LA Noire, the Game That Could’ve Benefitted from Remedy’s Decisions September 2, 2011

I played through LA Noire last month on the Playstation 3 and am pretty close to 100% completion. What have I done in the game? I five stared all the case files in the game, completed all the side missions, solved all the cases (sans the majority of the DLC missions), rode in every car, found every landmark, and got every trophy (except for the $40,000+ damage case). I enjoyed the game, and did not feel bad about shelling out $40 for it at Best Buy, but I can’t help but feel that some of the problems that me and other critics had with the game could have spared Team Bondi for just what would befall them after its release.

With Team Bondi closing permanently today, not because they failed to make a well received, decent selling game, but because no publisher wanted to work with them on any other project, I wanted to talk about something I’ve noticed in every review I’ve read or watched of the game. In short, Team Bondi and through that, LA Noire, would have benefitted greatly from making the same decisions Remedy Entertainment made during the development of Alan Wake.

The first problem I have with the game is that the open world environment, while enormous, does not provide anything fun to do in it. The enormous environment only serves as a facade for every single case. Driving around in it only provides an opportunity to cause accidents, which will negatively impact your final case ranking. If you want the best possible rank in each case, you’re best off having your partner drive you automatically to each destination, cutting you out of the chance to explore this ENORMOUS wasted enviroment.

There is just nothing to do in downtown LA. This is unlike games like Grand Theft Auto, where you can easily pick up things to do in the world. You can be a taxi driver and take fares, catch theatre or entertainment, you can collect side bounties, watch TV or listen to the fully scripted radio stations.

The only thing you can do are side missions, but they’re dependant on getting the call for one while driving. If your partner drives you won’t be able to do them unless you free roam after completing the case desk. Side missions themselves are short and can be easier completed during these open world driving aspects once all cases are complete. There is an incetive to find and drive every car in the game since these count towards your game completion percentage and unlock you the cars in the vehicle showroom. The problem is only police cars are equipped with radios and sirens, which are essential to getting a perfect rank in some cases. Finally, in LA Noire there’s only one radio channel, and you have no control over what’s on it or what you’re listening to, and there’s nothing really that good on it on the level of Lazlo’s Chatterbox, Pat Maine, or the Deb of Night.

My other complaint is that a good amount of the cases in the game (especially the vice cases) are downloadable content, and not included on the disc. The game also shipped on the PS3 with an exclusive case (the Consul’s Car), but one you still had to download (with a free code). If you wanted the whole story you would have to spend an extra eleven or so dollars for a Rockstar Pass, which would enable you to download all the DLC for the game (including some you may have already gotten free with the disc). Easily there were three or four extra cases that could only be investigated by purchasing them online. Instead of making them feel like an extra benefit that expanded the story after its conclusion, it felt like there were large chunks of the game missing from the retail release. This was glaringly clear when there were only three vice cases in the retail game, whereas other desks had many more!

There was another company and another game that faced these similar problems, and they made the hard decision to cut these features from the game during development. It cost them wasted development time, but in the end they released a tighter product which didn’t suffer from these problems. Remedy Entertainment had originally designed 2010’s Alan Wake as an open world environment. It was also planned to be followed up with multiple downloadable episodes to continue the story of the game. But when they started to realize that having an open world environment in the story that they were telling just wasn’t working out for them, they cut the game’s open world ability and locked levels to a single path with enviroment bridged between cutscenes.

Some people were upset about this, but a lot of what was cut was featured in the Alan Wake: Illuminated book, and I don’t think anyone thinks the lack of an abandoned dirt track for time trials or an interactive ball puzzle in a museum is that sad a loss or further enhanced the game’s story.

Their intentions with DLC was also rightfully scaled back. They intended the first Alan Wake game to be analogous to a season for a television show, and further DLC would be considered special side stories, or as they put it, “interludes.” If they planned anything further, such as a new major storyline that would seem more fitting of a second season of a show, they said they would just make Alan Wake 2 instead. This scaled back what could have been a long DLC series to just a two episode epilogue. They even gave out codes for the first DLC for free with purchase of a new copy of the game. By ending it after just two downloadable episodes, Remedy could now (in theory) focus Alan Wake efforts on a whole new game. And since these downloadable levels took place after the main game and were just a side story, anyone who didn’t play them weren’t missing out on large chunks of the story in the middle of the game.

With just one product release, I am sad to announce that as of today, Team Bondi is no more. LA Noire received high reviews from critics and fans alike, but to me, my feelings about the game were far more complex than loved it or hated it. If they had made the tough decisions early on during development that they needed to (after the game’s release stories leaked to the press on a daily basis on just how bad the game’s management was) they could have had a shot at releasing a tighter game on a shorter development timetable, and that could have looked better to publishers who they needed for their next project.

Still, their efforts were commendable, and they do have a good product to show for all their hard work. I wish we could have parted on better terms.