Sunday, June 5, 2011

L.A. NOIRE


And another game I finished: L.A. Noire. This time was special since I was really eager to play it since I found out they were making a 'neo-noir' videogame. I love movies and I like that sub-genre. I pre-order the game and I've been playing it as much as I could since I got it.

My impression is the game is great, but not the best of the year. They've tried to do something different and in general terms they made it. I respect that deeply. However there are minor mistakes and bugs that make me think the game is not perfect. I'd say it's an 8. 8.5 maximum.

The best of the game is the fabulous face animation system which is nicely integrated in the gameplay during interrogations. The documentation for recreating L.A. in 1947 is remarkable. It has a variety of game mechanics and it's the game that made me feel for the first time that I was really investigating a case. Aside from that it shares many interesting features with GTA, like a big city to explore and some optional challenges that made me (and still is) invest my time on it until I complete 100% of the game.

On the minus side the final outcome of the interrogations is often random, you never feel you've complete control over what's going on in them. Also I think the storyline has several black holes, but at the end they solve some of them. And not to mention several bugs, one of them crashed the system and I had to reboot the console.

In summary a great game, but I suspect L.A. Noire 2 can be much better. I'll buy it for sure.

1 comment:

Alvaro Vazquez de la Torre said...

Here is an interesting article about the game:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37380/Analysis_Three_Roles_I_Played_In_LA_Noire.php

It also mentions the problems in the interrogation mechanic, and more importantly that the most satisfying experience of the game is to wander around looking at the city, which is absolutely true.