Wednesday, May 18, 2011

L.A. Noire First Impressions

Category: Review    
 

      This is  a quick first impressions review of L.A. Noire, keep in mind that I'm only a few hours into the game and this is not my official review of the game.
     L.A. Noire is the latest game out of Rockstar games, develop by  Team Bondi and Rockstar. L.A. Noire takes place in a 1947 Los Angeles (L.A), you play the as Cole Phelps who has returned form World War II and joins the L.A.P.D.  Cole starts as your average Joe police officer who solved a murder case and work his way up though the ranks.
     The game features an open world experience seen in the Grand Theft Auto series and last years Red Dead Redemption. Solving murder cases play out similar to one my favorite games of all time Shumue, where you find and examine clues and make notes into notebook and ask witness question to peace together information to solve the mysteries. L.A. Noire introduce truth, doubt, and lie system when Cole is interviewing a witness or a suspect base on the facial expressions; if you think the person is lying call them on it but you better have proof to back it up, you also can choose to believe or doubt the person. During these parts of the game if you choose the right option you will get more information out of them but choose wrong you will get less information. There sometimes where a witness or suspect will flee and you will have chase them down though the town. Sometimes during the case you can aim you gun at them and wait a few seconds and Cole will fire a warning shot to stop the flee suspect. L.A. Noire also offer car chase and bawls with suspects. Driving in the game is fine but I don't think it is as tight as it was in Grad Theft Auto 4.
      The presentation of the game is in a 1940's film noir style, in my opinion each murder case plays out like episodes in a television show, with each case has title screen. There is the option to play the game in black and white to get the classic film noir feel. I've been playing the game with color to get the richness of the game's color.
     Deepening which system you buy the game for, the number of disc the game comes on will very. If you buy the game on the Xbox 360 it will come on three DVD and if you buy it on the Playstation 3 it will come on one Blu-ray disc. Don't worry Xbox owners the only time you have to swap the disc are during part of the story, so your free to explore the city without swapping the discs all the time.
     L.A. Noire is a very fun game even though it it runs into the problem of being repetitive at times. It still a game that is fun and with an engaging story. If you ever played any other Rockstar game like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption then you know that Rockstar doesn't skimp on the amount of content they give you. Its a game that is worth the pick up and play, and that could in be in for game of the year.

Stay tune for a full review.