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*No Spoilers* just details that can hopefully help the undecided
First review (had to really great game) don't be too harsh
What an amazing game this is so far. The environment is so vivid. Graphics are up to par. This game was made for the Ps3!
Being a Rockstar Game, the controls are very similar to Grand Theft Auto & Red Dead Redemption. The controls also reminded me of Mafia II. Very smooth and fluid. There's also a map on the bottom left corner just like in the other Rock* games.
This game is not as fast paced as Grand Theft Auto. It is not a shoot first ask questions later type of game. Keep that in mind before buying. I'm enjoying it but I can just imagine some people hating it for be slow paced.
Investigating crime scenes can be so exciting as you do not know what or where your next clue will be. You are given the freedom to walk around and find clues with the assistance of vibration/music as you get near them.
There is no multiplayer for this game, which can be good or bad. I for one will be way too busy solving crimes around Los Angeles to even notice.
The PS3 version of the game comes with an exclusive DLC card to download a case called Consul's Car.
I pre-ordered from Best Buy so I received The Sharpshooter suit also.
And I was there for the midnight release so I received the nicholson electroplating DLC.
I will update as I get farther in the game & notice more helpful tips/details
Update:
The characters in LA Noire look so real. When they speak, it is shown in their facial expressions. No lip syncing here, it looks like they are actually talking. When a victim/witness is upset you can notice how their eyebrows kind of fold in.
Interrogation
When questioning a victim/suspect/witness you can choose from accepting it as the truth, lies, or doubt. Choose wisely. There's a score system which will provide you with experience points if you ask the right questions. These points can help you find clues easier.
Driving
I've experienced that some of the cars start to swerve if you're going too fast. Also even though you have destinations, you can just cruise the city limits. If you get lost, your partner will be more than glad to give you directions. "Make a left, take the right" kind of thing.
Fist fights
Some guys just don't give up without a fight. Team Bondi provides a nice block and punch system to knock some sense into them.
I've noticed you can use the block to make your opponent attack & opening himself for a nice right hand hook.
Cover system
By going into cover, the player can look around to see where the bullets are flying in from. This way you can pick the enemy out one by one. The Cover system allows you to regain health if you need to. Sometimes you will be outnumbered and outgunned. So this is where the cover system comes in handy. Cover and peek out when the enemy is reloading if they have serious fire power. The first time I ran into a shooting. I caught a bullet in the back. You've been warned!!!
Health
There was an actual opened bloody wound on my back for a while. But as my health recovered it went away. so you can restore your health by staying out of harm's way. I like this system better than Grand Theft Auto's health packages.
Thanks for reading!
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I love this game for so many reasons, yet the few irritating drawbacks infuriate me. The atmosphere, music, facial expressions, and story are amazing. I want to advance through the game as quickly as possible to find out how things progress. However, the completely hit-or-miss interrogation sessions and rooting through garbage can crime scene investigation have me sick enough to quit.The facial expressions and voice acting are just as incredible as advertised. I knew going into this that picking up on facial ticks and eye darting were key to detecting inconsistencies in testimony. Still, no matter how you play it, there's no way to tell whether you should believe, doubt, or catch the witness in a lie. Some of the lying is completely obvious, yet you still lose for not selecting the correct choice between "doubt" or "lie". I don't mind doing more investigation to solve the case, but I hate feeling like a failure when the game gives me no other options or assistance.
I also tired of the same old crime scene investigations. You move from area to area, waiting for the controller to rumble so that you can investigate. Sometimes its evidence worthwhile, but more often its just a bottle or an ashtray worth nothing. Often times you find yourself re-examining an area after all other evidence has been found, as if you'd missed something the first time.
It pains me to write this review. I had this preordered, and had been counting down the months to its release. I still find it an amazing piece of entertainment, pushing the boundaries of what a video game can be. Yet some of the elements are just not implemented in a way that can be considered fun, or an attainable challenge. When you don't know why you're getting things wrong or misinterpreting information, there's no reason to hone your technique or continue. I'll probably just finish this up with a strategy guide so I know how to answer the interrogations.This took me a three days to finish. There may be some very minor spoilers in this review. I made a lot of mistakes that hurt my enjoyment of the game, so maybe I can help someone.
STORY -I thought the story was superb. The opening story in Homicide was especially strong, and initially I thought the game was going to end there. Homicide is pretty much the front half, with Vice and Arson as the back half. On the story, though, Newspapers give vital videos, and I didn't notice the "(X) for more" while holding a newspaper until I got to Vice. The newspapers give very interesting plot twists. Lots of character-motivated surprises in the course of this noir.
ACTING -Also superb. I can't think of any character I found uninteresting throughout the game. I wound up arresting some of my favorite character actors. If you're interested in a long, excellent film noir, then you'll like this.
INVESTIGATIONS -Walk around, try to find buzzes. These were interesting, but I don't think they will challenge many people. Note -All of the scenes in Homicide, Vice, and Arson involve examining dead people, and many are nude and/or badly damaged. The police do act respectfully throughout.
INTERROGATIONS -A weak point for me. In the Phoenix Wright series, you'll get multiple chances to ask a question, or to present evidence. Here, though, one mistake anywhere will lock out portions of the story. It doesn't end the story, but if you want to see what you missed, you need to restart that chapter. You can use Intuition points to remove a bad choice, but invariably the game removes a choice that is obviously wrong. I only got 10 intuition points for the entire game, far too few. When a person is accuse of a Lie, you must back up with evidence, but sometimes there are several pieces that might fit. Truth, Doubt, or Lie -in the really vital investigations, I was often guessing. In the routine interrogations, the body language of the actors is *much* easier to read.
CAR CHASES -I liked the chases at the start of the game. Late in the game, many surprise hard turns are thrown at you, and you'll need to restart the chase if you miss one. Fortunately, they could be skipped. When Tailing someone, there was often a lot of tricky maneuvering, and it was very easy to accidentally touch the left joystick too hard to turn on the siren. They should have disabled the siren during Tail scenarios. There are a couple of Escort and Escape scenes, and those I liked a lot. The many hard turn chases, not so much.
FOOT CHASES -My thumbs would get sore during many of these. And when almost done, some extra gotcha would force me to restart.
GUNFIGHTS, FIST FIGHTS -On the easy side.
DRIVING -The city looks gorgeous and real, with lots of detail. However, driving quickly becomes a chore, so I started having the partner drive to save time. I was more interested in the story after awhile.
Overall, I loved the story. But for playing around with interrogations and evidence, I preferred the Phoenix Wright series. There, I was actually solving things, rather than making lots of 50/50 educated guesses (with penalties for being wrong). The end of the Homicide chapter ends with a long series of actual solving, and I liked that. If only they could have made problem solving more important in the rest of the game, I would have enjoyed it much more.
Read Best Reviews of La Noire Here
Its good to finally play something that is somewhat different from the rest of the pack. La Noire feels almost like gta and heavy rain combined which I think some people like myself will like a lot and others could find it a little too slow paced. I am a big fan of rockstar games and have been for a while so I'm glad they have picked up Team Bondi who created the game they did a great job with this title that took about 5 or 6 years to create so hopefully we will see some type of sequel in the near future. A couple of things that I don't care for are that there should have been some more consequence to failing an interrogation by having different turns in the story, that would have been really good depending on what you do when interrogating. Also the side missions could have been better I still like them but would have liked a different variety of outcomes it seems to be the same most of the time.As far as game play I would say its good not great I don't like that you can't remap buttons cause running and shooting with the same button R2 is kind of annoying to me, some people also complain about the gas pedal for R2 but that doesn't bother me. They should have also made ammo limited I don't think you should have unlimited ammo. Graphics are really something else especially the facial animations which are the best I've seen in any game and the world of LA is very good I actually feel like I'm almost playing a next gen game cause everything looks amazing. I have heard some people complain about the visuals not being that impressive but I find them just fine and I'm playing on a 32 inch lcd hdtv which to me is the perfect size for playing cause you really see everything perfectly its not too big and not too small. Before you purchase this make sure you understand what your buying I see to many people complaining about the style of game play because they thought they were buying a 1940's gta.I am a huge proponent of the idea that games can house plots that rival the greatest in both film and literature.
However steadfast my belief of that is, though, it's always been a hard sell to non-gamers. So many are skeptical
about the idea that an element of control in a plot won't throw it off track that they disregard games as an artform altogether. And while many games have come out in my years as a gamer that I use to rebut those claims ("Alan Wake"
and "Heavy Rain" being the most recent examples), none of those have truly surpassed a well-made film, or a masterfully written book, in the eyes of those critics. Leave it to the fine folks at Rockstar, always pushing games to their
very limit, to provide us with what may be the finest example of a narrative in interactive media to date. That
example is the truly superb "L.A. Noire".
This is a detective story that would make even Raymond Chandler's jaw drop in astonishment. War hero Cole Phelps,
after being honorably discharged from the Marines with a Silver Star, comes back home to a burgeoning Los Angeles. As is customary for any city's growth, crimes begin to break out at a more frequent rate. Rapes, drug schemes, murder, and robbery become day-by-day affairs for the LAPD. Seeing this, Phelps decides to join the force and do the best he can to protect the city that he calls home. The plot follows our hero as he works his way through the ranks, starting as a beat cop but quickly progressing into homicide and the like. "L.A. Noire"'s overarching narrative may not sound like much, but that's not exactly where it tries to impress. Where it's strengths lie are in the individual cases, divided up into chapters a la "Ace Attorney." At first, these may not seem like anything special, but a chapters in the writing begins to take on a tone both mature and sophisticated. Never before have I seen dialogue as impressive and fluid in a video game, never coming across as canned or cheesy in the least. This game sets a whole new level for narrative gaming.
Not that things exactly skimp on the actual gameplay front, either. While the most immediate comparison is to Rockstar's biggest franchise, "Grand Theft Auto", "L.A. Noire" actually deviates a large amount from the typical open-world mold. Despite what trailers may have you believe, the brunt of gameplay in this game is in the investigation. You can storm through crime scenes, skipping evidence and going straight for suspects' throats, but that's hardly conducive to success. No, the way to get the most out of each case is to take your time at the crime scenes and uncover every little detail before jumping into action. When you're absolutely convinced that you have your guy or girl, it's easier taking them down with evidence than with brute force.
Don't think that Rockstar ignored their fanbase's cries for action, though, because that's another area this game does so well. Firefights and car chases are well-placed, never sinking to the perfunctory shoot-outs and chase sequences that many other games often use due to a lack of original ideas. The foot chases have to be the most exhilarating I've ever experienced, always throwing in twists and turns in the later levels. Running along a corridor only to find yourself INCHES from getting smashed by an oncoming train, or running through the workings of an abandoned movie set chasing a perp when you discover that the floor is collapsing beneath your feet... you never know what this game is going to throw at you at any given point, which is possibly the best thing about the whole experience.
The graphics, a huge marketing point for the game, are fantastic. Every single detail of Los Angeles is lovingly rendered, as are the faces of the actors who give life to the refreshingly unique characters. Especially impressive are the shadow effects, which give off the tone of 40's noir flicks that the developers were aiming for. Completing that feel are both the excellent acting and superb soundtrack, making for rich soundscapes paralleled by few.
"L.A. Noire" has a lot of hype surrounding it, and deservedly so. It's hands-down the best game so far this year, and even with massive games coming out later this Summer, I wouldn't be surprised if it's greatness is unrivaled. A new bar for storytelling in video games has been set, and we owe it all the fine publisher and developer that made it possible.
Story: A+
Graphics: A+
Sound: A+
Gameplay: A+
Overall: A+ (Superb in every way; Pure Perfection)
UPDATE (5/25/11): This will be the first of two updates. Nearing the climax of main story mode, I must say, my feelings towards the game haven't changed a bit. While there is a noticeable lull in action when you finish Homicide and begin working in the AD Vice, the plot maintains all of it's intrigue, and that lull ends within a few cases. I stand by my original score insofar.
FINAL UPDATE (5/27/11): Finished the game, and have determined that my feelings in fact have changed. I love "L.A. Noire" more than I initially did, and that's saying a lot. It takes a special game to tie every seemingly unrelated plot thread into a huge overarching narrative, and do it without a hitch, but Rockstar and Team Bondi have managed to do it in spades. The ending is something that's bold, and required a lot of guts to force on the player. The last few hours you spend with this game will not only be the most poignant and intense within it, but perhaps the most of any game released this year. A fantastic experience unlike any other, this is one game that you must play. Period.
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