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This thread has been linked to the game 'L.A. Noire'.
L.A. Noire is an open world crime thriller developed by Team Bondi. I didn't have any doubts that the game would sell well, with the Rockstar/Take-Two publisher behind it. The problem was that the game had 7 years of development and even after 4 million copies sold, it wasn't enough to save Team Bondi after all their financial mismanagement.
Me and my brother were excited about trying a game based on detective work and using initiative, but we both ended up with mixed feelings about how the experience turned out.
L.A. Noire was set in 1940's L.A. You play as detective Cole Phelps who starts off as a patrolman, who has to work his way up the ranks and eventually moves to Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson. Each desk has you working with a different partner, who comes along on your investigations and you are given a star ranking from 1-5 dependant on what decisions you make.
I stated that this was an open world game, because it isn't a sandbox. You can't interact with much outside missions appart from the optional side missions that you are called to do. There are also collectables to find such as police badges and film reels, but they are completely optional.
The main missions have clearly defined gameplay sections, which start to become predictable. You search a crime scene interacting with each object until the game states that you have found a clue. You then check your notebook to make sure you have found everything. This isn't detective work, there isn't anything for you to figure out as a player. There a chasing squences that are dull as it feels inevitable that you are going to catch them, whether you tap tackle them or shot in the air or have a cutscene take it to its conclusion. The fighting squences are also tame, as I never lost a fight by mashing buttons, apart from one that you are guarenteed to lose as part of the story.
I like the auto drive feature, as it allows you to skip to your destination if you wish. I wish they had this in GTA so I wouldn't have to keep driving back to my safehouse between missions or dropping people off at their houses. This is similar to riding horses in Red Dead Redemption, where you would hold x next to another horse rider that you had to follow and listen to their conversation as you rode to your destination. In L.A. Noire, you don't have to bother holding x, you just pick your destination and like a car that drives itself, the AI chat to you while taking you to your destination.
The shooting sections were one of the few sections that actually felt like gameplay. The problem is that you can take many shots before going down and the AI either pops up and down predictably or moves out in the open for an easy kill, which means that these sections aren't really challenging either.
The best part of L.A. Noire is the interrogation sections, which allows you to use logic to call out when people are lying with evidence, which is satifying when it works well. After you ask a question, they will give a statement and you have to select whether they are telling the truth, lying or whether you doubt their answer. The problem is that lie, truth or doubt doesn't always give enough context on what you are specifically asking them, which results in frequent confusion. It also means that you have no idea as to how Cole Phelps is going to react to your choices and he always seems anrgy and forceful in his questioning, even to victims of crime.
A tip for interrogations: you should always pick "Lie" first if you are unsure. This is because you will hear Cole's accustation, see the list of possible evidence that you can bring up and then back out if you don't think any of the evidence is relevant.
I also wonder, apart from graphical detail, why they bothered to mention facial animations when interrogating people, as you can't rely on them to know what they are thinking. People can lie to you whilst pulling a straight face and not blinking and they can squirm and look agitated when they are telling the truth.
But what really takes away the fun from this, is that your decisions only affect your rating. You could be the worst detective ever and you will still come to the same conclusions than someone who did it correctly. I know i'm not really being fair, people will die and details will be missed out if you mess up, but the main plotline will be the same regardless. The story concludes that your decisions don't really matter and that makes the average gameplay seem even more like an interactive movie. The game also has to make up contrived reasons to allow you to continue, as a normal investigation would have gone cold and impossible to solve. I would have thought the game would have forced you to start the case from the begining for messing up so badly, but it seems that the game badly wants you to see the next cutscene.
If you fail an action sequence more than three times, the game gives you the option to skip it. I never thought the game was going to patronise me as well as dissapoint me. That said, some of the action sequences seem twitch based or trial and error, which can be frustrating.
The optional content of seeing landmarks, collecting police badges and doing side mission for "intuition points" that help in giving clues would be redundant to those who just want to play it to its conclusion.
Also the impressive detail of the facial animations is offset by their unrealistic bodies, which creates a surreal effect.
The story has some interesting, if predictable twists and I was impressed by the facial animation, but ultimately I don't think much of it as a game. Maybe If you allow yourself to get immersed in your role and see it as more of a TV show or movie than a game, then it probably could be more enjoyable. The thing is, I don't want the majority of video games to be going the path of heavy rain or Indigo Prophecy. The gameplay just isn't good enough to still be engaging for 20 or so hours, and you figure out the patterns in gameplay long before its conclusion.
I believe that developers should be rewarded when trying to be innovative, so I'm glad it sold well and I hope that this is just the foundation for something much greater.
6.5/10
Me and my brother were excited about trying a game based on detective work and using initiative, but we both ended up with mixed feelings about how the experience turned out.
L.A. Noire was set in 1940's L.A. You play as detective Cole Phelps who starts off as a patrolman, who has to work his way up the ranks and eventually moves to Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson. Each desk has you working with a different partner, who comes along on your investigations and you are given a star ranking from 1-5 dependant on what decisions you make.
I stated that this was an open world game, because it isn't a sandbox. You can't interact with much outside missions appart from the optional side missions that you are called to do. There are also collectables to find such as police badges and film reels, but they are completely optional.
The main missions have clearly defined gameplay sections, which start to become predictable. You search a crime scene interacting with each object until the game states that you have found a clue. You then check your notebook to make sure you have found everything. This isn't detective work, there isn't anything for you to figure out as a player. There a chasing squences that are dull as it feels inevitable that you are going to catch them, whether you tap tackle them or shot in the air or have a cutscene take it to its conclusion. The fighting squences are also tame, as I never lost a fight by mashing buttons, apart from one that you are guarenteed to lose as part of the story.
I like the auto drive feature, as it allows you to skip to your destination if you wish. I wish they had this in GTA so I wouldn't have to keep driving back to my safehouse between missions or dropping people off at their houses. This is similar to riding horses in Red Dead Redemption, where you would hold x next to another horse rider that you had to follow and listen to their conversation as you rode to your destination. In L.A. Noire, you don't have to bother holding x, you just pick your destination and like a car that drives itself, the AI chat to you while taking you to your destination.
The shooting sections were one of the few sections that actually felt like gameplay. The problem is that you can take many shots before going down and the AI either pops up and down predictably or moves out in the open for an easy kill, which means that these sections aren't really challenging either.
The best part of L.A. Noire is the interrogation sections, which allows you to use logic to call out when people are lying with evidence, which is satifying when it works well. After you ask a question, they will give a statement and you have to select whether they are telling the truth, lying or whether you doubt their answer. The problem is that lie, truth or doubt doesn't always give enough context on what you are specifically asking them, which results in frequent confusion. It also means that you have no idea as to how Cole Phelps is going to react to your choices and he always seems anrgy and forceful in his questioning, even to victims of crime.
A tip for interrogations: you should always pick "Lie" first if you are unsure. This is because you will hear Cole's accustation, see the list of possible evidence that you can bring up and then back out if you don't think any of the evidence is relevant.
I also wonder, apart from graphical detail, why they bothered to mention facial animations when interrogating people, as you can't rely on them to know what they are thinking. People can lie to you whilst pulling a straight face and not blinking and they can squirm and look agitated when they are telling the truth.
But what really takes away the fun from this, is that your decisions only affect your rating. You could be the worst detective ever and you will still come to the same conclusions than someone who did it correctly. I know i'm not really being fair, people will die and details will be missed out if you mess up, but the main plotline will be the same regardless. The story concludes that your decisions don't really matter and that makes the average gameplay seem even more like an interactive movie. The game also has to make up contrived reasons to allow you to continue, as a normal investigation would have gone cold and impossible to solve. I would have thought the game would have forced you to start the case from the begining for messing up so badly, but it seems that the game badly wants you to see the next cutscene.
If you fail an action sequence more than three times, the game gives you the option to skip it. I never thought the game was going to patronise me as well as dissapoint me. That said, some of the action sequences seem twitch based or trial and error, which can be frustrating.
The optional content of seeing landmarks, collecting police badges and doing side mission for "intuition points" that help in giving clues would be redundant to those who just want to play it to its conclusion.
Also the impressive detail of the facial animations is offset by their unrealistic bodies, which creates a surreal effect.
The story has some interesting, if predictable twists and I was impressed by the facial animation, but ultimately I don't think much of it as a game. Maybe If you allow yourself to get immersed in your role and see it as more of a TV show or movie than a game, then it probably could be more enjoyable. The thing is, I don't want the majority of video games to be going the path of heavy rain or Indigo Prophecy. The gameplay just isn't good enough to still be engaging for 20 or so hours, and you figure out the patterns in gameplay long before its conclusion.
I believe that developers should be rewarded when trying to be innovative, so I'm glad it sold well and I hope that this is just the foundation for something much greater.
6.5/10
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L.A. Noire is an open world crime thriller developed by Team Bondi. I didn't have any doubts that the game would sell well, with the Rockstar/Take-Two publisher behind it. The problem was that the game had 7 years of development and even after 4 million copies sold, it wasn't enough to save Team Bondi after all their financial mismanagement.
Me and my brother were excited about trying a game based on detective work and using initiative, but we both ended up with mixed feelings about how the experience turned out.
L.A. Noire was set in 1940's L.A. You play as detective Cole Phelps who starts off as a patrolman, who has to work his way up the ranks and eventually moves to Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson. Each desk has you working with a different partner, who comes along on your investigations and you are given a star ranking from 1-5 dependant on what decisions you make.
I stated that this was an open world game, because it isn't a sandbox. You can't interact with much outside missions appart from the optional side missions that you are called to do. There are also collectables to find such as police badges and film reels, but they are completely optional.
The main missions have clearly defined gameplay sections, which start to become predictable. You search a crime scene interacting with each object until the game states that you have found a clue. You then check your notebook to make sure you have found everything. This isn't detective work, there isn't anything for you to figure out as a player. There a chasing squences that are dull as it feels inevitable that you are going to catch them, whether you tap tackle them or shot in the air or have a cutscene take it to its conclusion. The fighting squences are also tame, as I never lost a fight by mashing buttons, apart from one that you are guarenteed to lose as part of the story.
I like the auto drive feature, as it allows you to skip to your destination if you wish. I wish they had this in GTA so I wouldn't have to keep driving back to my safehouse between missions or dropping people off at their houses. This is similar to riding horses in Red Dead Redemption, where you would hold x next to another horse rider that you had to follow and listen to their conversation as you rode to your destination. In L.A. Noire, you don't have to bother holding x, you just pick your destination and like a car that drives itself, the AI chat to you while taking you to your destination.
The shooting sections were one of the few sections that actually felt like gameplay. The problem is that you can take many shots before going down and the AI either pops up and down predictably or moves out in the open for an easy kill, which means that these sections aren't really challenging either.
The best part of L.A. Noire is the interrogation sections, which allows you to use logic to call out when people are lying with evidence, which is satifying when it works well. After you ask a question, they will give a statement and you have to select whether they are telling the truth, lying or whether you doubt their answer. The problem is that lie, truth or doubt doesn't always give enough context on what you are specifically asking them, which results in frequent confusion. It also means that you have no idea as to how Cole Phelps is going to react to your choices and he always seems anrgy and forceful in his questioning, even to victims of crime.
A tip for interrogations: you should always pick "Lie" first if you are unsure. This is because you will hear Cole's accustation, see the list of possible evidence that you can bring up and then back out if you don't think any of the evidence is relevant.
I also wonder, apart from graphical detail, why they bothered to mention facial animations when interrogating people, as you can't rely on them to know what they are thinking. People can lie to you whilst pulling a straight face and not blinking and they can squirm and look agitated when they are telling the truth.
But what really takes away the fun from this, is that your decisions only affect your rating. You could be the worst detective ever and you will still come to the same conclusions than someone who did it correctly. I know i'm not really being fair, people will die and details will be missed out if you mess up, but the main plotline will be the same regardless. The story concludes that your decisions don't really matter and that makes the average gameplay seem even more like an interactive movie. The game also has to make up contrived reasons to allow you to continue, as a normal investigation would have gone cold and impossible to solve. I would have thought the game would have forced you to start the case from the begining for messing up so badly, but it seems that the game badly wants you to see the next cutscene.
If you fail an action sequence more than three times, the game gives you the option to skip it. I never thought the game was going to patronise me as well as dissapoint me. That said, some of the action sequences seem twitch based or trial and error, which can be frustrating.
The optional content of seeing landmarks, collecting police badges and doing side mission for "intuition points" that help in giving clues would be redundant to those who just want to play it to its conclusion.
Also the impressive detail of the facial animations is offset by their unrealistic bodies, which creates a surreal effect.
The story has some interesting, if predictable twists and I was impressed by the facial animation, but ultimately I don't think much of it as a game. Maybe If you allow yourself to get immersed in your role and see it as more of a TV show or movie than a game, then it probably could be more enjoyable. The thing is, I don't want the majority of video games to be going the path of heavy rain or Indigo Prophecy. The gameplay just isn't good enough to still be engaging for 20 or so hours, and you figure out the patterns in gameplay long before its conclusion.
I believe that developers should be rewarded when trying to be innovative, so I'm glad it sold well and I hope that this is just the foundation for something much greater.
6.5/10
Me and my brother were excited about trying a game based on detective work and using initiative, but we both ended up with mixed feelings about how the experience turned out.
L.A. Noire was set in 1940's L.A. You play as detective Cole Phelps who starts off as a patrolman, who has to work his way up the ranks and eventually moves to Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson. Each desk has you working with a different partner, who comes along on your investigations and you are given a star ranking from 1-5 dependant on what decisions you make.
I stated that this was an open world game, because it isn't a sandbox. You can't interact with much outside missions appart from the optional side missions that you are called to do. There are also collectables to find such as police badges and film reels, but they are completely optional.
The main missions have clearly defined gameplay sections, which start to become predictable. You search a crime scene interacting with each object until the game states that you have found a clue. You then check your notebook to make sure you have found everything. This isn't detective work, there isn't anything for you to figure out as a player. There a chasing squences that are dull as it feels inevitable that you are going to catch them, whether you tap tackle them or shot in the air or have a cutscene take it to its conclusion. The fighting squences are also tame, as I never lost a fight by mashing buttons, apart from one that you are guarenteed to lose as part of the story.
I like the auto drive feature, as it allows you to skip to your destination if you wish. I wish they had this in GTA so I wouldn't have to keep driving back to my safehouse between missions or dropping people off at their houses. This is similar to riding horses in Red Dead Redemption, where you would hold x next to another horse rider that you had to follow and listen to their conversation as you rode to your destination. In L.A. Noire, you don't have to bother holding x, you just pick your destination and like a car that drives itself, the AI chat to you while taking you to your destination.
The shooting sections were one of the few sections that actually felt like gameplay. The problem is that you can take many shots before going down and the AI either pops up and down predictably or moves out in the open for an easy kill, which means that these sections aren't really challenging either.
The best part of L.A. Noire is the interrogation sections, which allows you to use logic to call out when people are lying with evidence, which is satifying when it works well. After you ask a question, they will give a statement and you have to select whether they are telling the truth, lying or whether you doubt their answer. The problem is that lie, truth or doubt doesn't always give enough context on what you are specifically asking them, which results in frequent confusion. It also means that you have no idea as to how Cole Phelps is going to react to your choices and he always seems anrgy and forceful in his questioning, even to victims of crime.
A tip for interrogations: you should always pick "Lie" first if you are unsure. This is because you will hear Cole's accustation, see the list of possible evidence that you can bring up and then back out if you don't think any of the evidence is relevant.
I also wonder, apart from graphical detail, why they bothered to mention facial animations when interrogating people, as you can't rely on them to know what they are thinking. People can lie to you whilst pulling a straight face and not blinking and they can squirm and look agitated when they are telling the truth.
But what really takes away the fun from this, is that your decisions only affect your rating. You could be the worst detective ever and you will still come to the same conclusions than someone who did it correctly. I know i'm not really being fair, people will die and details will be missed out if you mess up, but the main plotline will be the same regardless. The story concludes that your decisions don't really matter and that makes the average gameplay seem even more like an interactive movie. The game also has to make up contrived reasons to allow you to continue, as a normal investigation would have gone cold and impossible to solve. I would have thought the game would have forced you to start the case from the begining for messing up so badly, but it seems that the game badly wants you to see the next cutscene.
If you fail an action sequence more than three times, the game gives you the option to skip it. I never thought the game was going to patronise me as well as dissapoint me. That said, some of the action sequences seem twitch based or trial and error, which can be frustrating.
The optional content of seeing landmarks, collecting police badges and doing side mission for "intuition points" that help in giving clues would be redundant to those who just want to play it to its conclusion.
Also the impressive detail of the facial animations is offset by their unrealistic bodies, which creates a surreal effect.
The story has some interesting, if predictable twists and I was impressed by the facial animation, but ultimately I don't think much of it as a game. Maybe If you allow yourself to get immersed in your role and see it as more of a TV show or movie than a game, then it probably could be more enjoyable. The thing is, I don't want the majority of video games to be going the path of heavy rain or Indigo Prophecy. The gameplay just isn't good enough to still be engaging for 20 or so hours, and you figure out the patterns in gameplay long before its conclusion.
I believe that developers should be rewarded when trying to be innovative, so I'm glad it sold well and I hope that this is just the foundation for something much greater.
6.5/10