My final thoughts in LA Noire (spoilers ABOUND!)

First off, let me get this out of the way: I have no complaints with the gameplay. The investigating and interrogating work as advertised, and the action scenes aren't bad. Well, the fistfights are a little clunky, but the gunfights are fun, and the car chases are often pretty excellent. 

Where I do find fault with the game is in the story. And in a story-focused game like LA Noire, that's not good. And it's especially disappointing when the first, I'll say two thirds of the game was so good. 

See, up through the homicide desk in the game, I was absolutely loving every second. But then once Phelps got transferred to vice, I found my interest waning. For one thing, investigating morphine trafficking isn't as interesting as going after a serial murder, and more importantly, Roy Earle is an asshole, and I didn't like working with him at all (though I feel like that part was intentional), especially after working with Rusty Galloway. 

But those are minor issues. Where I really find fault is the in overarching story. See, at the end of vice, it turns out that Phelps had been having an affair with some German broad (and he's married with two kids). This is where the game started to lose me.

First off, goody-two-shoes Phelps wouldn't be having an affair. It's out of character for him. Now, I could understand if he was having marital troubles at home, but the game shows literally none of that. And to top it off, he's not even having an affair with someone attractive. No offense to the actress who played Elsa, but she just seemed ugly to me. Why would the star officer of the LAPD risk his career on an ugly German broad? It doesn't make sense, and more importantly, I didn't like it. 

In a game where so much of what happens in the cases is entirely dependent on my actions, it felt really cheap that something like this was entirely out of my hands. It really destroyed the "connection" with Cole that had been created over the course of the game up to that point. And again, in such a story focused game, that's not good. 

But after that, the game got my interest again, because I dug the whole, "You're demoted to arson thing." At least I did for a while. Because after I had just gotten into the swing of searching through the burned down remnants of houses, the game says, "Hey, you know that guy you've played as for the whole game? Well, now you're playing as this other guy." I'm not going to lie, I hate it when games do that. I hated when it happened in MGS2, and I really hated it in Red Dead Redemption. 

And I hated it here. I spent the whole game playing as Cole Phelps, who, aside from an affair that I think was out of character, was one of the best new characters I've seen in a game in years. And then the game, with no warning, makes me play as Jack Kelso, or in other words, that asshole I don't like. I don't mind if games tell you that you play as multiple people, and if they're all likable, but springing it out in the last hour or two of the game, and having it be someone I really didn't like really makes me angry. 

And then the end of the game. They kill off Cole for no reason. Why? I don't know. I hate it when games kill off likable characters, whether they're good guys or bad guys. But especially when it's the dude you play as in most of the game. It's what ruined the ending of RDR for me, and it looks like this year's big RockStar release followed suit (though I realize there's no real connection here, because I don't think Team Bondi would change their "vision" to do what RockStar wanted). 

So, yeah. I really felt disappointed in the game's story. That doesn't change the fact that I still think that, for the most part, this is a phenomenal game that everyone should play. Just because I didn't like the story doesn't mean everyone won't like it, and the first 2/3-ish of the game is so fantastic that it easily makes up for the rest of the game (again, much like my thoughts on RDR last year). 

But if you're reading this, then you've already beaten the game! Right? You know, because I warned about spoilers. 

Also, Rusty Galloway was awesome.