Roy Earle is your partner again in The Naked City. I’m not a fan…
As I mentioned in my review, I enjoyed LA Noire so much that I bought the Rockstar Pass in order to play 4 DLC cases (3 of which have been released to this date). One concern I had was whether I’d enjoy the DLC cases as much. How would they fit into the overall story arc? Would they be fun even if they were just one offs? I’ve played through A Slip of the Tongue and The Naked City, my answers to those questions and my reviews of the two DLC pieces are below.
A Slip of the Tongue
I was a bit skeptical about A Slip of the Tongue because it’s a Traffic desk case, and I assumed from the outset that it wouldn’t fit into the larger story (it didn’t). Still, I think A Slip of the Tongue is a good piece of DLC content; it took me almost an hour to finish and explored crime in a way that isn’t explored in the main game.
You start the case by tracking down a stolen car and everything mushrooms from there. I really found myself pleasantly surprised with how the case went. It was also nice to be partnered with Bekowsky again, he was…one of the less annoying partners.
In terms of gameplay, there are some chase scenes and a pretty big shootout, if you like that sort of thing. I don’t, but it wasn’t too overbearing. There are some nice bit characters involved in the investigation and things like that.
A Slip of the Tongue works pretty well as a one off, probably because it feels kind of different than The Naked City. I enjoyed it, but it still is DLC, so the score reflects that.
Final Grade: B-
The Naked City
The Naked City takes place on the Vice desk, which is a negative already, since Roy Earle’s character is completely flat and totally sucks in my opinion. He also serves as a foil to your character, Cole Phelps, which makes Cole more annoying as well. Some of their banter essentially boils down to:
Roy: “I’m a morally questionable cop, but it’s cool, because everyone is corrupt anyway!”
Cole: “No way, I’m a boy scout, you shouldn’t bend the rules ever!”
Whatever, the less dialogue between these two the better.
As for the actual case, The Naked City is pretty good. The plot features a lot of twists and turns, some of which actually surprised me. The case was actually quite lengthy, it took me over an hour to complete. I thought it used a lot of clever ideas, so I was pretty satisfied with it.
I was a little disappointed that it didn’t really fit in too much with the main storyline. Yes, the murder method was the same, but other than that, there was no real connection. As a one off, the case is pretty entertaining, but I would have loved it to flesh out things a little bit more.
One problem I had with this case was there were too many chase and tailing scenes. It felt like they all got jammed into the case to make it more “exciting”, I don’t think it really needed that. All in all, I definitely enjoyed the Naked City, although since it’s DLC, it really isn’t necessary to purchase. If you want more LA Noire though, The Naked City should partially scratch that itch.
Final Grade: B
Final Thoughts
If you haven’t played LA Noire yet but you think you’re going to like it, I would suggest getting the Rockstar Pass and playing through the DLC through the course of the story. It doesn’t completely add to the main storyline, but some of the dialogue between Cole and his partners help to set things up. I don’t know, it does seem expensive to pay a couple bucks per case, but if you’re not above paying it, A Slip of the Tongue and The Naked City are pretty good cases in their own right.
