LA Noire

[Yostbeef]

I recently saw a thread about games you could never get into but wanted to and immediately thought of LA Noire.The style and setting was so impressive and hooked me in right away,I love noir stories.I was really enjoying it up until Homicide and I knew my character was interrogating and charging innocent people for a crime I knew,as the player,that they did not commit.This for me completely undermined the whole detective aspect of the game for me.At least give me the illusion of freedom and the possibility I might be arresting the wrong person,not have me knowingly lead my character to the wrong person.What was the point of playing anymore I thought and lost all interest in it.

The reason I bring this up is because the game is 75% off on Steam right now and I'm thinking about giving it one more shot.Maybe I can look past this serious gameplay flaw and just enjoy the game for what it is.I wanna know what some people thought of the game overall and whether you think It's worth giving another shot.

 

[SquidVicious]

It had a lot of wasted potential and it was the last game that truly disappointed me. If anything the action undermined the detective aspects of the game more than charging innocent people with crimes they obviously didn't commit. That was pretty common (and still is in some cities) so I chalked that up to keeping true to the time period. I remember how disappointed I was when I got the achievement for killing my 100th enemy, I mean even in the 1940's a cop with a body count that high would be taken off active duty and waiting a grand jury indictment.

If you haven't played the DLC then maybe that will be worth the $3 or $4, but if you lost interest by the Homicide desk I can't see you enjoying the rest of the game.

 

[Esotera]

It's a really unique yet flawed game, how much is it on Steam? It depends on what your tolerance is to the flaws of the game & how much you're willing to spend.

Anyway, I'd say the main flaw with the game was that it was way too long, and didn't let you interact with the environment as much as other Rockstar games do. Why can't I shoot pedestrians and pick up hookers? I got so bored constantly being forced from mission to mission...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I couldn't get into it. It had potential, but being a pretty much character driven game IMO, it must have a likeable main character. But it doesn't. I don't care about Cole Phelps at all. I never finished the game and I sold it. And that facial animation technology didn't work as well as they'd hoped. It was very uncanny. Like their heads were separate from the bodies. And everyone was overacting their roles because they only used their faces, not their entire bodies. It was weird. It didn't add to the game, it took from it. If they make another game like this, they have to use full body motion capture and they have to interact with other characters while they're recording. Otherwise it won't work. Another option is to make everything in the classic Disney cartoon style. Kind of like what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed 2. At least facial animations will fit body movements.

 

[Robetid]

I was having the same issue on whether to buy it or not but 75% off is enough off the game that even if you have an interest in the game you might as well pick it up. I ended up picking up all the GTAs, Max Payne's, L.A. Noire, and Manhunt for a little over 55 bucks. It's hard to pass up those kind of deals even if you get a little enjoyment out of the games before you move on. Honestly, will you spend the money on anything better? I know i prolly won't.

 

[Images]

Pssst, might want to put a spoiler tag on this boyo, some peeps might not know that kind of major twist you listed about homicides and the correct perpetrators.

I for one loved this game with all my heart for its uniqueness. I always wanted L.A Confidential: The Game and here I got it.

 

[votemarvel]

I found the game to be dull. While the stroy was generally ok and I liked how it unfolded, the actual game part of the game just wasn't interesting.

Even with all the help turned off clues were exceedingly easy to find. The money spent on the faces was wasted because they didn't exactly emote a great deal, which didn't really matter because the easy clues meant you never actually had to look at the people to solve anything.

There was a great game in LA Noire trying to get out. Hopefully if they ever do a sequel they can make the investigations side of the game actually interesting.

 

[BrotherRool]

There are some okay things about LA Noire and some truly terrible things. It's too long, there is a lot of busy work, it's too likely to devolve into long unpolice-like firefights. It's very obvious what the real mystery is sometimes but it still makes you go through the incorrect steps for ages and ages. And the conversation system is sometimes pretty unclear as to what's a bluff and what requires evidence (sometimes things you think would count as evidence don't, sometimes they do when they shouldn't)


I couldn't complete it but I was impressed by many of the things that I saw. I think making it a sandbox game was a huge waste of time and resources for what it brings to the table

 

[Lovely Mixture]

My sister rented it for 360, so I tried it out and was pretty disappointed. I usually like story based games, but when you get unskippable bullshit that drags on forever I begin to wonder if anyone playtested the game.

Now I'm normally lenient on videogame consoles having long loading time, I understand that optimization is hard. But when I look at a newspaper and it unexpectedly begins a long loading time, that goes into a scene that is slow and unskippable, I lose interest. I was not that amused with the actual gameplay: interrogations are fine but kind of clunky, gunplay is eh, driving is eh, crime scene investigation was.....uninspired.

The sad thing is, I didn't think it could be worse than Mafia II, another period game (which I played on the PC). Unfortunately it was just as irritating.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

Spoiler alert please, the first post has spoiled it a bit for me as I've only just started the game.

OT: I'm enjoying it so far, I love the novels of James Ellroy and it seems this game may as well be an adaptation of his world, if not a specific novel of his. The blurring of moral lines so you're not sure who the good guys are is pure Ellroy, so that doesn't worry me at all. (But I wish I didn't know about it already. Dude, seriously!)

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm actually pretty interested in getting LA Noire, but the problem is that the PC version runs like ass, and the console versions are still too expensive in stores to make it worth buying the game yet.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

I recently saw a thread about games you could never get into but wanted to and immediately thought of LA Noire.The style and setting was so impressive and hooked me in right away,I love noir stories.I was really enjoying it up until Homicide and I knew my character was interrogating and charging innocent people for a crime I knew,as the player,that they did not commit.This for me completely undermined the whole detective aspect of the game for me.At least give me the illusion of freedom and the possibility I might be arresting the wrong person,not have me knowingly lead my character to the wrong person.What was the point of playing anymore I thought and lost all interest in it.

The reason I bring this up is because the game is 75% off on Steam right now and I'm thinking about giving it one more shot.Maybe I can look past this serious gameplay flaw and just enjoy the game for what it is.I wanna know what some people thought of the game overall and whether you think It's worth giving another shot.

I'm not sure if you actually managed to finish the story part or not. I'm guessing not?

The thing is, that Cole does know he's charging the wrong people, and being forced in to it. You literally got the point just before the story starts to make sense. The later part of the game is all about the corruption within and Cole's fight against it.
I'm a big fan of hard boiled noir style stories, and for me the complete story doesn't disappoint.

That being said, other parts of the game were a let down. It shouldn't have been a sandbox game. They gave you a rather big city to explore, but there wasn't really anything to find or do within the city bar a few hidden vehicles or film reels that didn't help within the actual game. Even the side missions were just 'go to X and kill these baddies' or 'chase down this car' each time to be given the same cut scene. It really needed more things to do within the world and a better variety of side missions.

Despite it's floors it's one of my favorite games of this generation, purely for it's story and fairly unique game mechanics. You should definitely give it a second chance. Ignore the lackluster combat and side missions and just play it solely for the novel. If you like noir style, you will definitely look back and think, "yeah that was pretty cool" after you've finished it.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Pssst, might want to put a spoiler tag on this boyo, some peeps might not know that kind of major twist you listed about homicides and the correct perpetrators.

You mean apart from how it blatantly shows you the killer in all the openings for those cases and he looks nothing like anyone you can accuse?


L.A. Noire is, sadly, just a crap Phoenix Wright game (literally, for all the famous actors and face modelling, the actual conversations feel less natural than Phoenix Wright) with boring gunfights and useless openworld (in fact, worse than useless because you can only possibly be penalised for anything you do during it.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

I'd enjoy the game if they actually made it compatible with Win8. Never finished it on my old installation (where it ran like ass on an i7/GTX580 system gg) and now it's not operating at all.

I played about 60% through, but it all got very samey.

 

[The_Echo]

I was really enjoying it up until Homicide and I knew my character was interrogating and charging innocent people for a crime I knew,as the player,that they did not commit.

Spoiler

That's the point.

OT: I really loved LA Noire. The only flaw I found in it was the extra stuff for 100%ing, which felt very tedious and not actually worth it.

That aside, there are even bigger and better things waiting inside Noire's game-DNA, which I hope gets tapped someday.

I'm actually pretty interested in getting LA Noire, but the problem is that the PC version runs like ass, and the console versions are still too expensive in stores to make it worth buying the game yet.

I dunno what they're going for at retail, but you can get a copy on Amazon for 20 bucks (USD).

 

[Pink Gregory]

I loved it, but you can't exactly play it twice, put it that way.

 

[natster43]

It was a game that I couldn't get into at first, but after finding a walkthrough with all the answers for the questionings I was able to really enjoy it. It is a flawed game that I would love for there to be a sequel, especially if it ironed out some of the problems with the game (It dragging on at some point, not being able to tell if people are lying half the time)

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I got deeply into it and completed the murder desk in one intense night, loved it, fine gaming experience, but I have to say, the interrogation wasn't very fun, I didn't like the whole...

Spoiler: Post Vice Desk Spoilers!

Cole cheated on his wife thing

I also thought the ending was abrupt and rushed, went by too fast to be honest.

Other than that, it was alright, but it was quite tedious at times.

The murder desk was the best part of the whole game! All the other desks should have been murder desks too! I'm pretty certain I completed that whole section in one night too, pretty hard to stop once you get into it.

I agree with your spoiler as well...

Spoiler

I thought that maybe the whole wife betrayal thing was some elaborate plan by Cole to catch a criminal, especially when the game switches over to Kelso, that it was some sort of clever misdirection. But when it turned out to literally be cheating on his wife... I felt empty and betrayed. I played Cole better than that, damnit!

I enjoyed my time with the game and I have tried to return since but it doesn't hold the same appeal a second time. Which is a shame because I often replay games I like.

 

[BrotherRool]

I was really enjoying it up until Homicide and I knew my character was interrogating and charging innocent people for a crime I knew,as the player,that they did not commit.

Spoiler

That's the point.

It doesn't make it any less fun though. And they really over-labour it making you go through the same rigmarole time and time again long after you've got whats happening. Forcing the player to do something which you've also deliberately made them not want to do is a hard thing to do successfully in games and LA Noire failed

 

[OpticalJunction]

I genuinely loved the game, it's pretty unique and the graphical detail and facial animations are cool.