User Review : L.A. Noire

Just missed the (Morphine) Boat.

Story:

You are an up and coming officer in the LAPD named Cole Phelps. Phelps starts off his career as a police officer and rises to the ranks of a detective; first Homicide, then Vice, and finally Arson. Each force has different cases; Homicide investigates killings of another human, Vice investigates Drug related crimes, and Arson investigates fire related crimes.
The plot gets a bit deeper than just investigated recent murders around the city. After most cases you are treated to a Flash back into World War II. Many of soldiers his unit did not approve of his orders and even considered him bad luck. In another flash back, he was promoted and earned the Silver Star Medal, a prestigious award. This helps mold Phelps' character. Someone I personally, Did not care for.
During his Stint with the LAPD, Phelps always tried to do the right thing. After every case he solved he began to learn some dirty secrets within the city and even in the LAPD. With all this going on, Phelps stayed true to his path and goal to clean up this city.
He also comes into contact with old 'friends' from the War and help shape the story of drugs, betrayals and corruption.

There are a couple things that bugged me within the story and one of those things was the Affair he had. It wasn't explained why he did it--at first i thought he did it as part of a mission. It went against his character but I assume they had him cheat on his wife to show that he is a human and not some super human detective. Or, it relates to the time frame where the mindset was different.

Overall it was an interesting story that was told nicely and had an ending that goes against your typical Hollywood scene, which is always a nice breath of fresh air.

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Gameplay:

The game plays similar to any Rockstar game you might have played. Things are a little different this time around....you are on the good the side and have people to protect! You can't go around killing innocent people anymore....so behave!

Since you're a detective you get to investigate, collect clues and complete puzzles to solve the mystery of many cases. Based off the clues you find, you can connect the dots and chase down the people who may have some sort of connection with the case and interrogate them for a confession....which is pretty fun.

While interrogating or asking questions to witnesses, you have an option to select; True, Doubt, or Lie. If you are unsure about what choice to choose, you have the option to use your intuition, that will either; Ask the community- This gives you a percentage of what your fellow gamers chose. Or, Remove an answer- This option will take away 1 incorrect response, leaving you with 2 choices.

Due to the facial accuracies, you can tell whether or not someone is lying or telling the truth. Sometimes the expressions they give off is a little too exaggerated making it easy to pick the right answer. There is also a trick with the intuition without using 1 point......but I won't ruin it.

Gameplay grew a little stale, repetitive and linear as you progress....especially while you were in the Homicide division. All of the missions started out the same; gather clues, ask witnesses questions, charge the husband with the murder of his wife.....rinse and repeat this about 5 times. There were some instances where you would have to solve a puzzle, walk across a swamp and have a balance mini game.It Would have been nice if they used this more often throughout the game because these parts were enjoyable and meshed well with the gameplay.

There is a nice amount of action, with all things considered, to break up the pace. You'll engage in some shoot outs, spying, driving chases and on-foot chases.

Side Missions are stale too and lack variety. Most of the missions consist of chasing down some criminal and killing them. Outside of the main story line, you don't investigate anything. It would have been cool to investigate a robbery, a raping, and gathering clues to hunt down the man responsible.

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Graphics:

I'll start off by saying, everything from the neck down looked poorly....that typical Rockstar look. Player models were stiff and the mouth (more specifically the teeth) looked weird.

Environment textures had a pixelated smeered look to it. Frame rate also dropped from time to time, especially while chasing down the bad guys and crashing into light poles, benches, etc.... Also, there weren't any awe inspiring moments where you stop what you're doing and look at the city of L.A. The entire town looked bland and boring. With the game being so linear, you never find yourself exploring the City either.

With that said, the facial captures were done extremely well and looked like their real life counter part. Facial expressions accurately gave off what the person was feeling and the lip syncing is so good it's weird! The old cars looked great and some had a nice glossy look to it which reflected the suns rays, or some of the environment.

And the classic clothing from the 40's makes me want to buy a two toned blazer with a matching Fedora. I don't know about you, but I LOVE the older style!

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Sound:

Soundtrack created for the game is not impressive and overused. Whenever you go to a place to investigate an area, you get the same boring tune. Whenever you are about to chase down someone, you get the same boring tune. Whenever something big is taking place, you get the same boring tune. It was nice for the first few missions but it got old quick.
The licensed Soundtrack is better but there is no station change, which I know why, but you don't get a chance to hear some of the songs.

Pedestrians shout out the same crap over and over and never talk about anything else interesting.

L.A. Noire does a nice job capturing the sounds of the old traffic lights "ding!", the old ringtone, and police sirens. There is also a cool Jazz club that has Elsa singing some lovely tunes.

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Lasting Appeal:

There was a nice build up for the game but it missed the boat at being great. An open world game that is too linear and does not capitalize on this huge city they have given us. There is just not much to do outside of the main story because of the variety-less side missions.

The story is the only thing that kept me going. It was well told and intriguing. Watching the rise and fall of Phelps was a bit sad but kept you wanting to come back for more.

Replay value is low. Once the game is completed, there is not much to do. You got your 40 side missions to complete but I could barely stand to do 13. You also have Golden Reels to collect and Newpapers. If you're a trophy (expletive) you can pump a few more hours into the games life.

Overall, it was a good game that kept me entertained and was a nice change from these mindless FPS games. I don't want to say I was disappointed because I wasn't expecting a Game of the Year type game. I will say it could have been much better. Save yourself $60 and rent the game.