I tried really hard to like this game. Honestly, I did. But L.A Noire is my lost cause. I can't stand the game. I think I may even hate it.
It's rather odd, because there was actually a point when I rather liked this game. But after being bored to near death with some of the most monotonous gameplay I've not experienced since Jebus knows when; I began to tire of this game and just want shot of it. I YouTubed the ending a week ago, because I just couldn't take playing the game any longer to complete it and view it after a hard games' graft.
I have never forced myself to play a game I can't stand and then decided to just throw in the towel so close to the end, but there's a first time for everything. And Rockstar and Team Bondi have certainly popped my cherry with this one. L.A Noire spun itself into such a tired and medicore mess of formulaic gameplay, that I just had no desire to finish the game, and I stopped caring.
The problem (one of many) I had with L.A Noire was that it kept falling victim to itself. The game seemed to think (do games really think!?) that it was doing so much right, that it would just continue to bombard you with its "rightness" - as though its gameplay and pacing was absolutely spot on, when I found it to be anything but. Sorry Team Bondi... But I wanted more than just picking up every object in somebody's house until music stopped, and having to sit through boring as hell interrogations and witness statements.
Despite the game being cited as fresh, new and -insert hip propaganda spinning adjestive here-, L.A Noire offers very little more in terms of gameplay than Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk or Shenmue. I could pick every damn object up I wanted in Shenmue, but I didn't have to do it. Phoenix Wright's cases hinged on you actually presenting evidence, not just collecting it for fun. And Hotel Dusk managed to compel you with an adventure set within a small dump of a hotel and a handful of characters. No sprawling city. No gunfights. No vehicles.
So much of L.A Noire had me questioning "Why?" The driving is pointless, because you don't even have to do it. So why waste so much time modelling a whole entire city if gamers can just bypass it? Why not just confine the game to the actual meant of the cases and then throw in a bit of a car chase if the case calls for one. Why bother to make such a big deal out of the facial animation being detrimental to a case if the game is going to cheat you by having a character look like they are 100% telling the truth, just for your investigation to go to shit because it turns out they lied, with NO hint what-so-ever that your bluff was being called? Why insist that you pick up every piece of evidence at a crime scene if 80% of the time you do not need to present it to proceed on with your investigation? Why did Mrs. Moldanado have to get killed? She wasn't white like them other broads the killer was targeting! (God bless her Hispanic soul).
The only compliments I can give this game are for the outstanding facial animation and voice acting. Other than that, I think this game stinks like a Camel's back foot.
If you'd like my copy of L.A Noire, you can find it in the pre-owned section of Game on Oxford street. In the meantime, I'll be pining over the hopes of an August price drop for the PlayStation 3, so that I can pick one up with a copy of Heavy rain, which one of my friends assures me shits all over this game.
My L.A Noire gaming journals: #1: I love parts of you, just not all of you | #2: Why didn't I just press Y? | #3: Dead white pap
It's rather odd, because there was actually a point when I rather liked this game. But after being bored to near death with some of the most monotonous gameplay I've not experienced since Jebus knows when; I began to tire of this game and just want shot of it. I YouTubed the ending a week ago, because I just couldn't take playing the game any longer to complete it and view it after a hard games' graft.
I have never forced myself to play a game I can't stand and then decided to just throw in the towel so close to the end, but there's a first time for everything. And Rockstar and Team Bondi have certainly popped my cherry with this one. L.A Noire spun itself into such a tired and medicore mess of formulaic gameplay, that I just had no desire to finish the game, and I stopped caring.
The problem (one of many) I had with L.A Noire was that it kept falling victim to itself. The game seemed to think (do games really think!?) that it was doing so much right, that it would just continue to bombard you with its "rightness" - as though its gameplay and pacing was absolutely spot on, when I found it to be anything but. Sorry Team Bondi... But I wanted more than just picking up every object in somebody's house until music stopped, and having to sit through boring as hell interrogations and witness statements.
Despite the game being cited as fresh, new and -insert hip propaganda spinning adjestive here-, L.A Noire offers very little more in terms of gameplay than Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk or Shenmue. I could pick every damn object up I wanted in Shenmue, but I didn't have to do it. Phoenix Wright's cases hinged on you actually presenting evidence, not just collecting it for fun. And Hotel Dusk managed to compel you with an adventure set within a small dump of a hotel and a handful of characters. No sprawling city. No gunfights. No vehicles.
So much of L.A Noire had me questioning "Why?" The driving is pointless, because you don't even have to do it. So why waste so much time modelling a whole entire city if gamers can just bypass it? Why not just confine the game to the actual meant of the cases and then throw in a bit of a car chase if the case calls for one. Why bother to make such a big deal out of the facial animation being detrimental to a case if the game is going to cheat you by having a character look like they are 100% telling the truth, just for your investigation to go to shit because it turns out they lied, with NO hint what-so-ever that your bluff was being called? Why insist that you pick up every piece of evidence at a crime scene if 80% of the time you do not need to present it to proceed on with your investigation? Why did Mrs. Moldanado have to get killed? She wasn't white like them other broads the killer was targeting! (God bless her Hispanic soul).
The only compliments I can give this game are for the outstanding facial animation and voice acting. Other than that, I think this game stinks like a Camel's back foot.
If you'd like my copy of L.A Noire, you can find it in the pre-owned section of Game on Oxford street. In the meantime, I'll be pining over the hopes of an August price drop for the PlayStation 3, so that I can pick one up with a copy of Heavy rain, which one of my friends assures me shits all over this game.
My L.A Noire gaming journals: #1: I love parts of you, just not all of you | #2: Why didn't I just press Y? | #3: Dead white pap
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