My name is Nick "@UncleLono" Rehfeldt and like most PC gamers I have a steam backlog. I've resound to play & beat them all and chronicle it in a series of reviews. Today we are looking at LA NOIRE.
I'm suppose to be reviewing these things as I beat them, but I'm also not about to subject myself to forcing completion for the sake of building up a portfolio of reviews that I won't even get paid for or end up meaning anything. Not that there wasn't a lot to enjoy in LA NOIRE.
To reveal my bias, I'm one of those people that has loved the 1950's aesthetic and style ever since Fallout 3 graced my life years ago. I love old-timey noire detective stories, I use to love the cartoon parodies of them I'd see as a kid. So a little while in my early 20s I even rocked a beige trench coat, feeling that it gave off a "good guy aura" akin to a hero pro-wrestler wearing white boots.
Love LA NOIRE should of been easy, and even easier as I had played it when it first came out on consoles way back and recalled loving it. Now a chance to play through it again, but with the additional DLC cases? What was not to love?
I'll tell you what's not to love, and it's that LA NOIRE is a Grand Theft Auto style game with glitz and big production values when it could've been more easily a game done in the TellTale series style. So much of the gameplay didn't need to be here, and I'm just talking like the little things like walking down the steps of the police station, to driving the car, to approaching each suspect... I mean compare it to TellTale's The Wolf Among Us (Which is also a detective game) it gives us the same same story beats, the action, the intrigue, without being bogged down by the trappings that come with being a Grand Theft Auto clone.
And to top it off, those extra DLC cases? Nothing to write home about, and contributes very little to the overall story.
I'll give LA NOIRE a mild recommendation, but only if one has already played The Wolf Among Us and hasn't yet touched this one.