I jumped on a Steam sale. It was a compulsive buy. I glanced at a couple review scores that L.A. Noire got from a few notable services on the web, and decided what the hell. $5 was cheap enough, so I made my purchase. I have to admit I didn't know exactly what to expect. I knew it was a Rockstar title, developed by a small studio in Australia, and released on multiple platforms. It seemed to have the nazi-cult following on the web, so I knew it wasn’t going to be a complete bust. Two weeks later, I can admit to liking the game to some extent. Some things worked well for L.A. Noire, and some things needed work.
First, the things that worked.
The animations look AMAZING. The facial expressions make every cutscene and dialogue driven aspect of the game look simply stellar, almost as if you were watching a Hollywood film. To my understanding, lots of time (and money) was spent on this feature to make it perfect, and it worked. I can see every ripple of forehead skin, every bag under the characters eyes, the frustration of my partner, and every hair on my chiny-chin-chin.
The soundtrack was PERFECT. I felt as if I was driving around town in 1947 with my Chevrolet Fleetline listening to Frank Sinatra, keeping an eye out for chicks in poodle skirts. The music was rarely repetitive. The advertisements and commercials seemed redundant towards the end of the game, but not unlike the idiot banter of today’s stations. Relevant to the soundtrack, the voice acting was also SPOT ON. The acting was great when comparing it to other games of it’s style, in it’s particular market, at its competitive price tag. The voices are real. They are enthusiastic. They proclaim emotion.
The gameplay was UNIQUE. It was different by all standards of gaming today. I have never played any game like it before, and I loved every minute of it. The interrogation sequences were challenging and required skill. Often times the game set you up to fail, just to get back at you later in the story. The driving was not an important part of the game, by any means. It was more or less a secondary task or gateway into side missions which boost your rank. The player chooses to skip the driving and jump right into investigations.
Secondly, the things I didn’t like.
The game sets no BACKSTORY. Instead, it decides to reveal parts of a story in chunks as you complete missions. You dont get to meet your wife. In fact, it is only mentioned a few times during the story that you’re married with kids. You get no real emotional attachment to your character, which should be established in order to respect the player you’re forced into using. What little pieces of the story are shared, they seem vague. At one point, I even forgot what was happening in the backstory cutscenes and stopped caring about them all together. Only to come to realize that later on in the game, this stuff needs to be known or at least remembered as it is relevant to the end-game.
The missions become REPETETIVE. The same old run around: investigate crime scene, interrogate criminals, investigate criminals homes, look for clues, drive to this place, talk to this person, etc etc becomes too much at times. You just want to finish the case and move on. Thanks to a lack of backstory, the urge to SOLVE a case perfectly is lost. I found it very hard to focus on specific clues. Also, when it came time to find a suspect on the run, 7/10 times I had to kill him. That would make my case hard to crack, and leave me frustrated.
The Main story becomes UNBELIEVABLE. Towards the end, you switch characters and begin playing as another. This really threw me for a loop. I couldn’t justify any other reason except Rockstar / Bondi stopped getting creative. It seems like a failed story. With that said, it redeems itself with a VERY promising conclusion that had me shaking my head in disbelief (the good kind).
The driving style is FLAWED. I didn’t like how the vehicle physics treated the car like a remote controlled truck. I used my keyboard to steer, and even the slightest tap on the arrow keys would send my car jolting in that direction. There is no subtle steering controls. It’s all so sensitive! When the game rewards you for fewer crashes, it would have been nice to actually be able to control my car. However, the vehicles do take a pretty hefty amount of damage before being completely inoperable. I guess this is somewhat irrelevant considering the fact that driving is more or less a side mission, but still, some continuity would be nice for perfectionists such as myself.
Overall?
I think the game delivers, and the flaws are overwhelmed by the strengths. I see Rockstar using the MotionScan technology a lot in future games of this sort, especially Grand Theft Auto titles. I also see many games like this entering our market in the near future. I understand there are a few DLC / Expansion sets for L.A. Noire, so I may check those out.
8/10
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