Post by monkeyking on Aug 30, 2011 15:26:54 GMT -5
I will just say it; “LA Noire” was too long. They really did not need the arson desk. The beat cop, Homicide, Vice, and Traffic would have been fine. They really should have tied up the story with just those desks, and they could have even cut a case or two. I am at the end of the arson desk and I am tired…I just do not have the energy to finish.
Many of the criticisms of the game are valid, but I think the length of the game is what takes what could have been a very good game and turns it into a tedious game that is merely okay. After a few dozen cases, the seams really show, because you see the same weirdness not fixed time after time. What you could have passed off as “Well, that was odd” becomes “Yup, and once again Cole flies off the handle or screws up.”
Modern narrative driven games need to be shorter. At most 8-10 hours with maybe 12 hours as the maximum. After the game is done, some DLC is fine, and in the case of LA Noire, I might have been happy to play through the whole game and then play a few “outside” cases just for fun. A game driven by a narrative however needs to have a beginning middle and end that goes by within 10 hours of game play.
What is heartening is there is most of the game criticism and reviewers seem to agree. Ten years ago many reviewers measured games by the hour, but now you see that most measure games buy the quality of what is presented. I can’t think of many reviewers who if asked would have said LA Noire couldn’t have been weeded and made tighter, and most would have agreed the game would have been better if it were shorter. I hope that the economic realities as well as the sense of structure that less (better quality) game play is BETTER start to prevail in more games.
Many of the criticisms of the game are valid, but I think the length of the game is what takes what could have been a very good game and turns it into a tedious game that is merely okay. After a few dozen cases, the seams really show, because you see the same weirdness not fixed time after time. What you could have passed off as “Well, that was odd” becomes “Yup, and once again Cole flies off the handle or screws up.”
Modern narrative driven games need to be shorter. At most 8-10 hours with maybe 12 hours as the maximum. After the game is done, some DLC is fine, and in the case of LA Noire, I might have been happy to play through the whole game and then play a few “outside” cases just for fun. A game driven by a narrative however needs to have a beginning middle and end that goes by within 10 hours of game play.
What is heartening is there is most of the game criticism and reviewers seem to agree. Ten years ago many reviewers measured games by the hour, but now you see that most measure games buy the quality of what is presented. I can’t think of many reviewers who if asked would have said LA Noire couldn’t have been weeded and made tighter, and most would have agreed the game would have been better if it were shorter. I hope that the economic realities as well as the sense of structure that less (better quality) game play is BETTER start to prevail in more games.