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Jun. 27th, 2012 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyI have not finished LA Noire, but here are some thoughts anyway.
The thing about LA Noire is that it isn't so much that Cole Phelps, the main character, is a dick - it's that the game is a dick FOR him. I mean, he's...he's like everything you would expect a Mary Sue character in the 1940s to be. He fought in the war, but he really respected the Japanese, he knows way more about international politics than any other character. He got a medal, but they keep hinting that there's some sort of tragedy or mistake that happened that we'll find out about, that will give him angst and character. He's not racist, like most of the other characters, and doesn't have weird attitudes to women (or not markedly - we'll get to that). People keep commenting on how 'cute' he is, even though he looks like this:
They say he's 'cute, for a cop'. Cute for a potato, maybe.
And EVERY CASE he gets is special. I mean, probably not every case, there's lots of time we don't spend following him around, and it probably wouldn't be exciting for us to play the random boring cases. But even so. He works on the traffic desk for a bit, and can't seem to go out to check out a single stolen car without uncovering an international auto theft ring. You know the Black Dahlia case, in the 1940s? You get to SOLVE the Black Dahlia case. Just not publicly, because politicians and cover-ups, and etc. And they were talking about it a lot in the game, and they were obviously on the trail of A serial killer. But I really thought it was a copy-cat. Not THE BLACK DAHLIA KILLER. Jesus. And it's irritating, because you always get a partner on each desk - most of whom kind of hate Cole - and they keep trying to tell you, looking for stolen cars is boring, most homicides are domestic and not the work of some evil genius. Which is true. But EVERY TIME they are wrong, because Cole only solves Very Special cases. I mean, I haven't finished the game yet. Maybe there's some sort of explanation, like someone high up wants Cole to go far because he's good for PR, so they keep arranging for him to get cases which they know or have an inkling have more to them than most. Otherwise I really don't understand it. Fucking Cole Phelps.
And I would give him sort of a pass for all this, because it is a little bit nicer than just playing with constant, context-appropriate sexism and racism. Except that we also had a scene where Cole saw a female singer get smacked in the face, and stared in what I assumed was horror - until I realised through later cutscenes that it was supposed to be the moment he sort of fell in love with her. WHILE SAYING AND DOING NOTHING ABOUT THE FACT THAT SHE JUST GOT SMACKED IN THE FACE.
So yeah. I don't even know what to think. He's such a stereotypical 'clean-cut 1940s cop' - he's like what would stereotypical for a clean-cut 1940s cop in the 1940s, never mind now. So yeah, I'm kind of half-expecting there to be some amazing character development or character handling before the end that will require a bunch of Mary Sue-ing in the beginning of the story. Either that or he will Mary Sue until the end of time. IT'S HARD TO KNOW.
Without a doubt, his partners are the best characters in the game. They are all amazing, to a man. Secretly I hope that the ending - they have given us plenty of hints that Cole will end up fighting corruption in the police force itself - I hope that the ending involves Cole being in real, dire trouble, and all of his former partners bursting in, having teamed up to save him. Because they did use to be partners, and all. At the moment it's a little difficult, because his current partner is the guy who previously hit the lady Cole is now in love with in the face. But I have decided to give him a slight pass for that, because he hasn't hit any other women in the face so far, and he's still way more entertaining and interesting than Cole. It's a shame when fandoms are like that, but in the words of Dave Lister re Hermann Goering: "He was a drug-crazed transvestite, but at least we could have gone dancing!". You cannot go dancing with Cole Phelps.
In the meantime, Dr Evil the psychiatrist has been talking at least one of his patients into committing arson, to 'face the fear of fire' he got from the war, and sending him off to burn down a house which he claimed was empty, but turned out have a family living in it. So he's carrying on as usual, at least. And they seem to be setting up a subplot with other people Cole knew in the army, except that they're also detectives with the LAPD, and for a while I had no idea who they were, because everyone in the game looks the same. They all just look mocapped. Some look older than others, and some are women. And one is obviously Matt Parkman from Heroes. That's about it. But I've pretty much worked out who everyone is now, so I should understand it now. Mostly. I think.
The thing about LA Noire is that it isn't so much that Cole Phelps, the main character, is a dick - it's that the game is a dick FOR him. I mean, he's...he's like everything you would expect a Mary Sue character in the 1940s to be. He fought in the war, but he really respected the Japanese, he knows way more about international politics than any other character. He got a medal, but they keep hinting that there's some sort of tragedy or mistake that happened that we'll find out about, that will give him angst and character. He's not racist, like most of the other characters, and doesn't have weird attitudes to women (or not markedly - we'll get to that). People keep commenting on how 'cute' he is, even though he looks like this:
They say he's 'cute, for a cop'. Cute for a potato, maybe.
And EVERY CASE he gets is special. I mean, probably not every case, there's lots of time we don't spend following him around, and it probably wouldn't be exciting for us to play the random boring cases. But even so. He works on the traffic desk for a bit, and can't seem to go out to check out a single stolen car without uncovering an international auto theft ring. You know the Black Dahlia case, in the 1940s? You get to SOLVE the Black Dahlia case. Just not publicly, because politicians and cover-ups, and etc. And they were talking about it a lot in the game, and they were obviously on the trail of A serial killer. But I really thought it was a copy-cat. Not THE BLACK DAHLIA KILLER. Jesus. And it's irritating, because you always get a partner on each desk - most of whom kind of hate Cole - and they keep trying to tell you, looking for stolen cars is boring, most homicides are domestic and not the work of some evil genius. Which is true. But EVERY TIME they are wrong, because Cole only solves Very Special cases. I mean, I haven't finished the game yet. Maybe there's some sort of explanation, like someone high up wants Cole to go far because he's good for PR, so they keep arranging for him to get cases which they know or have an inkling have more to them than most. Otherwise I really don't understand it. Fucking Cole Phelps.
And I would give him sort of a pass for all this, because it is a little bit nicer than just playing with constant, context-appropriate sexism and racism. Except that we also had a scene where Cole saw a female singer get smacked in the face, and stared in what I assumed was horror - until I realised through later cutscenes that it was supposed to be the moment he sort of fell in love with her. WHILE SAYING AND DOING NOTHING ABOUT THE FACT THAT SHE JUST GOT SMACKED IN THE FACE.
So yeah. I don't even know what to think. He's such a stereotypical 'clean-cut 1940s cop' - he's like what would stereotypical for a clean-cut 1940s cop in the 1940s, never mind now. So yeah, I'm kind of half-expecting there to be some amazing character development or character handling before the end that will require a bunch of Mary Sue-ing in the beginning of the story. Either that or he will Mary Sue until the end of time. IT'S HARD TO KNOW.
Without a doubt, his partners are the best characters in the game. They are all amazing, to a man. Secretly I hope that the ending - they have given us plenty of hints that Cole will end up fighting corruption in the police force itself - I hope that the ending involves Cole being in real, dire trouble, and all of his former partners bursting in, having teamed up to save him. Because they did use to be partners, and all. At the moment it's a little difficult, because his current partner is the guy who previously hit the lady Cole is now in love with in the face. But I have decided to give him a slight pass for that, because he hasn't hit any other women in the face so far, and he's still way more entertaining and interesting than Cole. It's a shame when fandoms are like that, but in the words of Dave Lister re Hermann Goering: "He was a drug-crazed transvestite, but at least we could have gone dancing!". You cannot go dancing with Cole Phelps.
In the meantime, Dr Evil the psychiatrist has been talking at least one of his patients into committing arson, to 'face the fear of fire' he got from the war, and sending him off to burn down a house which he claimed was empty, but turned out have a family living in it. So he's carrying on as usual, at least. And they seem to be setting up a subplot with other people Cole knew in the army, except that they're also detectives with the LAPD, and for a while I had no idea who they were, because everyone in the game looks the same. They all just look mocapped. Some look older than others, and some are women. And one is obviously Matt Parkman from Heroes. That's about it. But I've pretty much worked out who everyone is now, so I should understand it now. Mostly. I think.
