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The reviews of your fav. games: Law & Order II

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 18
Date: May 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

...

The sequel to one of the best games is going to be here soon, and I am getting good vibes. Based on the "Law & Order" TV series, the second L&O game features a ripped from the headlines case starrikng Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), and Assistant DA Serena Southerlyn "Elisabeth Rohm."

In it, a Wall Street hotshot is strangled in Central Park. The game comes complete with digitalized intro from the show, plot twists aplenty, and the ever popular wit from Det. Briscoe. If you are on your toes, and are a fan of the series, you will enjoy this mystery roller coaster!

ALSO RECOMMENDED:
Law & Order: Dead on the Money (HOT!)
CSI: Criminal Science Investagators
Post Mortem
Ripper (Out Of Print)

Looks Like It Will Be Good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: July 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you were a fan of the first L&O game, you will like this one even better. They have made some major improvements. If you didn't play the first though, the improvements will seem minor, but trust me, these improvements are great. First off, they got rid of the time limits so you can investigate without fear of being removed from the case. You can now redo interviews with suspects and witnesses so if you missed something, you don't have to go back to a save point. And with your choice of skills you now gain a "case organization" skill you can pick. This provides you with hints on how to organize your case file for warrants, tests, and subpeonas. This game is gonna rock in my opinion.

Mind Numbingly Dull

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 14
Date: October 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you enjoy the TV series, then you'll like this game, as if follows all the stylings of the show. For non fans, however, the game comes off as a dull point-and-click mystery that really offers no incentive to keep playing it after a few hours.

While there are tons of different scenes to gather evidence at, it's always the same experience, you click on objects to pick 'em up and put 'em in your dossier. Then you send them off for processing at the lab or other relevant department.

The storyline has plenty of twists to keep fans playing the game, but most gamers will just get tired of the little surprises and jump from scene to scene, hurridly collecting clues.

The environments are doen in a quicktime VR type of format, which means you can't really walk around them at all. You just spin in place, point to an object, click and pick it up. Or you point to a car, for example, and click to enter it. If you're not pointing and clicking to gather evidence, you're dragging and dropping it into a research folder.

Graphically, it's not all that hot, as characters are blocky and movement is marionette-like, even in the cinematic sequences.

The two high points are the storyline and the voice work. The story was done by a staff writer, and the voices were actually provided by the show's cast.

In the end, I could see this being worth $10, maybe $20, but certainly not $29.99. Wait for it to hit the bargain bin if you're really interested in it.

Thumbs up

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: October 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I just finished Law & Order 2, and while it took me a couple of tries to get a guilty verdict, I was able to finish the game with a 98%! Woo Hoo! The acting is great and the story was just what you'd expect to see on TV. It was easy to learn how the game worked, and it really kept my interest. I liked finding new people to talk to and more places to look for clues. I don't want to give anything about the case away (it has lots of surprises!), but it is definitely of the ripped from the headlines variety that I love the show for.

Give me Criminal Intent!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Although this is not my favorite of the 3 Law & Order shows I had a great time playing this game. My only wish is that they add Sam Waterson and more of the cast to future games. Regardless, this game is challenging and fun for anyone that likes the show or just playing a detective or prosecutor. On another note I hope somebody makes a Law & Order Criminal Intent game because Vincent Donoffrio is a genius and I think that could be a fun game.

A few flaws but enjoyable gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 46 / 50
Date: October 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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!

Fabulous -. But Too Short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: December 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

i felt like commiting suicide

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 16
Date: December 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

i got this game for christmas, and boy was i happy. i had heard only the best about it. i put it in and played and played and played for 9 hours straight. i finally won and got my conviction and i was so happy, i couldn't wait to get to my next mission. then i didn't know how to, and then i went to all these sites and they talked about one mission, then i read one on amazon confirming my thoughts. there is only one mission. now i dont know about all of you, but when i get a game i like it when you can do more than one thing. the mission was fun, and it took time and patience to complete, but when your done you sit there for a second and go wait...I, (or a relative) just spent thirty dollars on a game where you can only do one thing. you can do this thing as much as you want, but still it is just that one thing with minor differences. i felt like suicide. i'm warning you, if you are going to buy this, buy it used or borrow it from a friend, because it may be fun and the show is fabulous, but when you finish you wont be happy at where your money went

Fun game, but now that I'm done, what next?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: December 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The answer is there isn't any next! The game has one thread, and that's it. When I received it for Christmas, I though it would sorta mix things up - that you could play it several times with different results. Unfortunately, once you get the guilty verdict, that's it. And this is very disappointing to me.

Otherwise, it was fun. I thought it was difficult to see all of the clues in some scenes (like the scrap yard, it took me forever to find the crowbar). It was interesting to put together all the parts for a search warrant and arrest warrant. The graphics and characters were good too (Lenny even gets in some of his famous one liners).

I've never played the first Law & Order game, but this one was fun. Very few technical glitches; in fact, it comes with a couple of patches in the event you have some problems.

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