I did not play Red Dead Redemption and have been told by many people that I need to. I ignored them but when I saw Rockstar games making LA Noire I watched and listened. I remember the Naked City Trailer and realized that I had to jump in. I preordered at Best Buy to get the goodies and the extra offers. Last night I finished it and well I was a little disappointed. Not because it was over but I felt at the end it kind of went all over the place.
First let me just say the graphics are incredible. I thought Heavy Rain (PS3) was a step in the right direction and this made it look like it was running on the PS2. The voice work is awesome also. The language is crude but real. This is not a game you can pop in when the kids are in the room. The plot is good but much like some movies runs a little long. There is an M rating on this and it should be. The music is great, this is one of the few games where a soundtrack may have been a cool add in. "Stone Dead in the Market" was by far my favorite and if you look at the credits (there is something small at the end) you will see some incredible names. The attention to detail was incredible.
The game play is fun and really puts you into the shoes of Cole (Badge #1247). You do a little bit of everything from driving (trailing a vehicle can make you want to throw a stick through your TV), shooting, a few puzzles, and stealth (one of the most fun). The problem is the game play pretty much the same straight through which is not a bad thing. The side missions are all pretty similar and there is the option of doing 40. One will get you a trophy if you are into that. In addition to the side missions there are 95 cars to collect. You can drive anything, just go up to any car and get in (the music and ads on the radio are a nice touch also). It was fun for a while but after 40 cars I got kind of bored and went back to the main story. Hitting 20 of the 30 landmarks which was also fun. The detail was so incredible you can tell this game took some time.
The actual story could have been a movie and the producer could have done just a little bit of editing. The story is broken down into 21 cases and to get to the next level you need to find the clues to make your case. Its kind of nice because the save points are plentiful and you can easily do entire case an hour with the exception of a few. They all start out pretty much the same with some "killer" cut scenes. You question individuals and must choose between truth, doubt and lie. You can always back out of a lie if you want. Your character says the same thing "sometimes you have to shake the tree..." anytime you back out of a lie. Reading people was hit and miss. I found if they looked you in eye and didn't twitch too much it was a "truth" by the end I was hitting "doubt" most of the time. It was fun to catch some one in a lie and have the evidence to back it up. The second act could have been shorter and the final act felt like it should have been longer. Using the "intuition" system as help was kind of cool. As your rank moves up you get these "points" and are able to ask the community or eliminate an answer. When they would eliminate the "truth" the choice between doubt and lie blurred. If you said lie you better be able to back it up and I can tell you around case 16 or 17 I didn't know what the hell was going on and somehow got through it. I agree with my fellow reviewers that the end is a bit of a bummer but its worth playing through. Bottom line it was fun and well worth the time but in my opinion not as good as Heavy Rain.
Grade - B+
Some small notes:
The Vita looks great it will be a must buy
Pac Man DX is great better then the original and well worth the price.
Limbo on PS3 for $15 seems steep for a game that's a year old
That Limbo - Trials HD - Splosion Man pack for $10 at Best Buy was a great deal
That PSN hack was out of control. I kept checking it like I was waiting for something in the mail.
My friends and I are still playing Socom 4 on Tuesdays hit me up and I'll add you to the friends list
What I'm Playing:
PS3 - I have a huge back log I'm thinking about Castlevania or Tiger Woods 12
Xbox 360 - Alan Wake (this got bumped to play LA Noire)
Wii - Super Mario Bros.
PSP - Hot Shots Open Tee
