So Cole Phelps dies in a very quick decision to sacrifice himself instead of risk pulling down someone else in his climb out of the sewers. Was that supposed to make me give a shit about his character? I don't. Was I supposed to feel like he redeemed himself? I don't.

They never made me feel like I was Cole Phelps. The was no cohesion to his arc with the segmented cases. I didn't even know until half-way through or so that he was married with kids. We never saw them until he was kicked out by his wife. Not that I remember, at least. It's certainly possible I forgot a direct mention or never saw Cole's wedding ring until after-the-fact, but I don't remember feeling like I should look for it. Some detective I am when that was the first thing I looked for on any corpse

We were supposed to feel like we were Cole Phelps until you see all this shit he did between the segments. Yes they alluded to him liking Elsa with his trips to The Blue Room, but again I had no idea he was cheating on his wife. You couldn't fully role-play with him if you didn't get to make those after-hours decisions. Could they not have told this story without making him an asshole?

So all of the sudden he's an outcast. Instead of being ACTUALLY set up by Earle like it seemed, he was just ratted out. He was a bad guy. I didn't expect it even though EVERY STORY made a point to call all men wife-beaters or adulterous. Even the radio shows were full of terrible husbands. I thought *my* Cole was above all that. A true white knight.

Ok, so he's a flawed character that's out of my control. Ok, that's not so bad, let me redeem him now. No? I have to play as Jack Kelso now? Well, I guess he was important in Cole's past... So Kelso puts it all together and Cole's redemption is just being the last one out of the flooding sewers from the danger he put Kelso and Elsa in? Ooooookay.

Why were those sewers flooding like that? Was it L.A.'s annual rainstorm that was just conveniently scheduled for that night? Did some levees break? Did a "badguy" do something? It didn't make sense to me.

Then again, it was 4am when I was finishing the story, so I could have easily missed the whole point

All in all, I hated the fact that I felt like I was a spectator in Cole's story even though I was playing as Cole. It didn't feel right to me, especially coming from John Marston's story in Red Dead Redemption. I played John in that game and I felt like I was John. I started to feel like Cole until they made it clear I was never Cole.

It was a very weird dichotomy they forced upon me. I feel cheated. I still plan to replay it all to get 5 stars from all the cases so I'll experience the story all over again and maybe I'll notice something I missed/forgot that takes the shock and surprise of the family away.

As it is right now after a single, exhausted playthrough I would not recommend this game as highly to anyone else as I thought I would early on.

I for one felt that the character never changed through the story. Cole was the same person at the end of the game....sure we found out he wanted to fuck a hot German chick, but that did not really change who he was....

If they did not want him to change for the better....it would have been amazing to see him turn darker. Have him start to lie and cut corners in an attempt to get revenge on those that harmed him. It flirted with this idea a bit, but not to the level that would have made the game an all time great game..

It would have been interesting to make it CLEAR he was changed...for him to go out of his way to fuck those that hurt him...and to see him start to become what he hated the most to get the job done. Even if he still died at the end, having him make that transition actually would have made me care more about him.

That would have been fine too! Didn't think of it. At least it would have been interesting.

I visited the crime scene, then the popcorn stand, then the bookie. I sprung open his slot machine and found the drugs, so he ran. Now I'm questioning him after chasing him down. First question, he denies any involvement with drugs. I can see his open slot machine in the background, chock full of drugs and betting slips, but no evidence will let me accuse him of lying. I'm so frustrated that I checked a walkthrough and apparently I was supposed to go to the other possible location first to get evidence for this specific question.

Phelps was damaged goods just like Ira. His problem was his obsession with everything being black and white and getting the glory. The stinger at the end of the credits cements it, with all the other guys in the unit planning the scheme on the boat back. Only Kelso seems to have a grasp on things and tries to instill the point that no one should care about the accolades a Phelps gets, they should be proud for simply serving their country.

Every one of Phelps' partners tried to get him to see things in shades of grey, with the one exception of the Vice partner, willing to sell out for what he perceived to be lesser offenses. Phelps just couldn't change his ways, and in the end, his sudden sacrifice wasn't intended to be redeeming, it was just another example of Phelps trying to be a hero. I've seen other people asking why didn't Kelso storm out of the funeral or speak up. Simple, he knew deep down Phelps would be satisfied with getting a hero's farewell, even coming from the mouths of the corrupt. It was Kelso's final way of honoring a man he felt pity for.

Still I feel cheated having to play through his shoes thinking I'm the good guy. It's one thing to watch a faulted hero, but it's another thing to be forced to be one.

I didn't really pick up on the shades of grey thing, but I do remember knowing in several cases that neither suspect was guilty but being forced to pick one. Even the partners would push for one over the other, even while (especially in Homicide) Phelps would say it doesn't add up. Even at the end of Homicide, the Captain there wasn't wanting to make it public that they messed up the investigations because of who was really behind the BD, et al, murders. They'd just have the DA mess up the prosecutions and the men would have to live their lives without ever having the truth (and in the case of the kids would never know).

If Phelps really wanted to be a hero and do what is right in his B&W view of the world, he would have said fuck the authority and spilled the beans. The fact that we later discover he's not only a husband, but a father makes that doubly so, IMHO.