L.A. Noire

The best detective game on the earth, amazing tech, great story, good character development. Almost 10 years and still need a sequel.

Greetings from Lithuania.

The only reason i did not gave "L.A. Noire" (2011) a perfect 10/10 is the fact that i played it and finished it a 100% for the first time in 2020, nearly 10 years after its initial release - and games unlike movies do age. I played remastered version.

Games like this do not come out anymore. "L.A. Noire" has more in common with a great movie "L.A. Confidential" then any other game i have ever played. It has superb story, amazing writing and compelling characters, with great acing by many actors. Music was great, and game does look great when playing it on PS4 pro 4K - its just that open world feels empty and repetitive. But those are minor complain. Other then that, this is a fantastic game, very unique one.

Excellent cinematic atmosphere, story, soundtrack, and great characters. The interrogation gameplay was interesting, but sometimes also frustrating. At times the correct choices seemed a bit far-fetched or inconsistent, even if you were very careful. Maybe the developer pushed this gameplay mechanic a bit too hard in an attempt to keep the difficulty high enough. This prevented me from enjoying an excellent game as much as I should have. The combat also feels out of place (when gunning down hordes of nameless bad guys like in GTA) in a mature game. Flaws aside, this is still a milestone and an example of video games slowly growing up. The open world city is also amazingly authentic, arguably better (and certainly larger) than Liberty City in GTA 4. Porting from consoles was done acceptably well - you get HD textures and enough options, but there is a console checkpoint save system, 30-fps lock and a little mouse lag. Sadly Rockstar Social Club is mandatory.

I know that I will probably get a lot of comments about the tag line I used, but I sincerely believe that L.A. Noire had the potential to be an amazing game, but it fell short in several areas. It's a success because it -is- a great game, fun to play, good story... but it is a failure (to me) because it's the first Rockstar game I've scored less than 9. It fell well short of its potential.

I'll get right to it.

Graphics - 10/10 There's really no doubt that the game is absolutely gorgeous with the new facial scanning feature. This, coupled with the wonderful lighting and amazing detail to the city makes for a beautiful game to look at.

Sound - 10/10 The voice actors are phenomenal. They deliver believable performances without going over the top and they add a perfect amount of emotion to the dialog. The music is also amazing, adding to the overall engrossing atmosphere.

Controls - 8/10 There aren't any -major- complaints here. The shooting system leaves something to be desired, especially following in the wake of Red Dead Redemption. Driving controls aren't perfect either, but there have been much, much worse.

Story - 9/10 L.A. Noire has a very interesting story behind it. I've heard it said before: GTA meets CSI. That's an accurate assessment. Be prepared for an interesting journey.

Fun Factor - 7/10 Here's where things get interesting. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun, challenging at times, and interesting. My main problem with the game is after the first few cases, you'll notice that things get repetitive. You go to a crime scene. You look for clues. You go talk to suspects. You use your clues to get answers. That's about it. It also feels -way- too linear for me, often pushing you from one case to the next without giving you much time to explore the world and have fun.

There's a reason for that: There isn't much to do other than the main cases. Sure, you can respond to random calls from dispatch, but even - they- get repetitive. Go to the scene. Shoot out/chase/hostage situation. Rinse and repeat.

The major appeal to this genre for most people is the ability to go where you want, do what you want. While you might be able to go anywhere you want between cases, there isn't much to do when you get there. You can't even draw your weapon if you're not on a case. So all of those random rampages you love in GTA/RDR? Forget it. You won't be having those in L.A. Noire.

Another part of the game that some may not enjoy is that it often feels as though you're watching more than you're playing. There are a lot of cut scenes. Most of the game is cut scenes.

Replayability - 5/10 Since there isn't much to do beyond the main cases... No interesting side-quests, no random gunfights in the street, no stores or mini games or stunt challenges.... You'll already know all of the interrogation techniques, you'll already know who murdered who and why... You'll already have all of the answers. Where is the appeal to play again?

Overall - 8/10 It's a great game and an interesting concept. I know it wasn't meant to be a GTA clone, that it was meant to focus on the detective work and case cracking that hadn't successfully been used in a game before. But since the game is so narrow in its options as far as cases/case order/extracurricular activities, it's really hard to justify giving it any more than an 8/10. You'll have a blast playing through the first time. But when the credits roll, you'll find yourself wondering if it's destined to collect dust on your shelf.

I won't lie. I picked this game up due to the overwhelming hype surrounding it, and the track record of Rockstar. What I didn't expect was an experience as close to playing a movie as I've ever seen. A narrative full of characters that talked and acted like real people, and a hero that is flawed in realistic ways. Team Bondi put a lot of work in getting everything to look and feel as authentic as possible, and it shows. I've played through this twice now, nearly two years apart, and been completely and totally engrossed by the story and the amazing facial motion-capture technique that just adds an extra dimension to the characters you'll come across during it's very long running time.

Some comments have been made about the extended cutscenes and what can be viewed as tedious and repetitive gameplay, but I had no problem with either of these aspects of the game, as the plot completely sucked me in.

Make no mistake about it, this is a very mature tale that features brutal crime scenes, language, and violence, all of which are handled very matter-of-factly. There was never a point where I felt these things were over-the-top, however, but, rather, I felt these aspects added to the realism. Along with this, the whole city of Los Angeles in the 1940's has been lovingly recreated, from the buildings and locations, to the vehicles, fashions, and entertainment of that era.

If I were to pick anything that I had issues with, it was the noticeable lack of side missions or random events. Given the attention to detail that went in to creating the city, I would have thought the development team could have found more creative things to do within it. There are crimes outside of the main narrative that you can respond to that gain you extra "intuition" points to be used during questioning or clue hunting, but not nearly as many or nearly as diverse as there should have been. Also, this is more than likely a game you won't be turning around and playing again immediately after finishing it. It's probably something that's best revisited maybe every year or two.

Overall, I found this to be a stunning and eye-opening look at what games can look and feel like. If this is any indication of what we can expect in the future, I, for one, can't wait to see what's around the corner.