WeView: L.A. Noire

Whilst Duke Nukem Forever, the subject of last week’s WeView, is pretty much in a league of its own when it  comes to development time, L.A. Noire starts to come close; although even its fairly mammoth seven years in development is only half of Duke Nukem’s.

However, it does show that a long development span doesn’t mean you have to lose your way during development. It’s also certainly arguable that Team Bondi put their time to better use, crafting a very solid representation of Los Angeles from the mid-20th century.

Of course there’s more to a game than just its setting, and it seems that where L.A. Noire starts to fall down a little is in its gameplay. Back when we reviewed it in May we had this to say:

The best way to sum up L.A. Noire is that it suffers from Assassin’s Creed syndrome. You’ll certainly get a lot of enjoyment out of it. There’s something new and refreshing about a witty, intelligent game that requires a little bit more thinking than the norm.

However, it’s a bit repetitive and kind of loses its way after the halfway point. Pull an AC2 and give me an L.A. Noire sequel after a couple more years in the oven, with more variation and a more thought-through plot, and it could be something really special.

For those of you who put your faith in the score we assign to games L.A. Noire managed to score a 7/10. However, the whole point of WeView is to hear what you think about games, so who really cares how we rated L.A. Noire when it was released?

Time for you to have your say on Rockstar’s newest hit.

Just head over to the forums and leave us your thoughts on the game. Whilst I’m not going to discount longer reviews, please remember that the aim is for short, snappy opinions. More than that I simply don’t have the time to wade through longer reviews, so if you want to have your opinion included in the verdict post try to keep it short.

Once you’ve written your review make sure you give it a score on the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. Remember, if you want your score and opinion included in Monday’s verdict post you need to have it done by Sunday afternoon, otherwise I’ll have written it and you’ll be left out in the cold.