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This thread has been linked to the game 'L.A. Noire'.
Good detective games are far and few between. There are plenty of mediocre ones hanging around on the budget racks but few that are actually any good. There's the Phoenix Wright games which feature a fair bit of detective work, and the spin-off Ace Attorney Investigations which is entirely based around detective work and is a fantastic game in its own right. But now we have LA Noire a detective game which could be definitely be described as good. Alas, not great, but it's still a heck of a lot better than CSI licensed dross that keeps getting pumped out.
The game is set in Los Angeles in the forties and has you playing as up and coming detective Cole Phelps. The game is split into several sections, each section detailing your experiences as a patrolman, homicide detective, vice squad detective and arson investigator. Each section contains between three and six individual cases where you have to buckle down and do some detective work in order to find the perpetrators of various crimes.
Given that LA Noire is from Rockstar, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's not surprising that you have the freedom to drive around Los Angeles as you please. You can't blow cars up, since you're supposed to be on the side of the law, but you can appropriate vehicles by flashing your badge at the car's driver. I took it upon myself to 'borrow' someone else's car whenever I needed to go anywhere. Which led to a few comedic situations - such as the time I turned up at a crime scene in a pick up truck with a couple of barrels of something foul knocking around on the back. And then proceeded to jump into the coroner's car and drive off in it - it's a small mercy there wasn't an actual body in the back. You don't have to drive to each scene yourself, though - you can have your partner drive, skipping most of the driving sections entirely.
Shenanigans aside, each case typically begins with you turning up at the crime scene and doing some poking around. More often than not, there's a body to examine, as well as a variety of other clues that may be hidden around the crime scene. The game provides musical clues as to when you've got more work to do, and when the crime scene music stops you know you've found every item there is at a crime scene. The same applies when you're nosing around another location such as someone's apartment. This being the forties, you don't have any CSI style techno-wizardy to do. Which is probably a good thing, as CSI is largely science-fiction anyway, despite it's modern setting. Although Grissom et all would probably be mortified to see you handling murder weapons and so forth with your bare hands.
Another other significant part of carrying out an investigation is interviewing people, be they suspects, witnesses or whatever. Whether you're interviewing them at their home, the crime scene or back at the station, the procedure is the same. You ask them something and they'll reply, all the information being stored in your handy notebook. You can then say whether you think they're telling the truth, whether you doubt them, or whether you think they're lying. If you think they're lying you have to back your accusation up with a piece of evidence or a witness statement or something. You can often tell when people are lying because of their body language - one character, for example bites her lip when telling a lie.
And one the cool things about LA Noire is that while most of the game's graphics are simply okay, the facial animation system excels. The characters faces are really expressive, due to some kind of special face mapping technique the designers used. The last time I saw faces this expressive was in Forbidden Siren for the Playstation 2 - although in that case, the designers just projected film footage of the actors onto a flat 2D surface, which meant they looked creepy rather than convincing. LA Noire's approach on the other hand, works really well, and adds to the game's atmosphere - not that the game would be a dud without that.
While LA Noire doesn't lead you by the hand through each case, the game is actually fairly linear. Certain locations are only accessible once the game decides they should be. I'm not talking about discovering that a location exists - because while it's true that some clues you find unlock locations straight away, there are others that don't give you access to locations until you've completed some other task first. There are also locations that you'd think you'd be able to visit but which you can't. I appreciate that the programmers had to be able to take control of the story but it's still mildly frustrating.
Rockstar deserve kudos for creating stories that are not only compelling but also sometimes surprising. And best of all, you actually feel something for the tragic victims of the crimes you investigate. Aside from sniffing out clues, you also get to chase down suspects, get into gunfights and follow cars. There are typically one or two of these short action sequences. Handily, the game gives you the option to skip them if you fall flat on your face too many times, so you can get on with the detective work. But they're not too hard anyway, so it's unlikely you'll find yourself frustrated by these sequences. It's worth sticking with them to the bitter end.
Speaking of which, one of the problems I have with LA Noire is that once you eventually finish the game there's no real reason to go back to it. Yes, you can replay the cases but given how linear they are nothing is going to change much. I rented LA Noire and while I enjoyed playing it, I've no urge to play through it again. I suspect Rockstar will be releasing more downloadable content for the game, but once again, once you've bought a particular downloadable case and finished it, you're stuck with something you won't want to play through twice. There are a couple of downloadable cases already - and this highlighted a weird problem I encountered playing LA Noire. At the beginning of one chapter, a character bemoaned the fate of a certain person who I'd never heard of. I looked that person up on the LA Noire wiki and found out that character only featured in a downloadable case that I didn't have. This was either a glitch, or a sneaky ploy to get me to buy the new DLC. It didn't work, by the way.
All in all, LA Noire is a pretty good game. While I still prefer Ace Attorney Investigations, LA Noire does a superb job of recreating the atmosphere of noir style detective and police movies and being entertaining with it. It's a joy to play, although don't count on wanting to play it again once you've finished it. LA Noire is definitely a game to rent and enjoy.
Advantages: It's really atmospheric. It's fun to play. It'll last you a while.
Disadvantages: Once you've finished it, there's no incentive to play it again. It's quite linear.
Summary: A good game, but one to rent rather than buy.
(review by me, also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)
The game is set in Los Angeles in the forties and has you playing as up and coming detective Cole Phelps. The game is split into several sections, each section detailing your experiences as a patrolman, homicide detective, vice squad detective and arson investigator. Each section contains between three and six individual cases where you have to buckle down and do some detective work in order to find the perpetrators of various crimes.
Given that LA Noire is from Rockstar, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's not surprising that you have the freedom to drive around Los Angeles as you please. You can't blow cars up, since you're supposed to be on the side of the law, but you can appropriate vehicles by flashing your badge at the car's driver. I took it upon myself to 'borrow' someone else's car whenever I needed to go anywhere. Which led to a few comedic situations - such as the time I turned up at a crime scene in a pick up truck with a couple of barrels of something foul knocking around on the back. And then proceeded to jump into the coroner's car and drive off in it - it's a small mercy there wasn't an actual body in the back. You don't have to drive to each scene yourself, though - you can have your partner drive, skipping most of the driving sections entirely.
Shenanigans aside, each case typically begins with you turning up at the crime scene and doing some poking around. More often than not, there's a body to examine, as well as a variety of other clues that may be hidden around the crime scene. The game provides musical clues as to when you've got more work to do, and when the crime scene music stops you know you've found every item there is at a crime scene. The same applies when you're nosing around another location such as someone's apartment. This being the forties, you don't have any CSI style techno-wizardy to do. Which is probably a good thing, as CSI is largely science-fiction anyway, despite it's modern setting. Although Grissom et all would probably be mortified to see you handling murder weapons and so forth with your bare hands.
Another other significant part of carrying out an investigation is interviewing people, be they suspects, witnesses or whatever. Whether you're interviewing them at their home, the crime scene or back at the station, the procedure is the same. You ask them something and they'll reply, all the information being stored in your handy notebook. You can then say whether you think they're telling the truth, whether you doubt them, or whether you think they're lying. If you think they're lying you have to back your accusation up with a piece of evidence or a witness statement or something. You can often tell when people are lying because of their body language - one character, for example bites her lip when telling a lie.
And one the cool things about LA Noire is that while most of the game's graphics are simply okay, the facial animation system excels. The characters faces are really expressive, due to some kind of special face mapping technique the designers used. The last time I saw faces this expressive was in Forbidden Siren for the Playstation 2 - although in that case, the designers just projected film footage of the actors onto a flat 2D surface, which meant they looked creepy rather than convincing. LA Noire's approach on the other hand, works really well, and adds to the game's atmosphere - not that the game would be a dud without that.
While LA Noire doesn't lead you by the hand through each case, the game is actually fairly linear. Certain locations are only accessible once the game decides they should be. I'm not talking about discovering that a location exists - because while it's true that some clues you find unlock locations straight away, there are others that don't give you access to locations until you've completed some other task first. There are also locations that you'd think you'd be able to visit but which you can't. I appreciate that the programmers had to be able to take control of the story but it's still mildly frustrating.
Rockstar deserve kudos for creating stories that are not only compelling but also sometimes surprising. And best of all, you actually feel something for the tragic victims of the crimes you investigate. Aside from sniffing out clues, you also get to chase down suspects, get into gunfights and follow cars. There are typically one or two of these short action sequences. Handily, the game gives you the option to skip them if you fall flat on your face too many times, so you can get on with the detective work. But they're not too hard anyway, so it's unlikely you'll find yourself frustrated by these sequences. It's worth sticking with them to the bitter end.
Speaking of which, one of the problems I have with LA Noire is that once you eventually finish the game there's no real reason to go back to it. Yes, you can replay the cases but given how linear they are nothing is going to change much. I rented LA Noire and while I enjoyed playing it, I've no urge to play through it again. I suspect Rockstar will be releasing more downloadable content for the game, but once again, once you've bought a particular downloadable case and finished it, you're stuck with something you won't want to play through twice. There are a couple of downloadable cases already - and this highlighted a weird problem I encountered playing LA Noire. At the beginning of one chapter, a character bemoaned the fate of a certain person who I'd never heard of. I looked that person up on the LA Noire wiki and found out that character only featured in a downloadable case that I didn't have. This was either a glitch, or a sneaky ploy to get me to buy the new DLC. It didn't work, by the way.
All in all, LA Noire is a pretty good game. While I still prefer Ace Attorney Investigations, LA Noire does a superb job of recreating the atmosphere of noir style detective and police movies and being entertaining with it. It's a joy to play, although don't count on wanting to play it again once you've finished it. LA Noire is definitely a game to rent and enjoy.
Advantages: It's really atmospheric. It's fun to play. It'll last you a while.
Disadvantages: Once you've finished it, there's no incentive to play it again. It's quite linear.
Summary: A good game, but one to rent rather than buy.
(review by me, also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Good detective games are far and few between. There are plenty of mediocre ones hanging around on the budget racks but few that are actually any good. There's the Phoenix Wright games which feature a fair bit of detective work, and the spin-off Ace Attorney Investigations which is entirely based around detective work and is a fantastic game in its own right. But now we have LA Noire a detective game which could be definitely be described as good. Alas, not great, but it's still a heck of a lot better than CSI licensed dross that keeps getting pumped out.
The game is set in Los Angeles in the forties and has you playing as up and coming detective Cole Phelps. The game is split into several sections, each section detailing your experiences as a patrolman, homicide detective, vice squad detective and arson investigator. Each section contains between three and six individual cases where you have to buckle down and do some detective work in order to find the perpetrators of various crimes.
Given that LA Noire is from Rockstar, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's not surprising that you have the freedom to drive around Los Angeles as you please. You can't blow cars up, since you're supposed to be on the side of the law, but you can appropriate vehicles by flashing your badge at the car's driver. I took it upon myself to 'borrow' someone else's car whenever I needed to go anywhere. Which led to a few comedic situations - such as the time I turned up at a crime scene in a pick up truck with a couple of barrels of something foul knocking around on the back. And then proceeded to jump into the coroner's car and drive off in it - it's a small mercy there wasn't an actual body in the back. You don't have to drive to each scene yourself, though - you can have your partner drive, skipping most of the driving sections entirely.
Shenanigans aside, each case typically begins with you turning up at the crime scene and doing some poking around. More often than not, there's a body to examine, as well as a variety of other clues that may be hidden around the crime scene. The game provides musical clues as to when you've got more work to do, and when the crime scene music stops you know you've found every item there is at a crime scene. The same applies when you're nosing around another location such as someone's apartment. This being the forties, you don't have any CSI style techno-wizardy to do. Which is probably a good thing, as CSI is largely science-fiction anyway, despite it's modern setting. Although Grissom et all would probably be mortified to see you handling murder weapons and so forth with your bare hands.
Another other significant part of carrying out an investigation is interviewing people, be they suspects, witnesses or whatever. Whether you're interviewing them at their home, the crime scene or back at the station, the procedure is the same. You ask them something and they'll reply, all the information being stored in your handy notebook. You can then say whether you think they're telling the truth, whether you doubt them, or whether you think they're lying. If you think they're lying you have to back your accusation up with a piece of evidence or a witness statement or something. You can often tell when people are lying because of their body language - one character, for example bites her lip when telling a lie.
And one the cool things about LA Noire is that while most of the game's graphics are simply okay, the facial animation system excels. The characters faces are really expressive, due to some kind of special face mapping technique the designers used. The last time I saw faces this expressive was in Forbidden Siren for the Playstation 2 - although in that case, the designers just projected film footage of the actors onto a flat 2D surface, which meant they looked creepy rather than convincing. LA Noire's approach on the other hand, works really well, and adds to the game's atmosphere - not that the game would be a dud without that.
While LA Noire doesn't lead you by the hand through each case, the game is actually fairly linear. Certain locations are only accessible once the game decides they should be. I'm not talking about discovering that a location exists - because while it's true that some clues you find unlock locations straight away, there are others that don't give you access to locations until you've completed some other task first. There are also locations that you'd think you'd be able to visit but which you can't. I appreciate that the programmers had to be able to take control of the story but it's still mildly frustrating.
Rockstar deserve kudos for creating stories that are not only compelling but also sometimes surprising. And best of all, you actually feel something for the tragic victims of the crimes you investigate. Aside from sniffing out clues, you also get to chase down suspects, get into gunfights and follow cars. There are typically one or two of these short action sequences. Handily, the game gives you the option to skip them if you fall flat on your face too many times, so you can get on with the detective work. But they're not too hard anyway, so it's unlikely you'll find yourself frustrated by these sequences. It's worth sticking with them to the bitter end.
Speaking of which, one of the problems I have with LA Noire is that once you eventually finish the game there's no real reason to go back to it. Yes, you can replay the cases but given how linear they are nothing is going to change much. I rented LA Noire and while I enjoyed playing it, I've no urge to play through it again. I suspect Rockstar will be releasing more downloadable content for the game, but once again, once you've bought a particular downloadable case and finished it, you're stuck with something you won't want to play through twice. There are a couple of downloadable cases already - and this highlighted a weird problem I encountered playing LA Noire. At the beginning of one chapter, a character bemoaned the fate of a certain person who I'd never heard of. I looked that person up on the LA Noire wiki and found out that character only featured in a downloadable case that I didn't have. This was either a glitch, or a sneaky ploy to get me to buy the new DLC. It didn't work, by the way.
All in all, LA Noire is a pretty good game. While I still prefer Ace Attorney Investigations, LA Noire does a superb job of recreating the atmosphere of noir style detective and police movies and being entertaining with it. It's a joy to play, although don't count on wanting to play it again once you've finished it. LA Noire is definitely a game to rent and enjoy.
Advantages: It's really atmospheric. It's fun to play. It'll last you a while.
Disadvantages: Once you've finished it, there's no incentive to play it again. It's quite linear.
Summary: A good game, but one to rent rather than buy.
(review by me, also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)
The game is set in Los Angeles in the forties and has you playing as up and coming detective Cole Phelps. The game is split into several sections, each section detailing your experiences as a patrolman, homicide detective, vice squad detective and arson investigator. Each section contains between three and six individual cases where you have to buckle down and do some detective work in order to find the perpetrators of various crimes.
Given that LA Noire is from Rockstar, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's not surprising that you have the freedom to drive around Los Angeles as you please. You can't blow cars up, since you're supposed to be on the side of the law, but you can appropriate vehicles by flashing your badge at the car's driver. I took it upon myself to 'borrow' someone else's car whenever I needed to go anywhere. Which led to a few comedic situations - such as the time I turned up at a crime scene in a pick up truck with a couple of barrels of something foul knocking around on the back. And then proceeded to jump into the coroner's car and drive off in it - it's a small mercy there wasn't an actual body in the back. You don't have to drive to each scene yourself, though - you can have your partner drive, skipping most of the driving sections entirely.
Shenanigans aside, each case typically begins with you turning up at the crime scene and doing some poking around. More often than not, there's a body to examine, as well as a variety of other clues that may be hidden around the crime scene. The game provides musical clues as to when you've got more work to do, and when the crime scene music stops you know you've found every item there is at a crime scene. The same applies when you're nosing around another location such as someone's apartment. This being the forties, you don't have any CSI style techno-wizardy to do. Which is probably a good thing, as CSI is largely science-fiction anyway, despite it's modern setting. Although Grissom et all would probably be mortified to see you handling murder weapons and so forth with your bare hands.
Another other significant part of carrying out an investigation is interviewing people, be they suspects, witnesses or whatever. Whether you're interviewing them at their home, the crime scene or back at the station, the procedure is the same. You ask them something and they'll reply, all the information being stored in your handy notebook. You can then say whether you think they're telling the truth, whether you doubt them, or whether you think they're lying. If you think they're lying you have to back your accusation up with a piece of evidence or a witness statement or something. You can often tell when people are lying because of their body language - one character, for example bites her lip when telling a lie.
And one the cool things about LA Noire is that while most of the game's graphics are simply okay, the facial animation system excels. The characters faces are really expressive, due to some kind of special face mapping technique the designers used. The last time I saw faces this expressive was in Forbidden Siren for the Playstation 2 - although in that case, the designers just projected film footage of the actors onto a flat 2D surface, which meant they looked creepy rather than convincing. LA Noire's approach on the other hand, works really well, and adds to the game's atmosphere - not that the game would be a dud without that.
While LA Noire doesn't lead you by the hand through each case, the game is actually fairly linear. Certain locations are only accessible once the game decides they should be. I'm not talking about discovering that a location exists - because while it's true that some clues you find unlock locations straight away, there are others that don't give you access to locations until you've completed some other task first. There are also locations that you'd think you'd be able to visit but which you can't. I appreciate that the programmers had to be able to take control of the story but it's still mildly frustrating.
Rockstar deserve kudos for creating stories that are not only compelling but also sometimes surprising. And best of all, you actually feel something for the tragic victims of the crimes you investigate. Aside from sniffing out clues, you also get to chase down suspects, get into gunfights and follow cars. There are typically one or two of these short action sequences. Handily, the game gives you the option to skip them if you fall flat on your face too many times, so you can get on with the detective work. But they're not too hard anyway, so it's unlikely you'll find yourself frustrated by these sequences. It's worth sticking with them to the bitter end.
Speaking of which, one of the problems I have with LA Noire is that once you eventually finish the game there's no real reason to go back to it. Yes, you can replay the cases but given how linear they are nothing is going to change much. I rented LA Noire and while I enjoyed playing it, I've no urge to play through it again. I suspect Rockstar will be releasing more downloadable content for the game, but once again, once you've bought a particular downloadable case and finished it, you're stuck with something you won't want to play through twice. There are a couple of downloadable cases already - and this highlighted a weird problem I encountered playing LA Noire. At the beginning of one chapter, a character bemoaned the fate of a certain person who I'd never heard of. I looked that person up on the LA Noire wiki and found out that character only featured in a downloadable case that I didn't have. This was either a glitch, or a sneaky ploy to get me to buy the new DLC. It didn't work, by the way.
All in all, LA Noire is a pretty good game. While I still prefer Ace Attorney Investigations, LA Noire does a superb job of recreating the atmosphere of noir style detective and police movies and being entertaining with it. It's a joy to play, although don't count on wanting to play it again once you've finished it. LA Noire is definitely a game to rent and enjoy.
Advantages: It's really atmospheric. It's fun to play. It'll last you a while.
Disadvantages: Once you've finished it, there's no incentive to play it again. It's quite linear.
Summary: A good game, but one to rent rather than buy.
(review by me, also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)