Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A few flaws but enjoyable gameplay, October 30, 2003
The Law and Order series is a mystery-adventure game where you try to unravel the clues and bring the guilty party to justice. It features exceptional acting by the real cast!You don't have to watch the show to enjoy the game. In essence it's broken into two parts. In part 1, you're a detective and trying to solve a murder case. A well respected doctor is found shot in the head outside an apartment building. It's rather grisly, but you start searching. In part 2, you have tracked down a suspect and are now trying to prosecute him in court. So you use the evidence from before and question the various witnesses to prove the guy is guilty. The game is in essence the same as the first release (Dead on the Money) so the complaints and praise are pretty much similar. On the good side, you have a great cast, great acting and great plot line. So the game really does feel like you're in a well done TV drama and meeting interesting, multi-dimensional people. The puzzles are fun and challenging, and make sense in the context of the game. The ambient sounds and graphics are both rather good - when you're poking around an apartment, you hear footsteps outside as someone else heads to their room. On the downside, though, there is an AWFUL lots of mouse-waving around as you try to search every tiny little nook and cranny for things to examine in the various locations. If you don't click on the exact PIXEL of the item - even if you do have the "help" of turning the magnifying glass on - you miss it! Like real life, there are TONS of things to investigate in the room, and 99% of them are meaningless to the case. But it gets REALLY tedious to have to hear the reports of "Sorry, I examined this as much as I could and just didn't find anything." over and over again from your team. I would REALLY just like to get a written report of what was WORTHY and then be able to click on those things that were interesting to hear more about them. In the same vein, your "inventory of objects" is limited. So you have to *throw away* evidence to pick up more!! Talk about bad police work!! You spend half your case throwing away things and hoping you don't need them later on. Why not have some sort of "police locker" to store them in until later just in case? Also, some of the questions were blatantly obnoxious and not ones I would ask a witness. But the game would get to the point where the "other options" would start to cycle through questions you'd already asked and in essence they force you to ask the obnoxious one. There should be choices on how to end an interview - and pissing off your witness shouldn't be the ONLY one. Finally, I play a TON of games on my system and usually don't have any trouble at all. But the video on this kept *vanishing* completely - and it happened in both windowed and full screen mode. I would have to completely shut down and restart the game to fix it ... for a while. Eventually it would happen again. Still, it's fun to put the pieces together and figure out just who did what with who in what location. There are fun twists and turns and things aren't always as they appear to be. So I'd say when you play this game don't expect a "quick zip through" - sit down, be very patience, be prepared to reboot the game a few times, drink a glass of wine. You'll find that if you take it slow, the game is quite fun and worth the time!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous -. But Too Short, December 17, 2003
Law and Order is an amazing show, and a damn fine game. I expected it to be lots of short missions, but alas it was one long case - which was great, except I finished it in a week and a half and the replay value is nil.
There are two parts to the case - part 1 partners you with Lenny Briscoe from the show, building the investigation from the ground up. In Part 2 you pair up with D.A. Serena Southerlyn and go to court, as well as continuing the investigation Lenny and you started. At the beginning of each part you can choose 2 of 4 skills to help you out in the game - 1) interviewing witnesses 2) searching for clues 3) Teamwork (allows you to get hints along the way from your superiors). And 4) Case Organization.
There is a short detective and lawyer tutorial, and although it can seem complex at first, the learning curve is very low. If you've ever watched a law and/or detective show, you'll know what to do. Search for evidence, interview witnesses, submit possible clues to the lab or research department, order surveillance, request pscyh exams. It's very free reign, and the more you discover, the more locations open up for you.
I'm a big fan of sims, rpgs, and adventure games and this game combines all three aspects magnificently. I was wondering how they would manage the interviewing witnesses part, but its very nice and smooth with 3 different questions you can ask, all changing and developing every time you ask one or get new evidence. When you are in locations searching for clues it is VERY realistic, with lots of garbage and junk. It's up to you to decide if it could possibly be relevant and send it in to the lab or research department, or to just leave it alone. You have limited evidence space, so you can't have too many empty soda cans, bagels, or atm receipts you found laying on the street clogging up your evidence. I've seen the game criticized for this but I think this adds a touch of realism, as in real life you have to scour the scene from top to bottom and decide what could possibly be used and what can't. You are a detective after all. The game gives you a lot more trial and error room than real life, but still manages to make you feel like you ARE a detective or a lawyer.
In the courtroom you have the ability to object anytime the defence is asking a question, and sometimes when they object to something you said you will get multiple choices on why the judge should go in your favour. At your law office, there is a computer with lots of information on law and how to be a lawyer in general. Very educational! The second part includes quite a few aspects from the first part gameplay; you have very little physical evidence when you start out in court, so you gotta keep on doing the dirty detecting work. But that's a lot of the fun!
Both parts have a GREAT plot - written like a mystery novel with interesting characters, multiple suspects, and a secret human cloning project. There are puzzles sprinkled throughout the game, like an encrypted email, a shredded letter etc. But the biggest puzzle of all is "who dunnit?" And there are breadcrumbs galore leading in all directions.
The graphics are FAB - some of the most realistic looking people I've seen in awhile. Lenny and Serena look very good in game. And the voices! Some of the characters actually had such personality between the voice and face that I really hated some, and felt for others.
Very rarely have I played a simulation this good. It would get 5 stars except...what to do after you finished the case? Where to go? Have to wait for the next one I guess.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thumbs up, October 8, 2003
OK, let me start out to say that I'm not one of those die-hard Law & Order fans, just a casual fan. Surprisingly, the game is better than I thought. Easy to get into, but not made for dummies either. I liked that they tried to make things logical. (I have been annoyed at other games that solutions to puzzles required to read the minds of the people who made it, or even worse, an hour of trial and error.) The voices are good as it does seem like the TV show and the plot is worthy as well. Don't expect a lot of action, though (but would you really if you have ever watched the show?) as it's a lot of talking. But it works. All in all, if you like the show and like to think, I would recommend it.
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