L.A. Noire is a very good game for the gamer that likes to be analytical, gather clues, and figure things out. It's slow paced, as police work usually is, but it's also very rewarding. The Motion Scan technology in this game is fantastic, and I see it being built upon for future releases of completely different games. The ability to read an actors expression is certainly pushing a new paradigm in games that just hasn't been executed before with any success. Team Bondi delivers here.
The story in this game isn't something new. Allowing the user to be the police officer, and a good one, is for the most part new. There is almost an RPG like feel to the game, with long dialog while you're interrogating people. This may come off as boring to some, but I assure you the scenes aren't just fillers. They're fun, interesting, integral parts of the whole story.
The game is still an open world concept, so you can move around and explore the beautiful old L.A. city that Team Bondi laid out. There are also a number of side missions that you can do.
I gave it a 4 out of 5 because the game can get a bit redundant at times. Don't worry, the story does get varied, but a few of the cases are too similar. The other reason I took a bit off the final score is that there just isn't much room for replay value here. Short of the inevitable game add-on's that you can purchase from the XBox Live Marketplace, there's not going to be much reason to come back once you beat it. I'd put the gameplay at about 15-25 hours. This doesn't take into account how much time you spend exploring away from the main story line and side missions.
L.A. Noire is definitely worthy of your collection. I hope we see more Team Bondi developments produced by Rockstar.
Thank you for reading! L.A. Noire
I'm enjoying playing this game (I think), but I'm finding it a bit clunky and frustrating in all the places it shouldn't be. And in far too many places I'm thinking "Is that all there is?"
I have framerate issues in some outdoors areas. Also, I'm experiencing annoyance caused by the fact that in some areas I can't climb low walls. Sometimes I can scale fences, sometimes I can't. The developers only made some features climbable. The Assassin's Creed series gets this right. This game, not so much. If you're going to make certain things climbable, make them all climbable. Don't make a fence climbable in one spot, but 20 yards away the same height fence is not. Nothing breaks the sense of 'suspension of disbelief' more than having your game character running in place when faced with a hose line or a 2ft high wall that the game developers forgot to allow you to negotiate.
Then there's the actual gameplay. It often seems to me that this is more a walkthrough than a game, as each game decision is virtually handed to you on a platter. Then, if you get a decision wrong, it hands you the right answer anyway. So none of the decisions you make actually affect the outcome of the game. It's essentially a linear game that's pretending to have a branching storyline that your decisions affect.
Then there's clunky gameplay factors like the investigations. You seem to spend most of your time running around interior walls waiting for a tell-tale controller rumble that tells you that you're in the vicinity of a clue - but try to pick it up and you find yourself stumbling about trying to find the exact spot the game wants you to be in to collect it.
When you get a suspect in for interrogation, often the question doesn't match the answer you give, and rambles on about other issues so that you can forget what the question was about. Then if you choose that they're lying, it's that much harder to figure out what it was they were lying about. Also, sometimes they're telling the truth, but the 'correct' choice was to say they were lying. How does that make any sense? In short, the interrogation system is poorly implemented and confusing.
When you get your partner to drive, there's no option to watch the action as there is in Red Dead Redemption. Although your character says "I'd like to check my notes" there's no option to do that. It just fades to the destination.
I do like the option the game gives to skip a sequence that you're having a hard time with. I wish the GTA series had this. Unfortunately, this game is so easy that I've not needed it so far.
Another annoyance is that the game's revolvers can take out a criminal at 300 yards. Your character has the ability to aim and fire a police issue pistol with the accuracy and range of a sniper rifle. On the other hand, you can hit a guy in the head or shoot him in the chest with no effect (they won't ever go down on the first shot). It's things like this - silly nonsense - that makes the game so annoying.
Finally, although I didn't expect this game to be GTA or Red Dead Redemption, I did hope for some of the usual stuff you get in a sandbox game. What this game offers is a few samey side quests and a few cars to collect. The side quests are all variations on the same theme - shoot the cop killers/bank robbers, and collecting cars has no purpose - they don't go faster, they don't have extra radio stations - nothing. Going by landmarks 'unlocks' the landmark, but for what purpose (other than a few game points) I don't know.
In general, the game seems unfinished. It's fun for a while, but the game features all seem to be floundering in search of some kind of focus. Also, you find yourself in a vast area of Los Angeles, but there's very little to actually do there. You can't go to movies, you can't do any mini-games. It just seems like this game spent all its time on graphics and had no time left over to flesh out the gameplay. - Rockstar - Video Games - Crime Drama - Detective'
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