

Then given the outcome of the homicide finale, I felt jipped. 5 or 6 cases where all of them I'd falsely charged an innocent person and not only did the truth get covered up I get ripped off of homicide to Vice.

It would have been nice to have 1 or 2 of the homicide cases be unrelated to the black dahlia killing just so the who desk didn't feel like a waste of time. Plus it would have been nice to just get a break from another naked female body with in an abusive\troubled relationship.

Also I was positive Rusty was gonna die in the finale of Homicide, a retiring old detective paired up with the young recruit. Guess that's a bit too clichéd.

Lastly I was actually surprised that Vice followed Homicide and at the progression of the desks in general, for some reason in my head I figured it would be a natural progression to go from Traffic then to Arson, Homicide and finally Vice. I hope it doesn't feel like a downgrade when I go from Vice to Arson, as it sounds like it would be to me.

/rant

 

[StevePharma]

I was watching Se7en yesterday for the billionth time and it just SCREAMS to be L.A. Noir'd --> get on it Bondi !

People already mashed Se7en with Heavy Rain, so why not with L.A. Noire?

 

[jett]

Plus real gameplay, minus obnoxious characters.

Where's the real gameplay? In the automated shooting, in the youdon'thavetodoanything car chases, or in the interrogations that don't matter one bit?

 

[Totobeni]

People hated Heavy Rain but liked this? I get a very Heavy Rain-ish feel from this game. Minus the QTE's of course.

They are the same kind of crap imho, both tried to be movies ( and forgot about gameplay) and both completely failed.

Well LA Noire has a good story.
.

The "story" it's just as horrible as HR.

 

[Numpt3]

Just charged the wrong person on the first arson case, whoops.

 

[Totobeni]

Just charged the wrong person on the first arson case, whoops.

Here is what L.A. Noire/Mcnamara taught us:

If all the evidence and clues point to someone, and he run away in the streets from you, and he even said he did it during the integration ,then he is not the real killer.

 

[Numpt3]

Here is what L.A. Noire/Mcnamara taught us

If all the evidence and clues point to someone, and he run away in the streets from you, and he even said he did it during the integration ,then he is not the real killer.

Lol, that's definitely the way it seems so far.

 

[NumberTwo]

Here is what L.A. Noire/Mcnamara taught us:

If all the evidence and clues point to someone, and he run away in the streets from you, and he even said he did it during the integration ,then he is not the real killer.

Hell, literally half the game consists of

Spoiler

accusing the wrong people

. It gets kind of excessive.

 

[matrix-cat]

I got the game today, played through the first ten cases, and it just hasn't really clicked with me yet. I love the atmosphere, and I love investigating and searching for clues, but interrogations just never go the way I want them to. The choices I make never work out the way I expect them to. I feel like a lot of the time someone will say something and I'll be all "Ha! Lie, motherfucker!" but then Phelps will change the subject as he accuses them and I'll be lost. Either that or I won't be able to work out which clue means what, and I'll pick one that I think should be right and I get the horrible four notes of failure.

I also never feel like I'm actually convicting the right guy, which may be intentional given the subject matter of the first few Homicide cases.

Spoiler

I keep arresting dudes and dead naked ladies keep turning up, so presumably I'm not getting the right guys

. I'm enjoying the game so far but it can be pretty frustrating at times.

 

[Amory]

Spoiler

i wish i could've played as kelso the entire game. MUCH better character than cole.

 

[Tawpgun]

Ugh. I have NO incentive of replaying this.

Buyers Remorse.....

 

[Atomski]

Well LA Noire has a good story.

Is it just me or does this game hardly even have any story. Just a bunch of crime scenes with a little tiny bit of filler in between. I feel like I hardly know Phelps.. far as I know he has some form of down syndrome.

 

[Amory]

Wait....wat. Are there multiple endings or was that it?

Spoiler

that didn't make any sense

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Well LA Noire has a good story.

You might want to stay away from the LA Noire spoiler thread. ;P

 

[daviyoung]

Ugh. I have NO incentive of replaying this.

Buyers Remorse.....

Here you go:

http://www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx?lid=13465&cm_sp=homePage-_-signPosts-_-preownedTradeInOffers

 

[Totobeni]

Is it just me or does this game hardly even have any story. Just a bunch of crime scenes with a little tiny bit of filler in between. I feel like I hardly know Phelps.. far as I know he has some form of down syndrome.

Yup, only the The homicide cases were kinda tied together (but in the most stupid way possible)and the news paper crap,as for Phelps, yeah he is no character with no personality, hell if they replaced Phelps with Robocop and a entire cast with cyborg monkeys it will make zero difference.

Ugh. I have NO incentive of replaying this.

Well there is absolutely no replay value/replayability in this turd.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

Hell, literally half the game consists of

Spoiler

accusing the wrong people

. It gets kind of excessive.

I know right? What do you expect with shallow investigations that revolve around random evidence and poorly written scenarios. Absolutely no sense of accomplishment.

 

[kinoki]

Just finished this. It's really one of the more fun games I've ever played. Seriously love this, every single thing about it. Sure, it's not the same class as other Rockstar productions but it would have been a trainwreck without them (of that I have no doubt). As it stands I loved every second of it. Will platinum. So fun just driving around the city.

 

[The Lamp]

Just finished the Vice desk. I cannot believe how quickly this game's plot went down the crapper. I commend Team Bondi for being so incompetent in plot writing that I'm actually having to turn off the PS3 and stop playing for a while because it's so bad.

Spoiler

Seriously? Cole cheating on his wife with an interrogation witness? Whom he had met for only a few minutes, had no real connection with (unless they are somehow insinuating that he had gotten to know her all those nights at the Blue Moon club or whatever)? There was absolutely no real explanation or motivation behind it...every time Cole had the chance to explain himself, he kept quiet. WTF is this? What a terrible excuse for a plot twist! What a terrible reason to move on to Arson! And now instead of "working your way up through the ranks", you're DEMOTED to Arson? Even weirder is that they made it seem like Cole was fired because they said they couldn't have a criminal in the LAPD, but then they change their minds and put him on Arson? How the hell did Roy get those pictures anyway? He didn't follow him, as far as we know...he just knew about it somehow.

And Cole found out he was being betrayed through a newspaper on the ground at a shooting...yet they don't use that opportunity to make Cole realize what's going on.

I'm just...ugh....the worst thing about this game is how wrong the order of progression is. I feel like if they had had the Murder desk as the last desk in the game

Spoiler

(and had it completely fixed, restructured, and fixed the entire subplot behind it (made the Black Dahlia murders less repetitive and more logical and more satisfying to solve

) the game would have been a lot better.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

Just finished this. It's really one of the more fun games I've ever played. Seriously love this, every single thing about it. Sure, it's not the same class as other Rockstar productions but it would have been a trainwreck without them (of that I have no doubt). As it stands I loved every second of it. Will platinum. So fun just driving around the city.

Can't say I agree with you. In fact, completely disagree. We don't know how this would have been without Rockstar, but I have a hunch it was quite a different game.

 

[fernoca]

Well, my to-do list for today:
-Get the remaining 18 badges
-Get at least 10 new cars
-At least 10 film-reels
-At least 10 street-crimes

Release the DLC already!! I want 'Slip in the Tongue'!! XD
Definitely one of my favorites this year. Even my dad loved it..says it was quite similar to movies with the "super-hero like investigator that rarely had his hat fell off, the government corruption, the "tempting woman", and so on...

I'm just...ugh....the worst thing about this game is how wrong the order of progression is. I feel like if they had had the Murder desk as the last desk in the game

Spoiler

(and had it completely fixed, restructured, and fixed the entire subplot behind it (made the Black Dahlia murders less repetitive and more logical and more satisfying to solve

) the game would have been a lot better.

I really liked how they handled "that", because it was more atone to what was rumored that happen in reality, than the "happy endings" some movies and books gave it.

 

[Totobeni]

Can't say I agree with you. In fact, completely disagree. We don't know how this would have been without Rockstar, but I have a hunch it was quite a different game.

For start ,without Rockstar, reviewers will give it honest reviews not just fapping all over Rockstar logo and blindly write shit that made it sound like flawless piece of art dropped to mankind from heaven, when in reality it's full of bad design choices and problems.

 

[Rahxephon91]

You might want to stay away from the LA Noire spoiler thread. ;P

I actually have read that thread and I honestly can not agree with most of the points the people in there have made.

The "story" it's just as horrible as HR.

Well I strongly disagree with you. The story is really good and writing is pretty great.

Is it just me or does this game hardly even have any story. Just a bunch of crime scenes with a little tiny bit of filler in between. I feel like I hardly know Phelps.. far as I know he has some form of down syndrome.

Well it's not just you,but I don't agree with you. I'm not sure how you can hardly know Phelps. A lot of his dialogue with his partners and in the flashbacks tell you what he is. He's a naive guy who really believes in order above all else, but that's kind of fake. There is tons of story in the Vice and Arson case that ties into the WII flashbacks and the overall narrative as well. Not every element is strong like the thing with Elsa, but people constantly complain how they did'nt even know Phelps had a family. Were you guys not paying attention? A lot of the partner dialogue is specially about him having a family.

 

[The Lamp]

I really liked how they handled "that", because it was more atone to what was rumored that happen in reality, than the "happy endings" some movies and books gave it.

Look, "that"'s not what I"m talking about when I say they needed to fix the Murder desk.

Spoiler

I don't care that we weren't allowed to reveal the murderer. In reality, we never found out who did the Black Dahlia, right? That wasn't what's wrong with it. Like everything else wrong with this game, it was exposited badly. What was wrong with it was the terrible way it led up to the revelation of the murderer and him being like "yup lol I did it" and then you killing him within a minute. No brooding, villainous speech, no climactic build-up and tension as you were looking for him, no satisfying "aha" moment when you find out who it is (though I knew it was the bar temp since like the second or third case) where everything starts to make sense (since everything except the fact that he was at every bar the victim was at actually made him stand out as the suspect...and all the people you convicted were falsely tied into it all); just some stupid fetch-quest with arbitrary gameplay gimmicks until you stumble upon the serial killer behind a desk. It wasn't satisfying at all for a desk where all the cases were intertwined. It was a very weak exhale for an apex of tension.

 

[Atomski]

Just finished the Vice desk. I cannot believe how quickly this game's plot went down the crapper. I commend Team Bondi for being so incompetent in plot writing that I'm actually having to turn off the PS3 and stop playing for a while because it's so bad.

Spoiler

Seriously? Cole cheating on his wife with an interrogation witness? Whom he had met for only a few minutes, had no real connection with (unless they are somehow insinuating that he had gotten to know her all those nights at the Blue Moon club or whatever)? There was absolutely no real explanation or motivation behind it...every time Cole had the chance to explain himself, he kept quiet. WTF is this? What a terrible excuse for a plot twist! What a terrible reason to move on to Arson! And now instead of "working your way up through the ranks", you're DEMOTED to Arson? Even weirder is that they made it seem like Cole was fired because they said they couldn't have a criminal in the LAPD, but then they change their minds and put him on Arson? How the hell did Roy get those pictures anyway? He didn't follow him, as far as we know...he just knew about it somehow.

And Cole found out he was being betrayed through a newspaper on the ground at a shooting...yet they don't use that opportunity to make Cole realize what's going on.

I'm just...ugh....the worst thing about this game is how wrong the order of progression is. I feel like if they had had the Murder desk as the last desk in the game

Spoiler

(and had it completely fixed, restructured, and fixed the entire subplot behind it (made the Black Dahlia murders less repetitive and more logical and more satisfying to solve

) the game would have been a lot better.

Yep, this is how I felt as well. They executed this part so badly.

 

[Sectus]

Quick question, can anyone remember which case in the game has the highest amount of interrogations? I'm about to do the achievement where you get 47,000 dollars in penalties, and I wanna do that with style by also accusing every person of lying.

Edit: Never mind. I remembered there's the rock star social club thing which has info about each case. http://socialclub.rockstargames.com/games/lan/casetracker.html?desk=AH#panel-4

Looks like "white shoe slaying" is one of the with highest amount of people to interrogate.

This should be a VERY satisfying case to do.

 

[fernoca]

Look, "that"'s not what I"m talking about when I say they needed to fix the Murder desk.

Spoiler

I don't care that we weren't allowed to reveal the murderer. In reality, we never found out who did the Black Dahlia, right? That wasn't what's wrong with it. Like everything else wrong with this game, it was exposited badly. What was wrong with it was the terrible way it led up to the revelation of the murderer and him being like "yup lol I did it" and then you killing him within a minute. No brooding, villainous speech, no climactic build-up and tension as you were looking for him, no satisfying "aha" moment when you find out who it is (though I knew it was the bar temp since like the second or third case) where everything starts to make sense (since everything except the fact that he was at every bar the victim was at actually made him stand out as the suspect...and all the people you convicted were falsely tied into it all); just some stupid fetch-quest with arbitrary gameplay gimmicks until you stumble upon the serial killer behind a desk. It wasn't satisfying at all for a desk where all the cases were intertwined. It was a very weak exhale for an apex of tension.

Well, "that" I had no problems either. I thought that from a gameplay standpoint it served to break the (relative) monotony of that desk and from a story-perspective, it helped Cole (and the player) to notice that things may not be as they seem; since after that Cole starts questioning and wondering things more...which affect "his outcome".

Quick question, can anyone remember which case in the game has the highest amount of interrogations? I'm about to do the achievement where you get 47,000 dollars in penalties, and I wanna do that with style by also accusing every person of lying.

Edit: Never mind. I remembered there's the rock star social club thing which has info about each case. http://socialclub.rockstargames.com/games/lan/casetracker.html?desk=AH#panel-4

Looks like "white shoe slaying" is one of the with highest amount of people to interrogate.

This should be a VERY satisfying case to do.

Oh! Was wondering about that! Thanks! XD
Another thing added to the "to-do list for today".

Will mix that with the "use 4 intuition points-achievement", since I never used one...

 

[semiconscious]

The story is really good and writing is pretty great.

the story:

Spoiler

Cole making a soldier lose his mind, who would later go to a mastermind doctor who is part of a conspiracy Cole investigates, who then kidnaps the woman Cole is in love with and ends up being the last criminal you go after...

if you genuinely feel this is 'really good', in the context of a mature crime thriller, it's hard to imagine what you'd consider to be contrived, or ludicrous...

were this a game that wasn't taking itself dead seriously, i could buy it. but it is, & thus all the head-shaking on this thread...

 

[Incendiary]

Question to the completionists. Does five-starring cases count towards 100% game complete, or do you just need to solve all cases and stree crimes and get all cars/film reels/landmarks?

I haven't five-starred a case yet and I'm in Arson. Damn my horrible driving.

 

[Rahxephon91]

the story:



if you genuinely feel this is 'really good', in the context of a mature crime thriller, it's hard to imagine what you'd consider to be contrived, or ludicrous...

were this a game that wasn't taking itself dead seriously, i could buy it. but it is, & thus all the head-shaking on this thread...

If you want to pull the "lists stupid things without detail" card. Lets do this for something a bit more legitimate.

Poor Jewish kid spies on girl as she gets naked. Poor Jewish kid forms gang that steals alcohol from the river and then their gang gets in a gunfight were poor Jewish kid stabs older male. Jewish male gets out of Jail, reunites with past friend who start doing stuff. Jewish dude rapes female friend from before for no reason. Friend besides to betray friend and fakes his death by somehow staging a car accident. Friend returns as a politician and married to female friend even though they disliked each other. Friend throws himself in a garbage truck to kill himself. And the movie is also told out of order for a good part of it.

And it's not even ludicrous, that plot summary when you actually explain what happen.

Spoiler

The soldier lot his mind because he burned tons of innocent people, which also shocked the "jap lover" Cole because it was his order. Cole was supposed to be a great commanding officer and he let it go to his head, but he wasn't. This also plays out in the main game. That dosen't sound crazy at all to me. He goes to the doctor because Courtney recommends him and Courtney is obviously an underling of the doctor, because he's in college to be a doctor. He's a protege of Fountiane and respects him, Courtney also really wants to help GI's so he would obviously recommend a GI see someone he really respects. Fountiane is in reality an egomaniac and that's pretty obvious from the way he talks, but the smart guy being a little crazy is a common troupe in the mystery genre. So he would obviously take advantage of things, use people, and try to better himself. I'm not sure how it's stupid that Fountiane finds himself apart of the conspiracy. He's just taking a que from what Courtney wanted to do, which is help GIs. He is helping them, only just making tons of money off of them. If the argument is that the this game has some crazy things like a "doctor being crazy" then I just don't but the argument. Many classic stories have had "crazy" elements to them.

 

[Rodhull]

Question to the completionists. Does five-starring cases count towards 100% game complete, or do you just need to solve all cases and stree crimes and get all cars/film reels/landmarks?

I haven't five-starred a case yet and I'm in Arson. Damn my horrible driving.

No it doesn't. I already have the 100% and am only going through the game again to 5 star some of the cases I missed out on now.

 

[The Lamp]

Well, "that" I had no problems either. I thought that from a gameplay standpoint it served to break the (relative) monotony of that desk and from a story-perspective, it helped Cole (and the player) to notice that things may not be as they seem; since after that Cole starts questioning and wondering things more...which affect "his outcome".

It was still handled poorly and could have been done much better.

 

[Sectus]

... damnit! Only 27,000 dollar penalties! I guess I'll need to go way more crazy. By the way, it seems like it's easier to rack up penalties with destroying cars than damaging civilians or doing city damage.

And one new thing I discovered. Some interrogations can have many right answers, there could be 2 right buttons to press, I wasn't aware of that. One specific example:

Spoiler

Stuart Ackerman in the white shoe case. With the first question there's at least 3 right answers:
-Doubt
-Lie (purse)
-Lie (rope)

 

[styl3s]

Ugh. I have NO incentive of replaying this.

Buyers Remorse.....

That sucks, i am in my second play through and enjoying every minute.

 

[Incendiary]

No it doesn't. I already have the 100% and am only going through the game again to 5 star some of the cases I missed out on now.

Sweet. I wasn't gonna go for 100% if it involved five starring because I'm not sure I have it in me to go back and redo every case right away. But now I'll go ahead and attempt it. I'm up to 71 cars but still have a few hidden vehicles I haven't picked up yet. I have a feeling getting the cars will be the bitch.

Something else that's been bugging me. I swear on my life that there were two achievements that weren't there now. One was for rolling a suspect's vehicle during a car chase, and one was participating in a double team brawl fight. I swear I saw them because I've been attempting to roll cars for every chase, wondering why I'm not unlocking it until I checked and couldn't find hide nor hair of it in the achievement section now. Am I going crazy?

 

[Sectus]

Something else that's been bugging me. I swear on my life that there were two achievements that weren't there now. One was for rolling a suspect's vehicle during a car chase, and one was participating in a double team brawl fight. I swear I saw them because I've been attempting to roll cars for every chase, wondering why I'm not unlocking it until I checked and couldn't find hide nor hair of it in the achievement section now. Am I going crazy?

Those are mentioned on the stats screen, but they don't unlock achievements.

 

[FStop7]

In Heavy Rain's defense, it didn't have any tedious sections, say like the driving/chasing/shooting parts in LA. No lame action parts, just QTE's and stuff that push the story forward.

Whaaaat

Making your stupid kid dinner wasn't tedious? Or unpacking groceries?

Or the power plant section? That entire thing was tedious.

 

[Incendiary]

And one new thing I discovered. Some interrogations can have many right answers, there could be 2 right buttons to press, I wasn't aware of that.

Yeah, I found that out today too. I was using a guide to make sure I got the Hunch achievement on one interrogation, and the answer in the guide was "Lie" but when I used an intuition point it removed lie. I was like "WTF" so I had to go with doubt and all was good. But that was really weird.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

the story:



if you genuinely feel this is 'really good', in the context of a mature crime thriller, it's hard to imagine what you'd consider to be contrived, or ludicrous...

were this a game that wasn't taking itself dead seriously, i could buy it. but it is, & thus all the head-shaking on this thread...

Exactly what I was thinking.

Well, more along the lines of..."What story?" This game had no semblance of a coherent or interesting narrative.

 

[The Lamp]

Second big Arson case. I'm getting sick of this.

Spoiler

I charged the right suspect, as always. But I had a feeling it wasn't him because neither of the two really had the right motive to cause all the trouble that had happened. Turns out, when I get to the second case, there's another serial criminal on the loose that's doing all these crimes. Why does this game keep forcing me to charge criminals that don't actually commit the crimes? In that sense, why does it even matter who you charge? It's different if you had no idea, but the game sometimes makes it pretty blunt that the people you're dealing with are getting kind of set up. Especially in the Arson desk's case; I mean, even the opening case intro shows the same guy doing both crimes, and it doesn't look like either of the suspects.

Whaaaat

Making your stupid kid dinner wasn't tedious? Or unpacking groceries?

Or the power plant section? That entire thing was tedious.

I dunno, I didn't find those tedious. I thought they were kind of neat. The power plant section WAS annoying, though.

 

[Incendiary]

Third Arson case spoilers: "House of Sticks"

Spoiler

Is it just me or does Kelso have more personality than Cole? I love playing as Jack and him running around investigating is a real nice change of pace from the police investigation angle. It sucks that this is happening so close to the end, I would have liked Cole's investigations broken up a bit more.

Also, I find it hilarious that while you're Jack, you basically revert to GTA mode and manhandle people out of their cars like a jackass.

 

[Denzar]

Man, talk about an unsatisfying conclusion to the homicide desk cases.