love the game, but it has serious awesome alongside serious problems. minor points first; whats with the arbitrary gameplay shifts? the game throws a swinging ceiling ornament and collapsing floor at you, throws a paragraph of instructions into the corner and expects you to master it all in 10 seconds or die. either you succeed through confusion, or fail and just read what you missed the second time and easily win.
the game also really needs to decide whether its open-ended or linear; which chases are scripted and impossible and which ones can i end with a tackle/wheel shoot/whatever? there isnt much point to the sandbox; its just to collect useless crap and do some sidequests; sure it adds to the immersion of the game, but i cant help thinking that all the time and money put into it couldve gone to making more and more polished core gameplay.
definitely agree about the interrogations; especially in the later cases, it just stops making sense. its easy enough to tell when people are lying, but ironically the existence of the 'doubt' option makes me constantly doubt my thoughts on the right answer; and thats part of the problem. there is always one AND ONLY ONE right answer, even when they give you the same or even less information!
not only do you often have multiple similar pieces of evidence but only one works, 'lie' often sends cole into a tangent that challenges a completely different question. the average 'lie' option:
cole: "what time did you leave the restaurant?"
suspect: "uh...i cant remember; maybe around 7pm?"
cole: "i dont like being lied to. you ordered a vanilla milkshake, come clean with me!"
suspect: "your crazy! i like chocolate! prove that chocolate isnt my favorite flavor of milkshake!"
*cole then muses over whether to present the evidence of suspect leaving at 8pm, or the vanilla milkshake he ordered, despite the fact that he could honestly not remember or he couldve ordered a different flavor than his favorite.*
i think the system needs some ground up reworks really; there is just too many ways the player's train of logic can come crashing down with the current options. the way your very first interrogation is described as is how they all should be; instead of truth and doubt have 'gentle' and 'firm'; if theyre just scared witnesses or you feel being nice is the way to go, pick gentle; if theyre shifty types or are playing hardball, be firm; lie can stay the same, as long as the original response is what im trying to prove/disprove and not whatever wild accusation cole pulls out his ass. that way the facial animations are all the more important, because it becomes about reading their feelings and motives in the interview and how best to deal with certain types of people rather than just their individual responses; about manipulating the conversation to get the info you want by reading how they respond to certain tactics instead of pass/fail.
denoting each response as right or wrong should be gone; your choices should affect the flow of the conversation and how much they will be willing to tell by the end of it, instead of cole apparently completely giving up on a question if his first tactic doesnt work; there is no right and wrong in an interview, just effective and ineffective. the effective responses will give you more info to go on, the ineffective responses giving you less; the player shouldnt immediately be told if they suck or are awesome, that colors their interpretations of how the system works; players should be left to their own strategies; if they find they dont get much info, theyll reevaluate by paying more attention next time, not getting pissed that their train of logic doesnt match up with what cole is saying and restarting, solving it through trial and error.
all and all, still a great game....except for homicide. seriously, fuck homicide and its obvious red herrings, forced incompetence, and overall pointlessness of every case. it might sound like i dont like the game, but i only complain because i care
