L.A. Noire

[Fiach]

Rockstar games always seem to get an (in my opinion) a totally undeserved 9 or 10/10, this is someones impressions of LA Noir (not my impressions). My reason for posting this is as a heads up to people thinking of getting the game, thinking it will be like RDR or GTA. :)

I personally wont be getting the game, I have never played an investigation game I particularly liked (apart from Condemned 1 and 2), so its not a genre that I'm really in to.

it is visually a very good game. the whole city and characters are done very well. the facial expressions and voice acting is the best i have ever seen in a game.

its easy to learn everything and the controls are pretty smooth. i didnt have a single problem figuring out anything at all. looking at clues blends in with the normal gameplay perfectly.

looking for clues and solving crimes is fun. its addicting and its easy to loose track of time when playing it.

load times arent a problem. i didnt install it on my hard drive and i didnt notice it taking longer to load than a normal game.

bad:

its too simple. you can "interrogate" people and you have to guess if they are telling the truth or lying. but it doesnt matter if you get it right or not, you can still solve the cases even if you get every one of them wrong.

your guns have infinite ammo for your pistol. you dont have an inventory where you keep the guns you pick up. if you pick up a different gun during a shootout, you loose it once the shootout is over. the only time you can use your gun is when the game tells you to when there is criminals to shoot.

i played for 4 hours and beat 7 of the 21 missions. i was taking my time too and doing all of the optional crimes that come up. thats 1/3 of the game.

the games keeps a lot of stats you can look at and in the 4 hours i played, less than 10 minutes of that was having shootouts. so most of the game is just walking around pressing the a button looking for clues.

when driving, you cant drive through simple objects like bushes or wooden fences. you cant drive through chain link fences either unless they have a gate and you can only go through the gate when in a car and not walking.

overall its a pretty fun and unique game. but i think they dumbed it down way too much.

I finally did it: I just had to correct the spelling of the game's title.. /Art

[JRD]

With so many restrictions I`d say this is not a game that appeals to me either  ????

Thanks for the heads up anyway, Fiach...  :-X

[Art Blade]

Cheers, Fiach :)

hmmm.. might be something.. reading that reminds me of Alpha Protocol a bit which was cool.

[spaceboy]

I wanted to be interested in the game, but something about it never got me going.  I'd be interested to hear of anyone here that actually plays it.  If you're in the right mood for it it could be pretty cool. 

I recall being concerned about the facial animation technique they used - scanning real actors - I love well done facial features/animations (Enslaved, Heavy Rain, etc.).  But I still want them to be new characters, not look like the actors (or at least well known actors).   I'm concerned it would lead to say Brad Pitt as John Marston, instead of "John Marston".  You know what I mean?  I'd rather be impressed with the developers abilities rather than lump praise on an actor for his/her abilities.

[Art Blade]

When I read "facial animation" or "motion capturing" I never think of lookalikes. The technique is capturing movements rather than images, applied to images designed by artists. They use affordable talents rather than expensive stars to capture motions and facial expressions.

So even if Brad Pitt's or Jerry Lewis's grimaces had been recorded to animate a face, you'd never recognise him by the mimics alone if you saw the face of Marilyn Monroe animated with his facial expressions. Or vice versa.  :-()

[spaceboy]

I know.  My fears are probably irrational.  But it's just one step away - you wait.  **Who's that behind me?  What's that noise?**

[Art Blade]

Yeah, if you're not paranoid doesn't mean there aren't twenty million people spying on you.  :-D

[Fiach]

OK, currently I am playing LA Noir, I havent completed it yet, but it comes on three discs and I am about halfway through Disc 2.

Firstly I'll outline the good and then go into the "bad" (for me) in greater detail.

It is an awesome looking game, Its hard to believe that GTA4 sired this game, its crisp and clean looking, bright sunny skies, really makes you feel like you are in LA.

The map is pretty big, the first case I did, I started on one end of town, had to drive to the other side, investigate a case, then ..... drive to the other side of town for a further 10 minurte investigation, I was like .....WTF???? Luckily, if you hold the "Y" button, you partner will drive you to the destination you set on the map.

The acting is awesome for the NPC's, great believeable characters, really well emoted, it actually makes Enslaved look like amateur hour in the local town hall. I have never seen better Mo cap, lip synch, eye movements, it really needs to be seen in action.

The rest of the game.

Well, you go through a number of different "desks" as you progress through your police career, Traffic, Homicide, Arson etc. As you clear each section you are promoted, each section has a few cases you investigate, then with the clues, you collect, you interrogate your witnesses. As you question them, you watch their gestures and make a guess as to if they are lying or telling the truth, or if you doubt them, each of these has its own button, so, you ask a question, they give an answer, you decide if they are lying or not and press the button that you think best represents or feeling about their answer, with reference to the evidence you have collected.

This seems OK on paper, but getting the choice wrong wont fail your case, you will have points deducted after an interrogation, you will recieve a score of eg. 3/4 (4 questions asked, 3 answered correctly).

In game its a wee bit different, Doubt and Lie have similar reactions from the perp, so if they look shifty and you pick the correct choice of Lie or Doubt, great, if not, you may as well just reload from the previous autosave, which can be a chore. Some of the evidence and answers can be quite ambiguous, throwing you off the correct path. Sometimes the perp and you seem to be taking part in quite different conversations, which is funny in a bad way.

There was one case, I picked up two suspects, the evidence was pretty overwhelming against one of them, but the other was a child molester, so i put him in jail instead, I still solved the case with all correct answers ....wth???

Collecting evidence is annoying as the crime scenes sometimes are littered with incidental debris, that cause you controller to alert you that its evidence, only to have the character pick stuff up, examine it and after a few seconds will say its not pertinant to the case, this is &*%$ing intensely annoying.

There are times in cases where you have to chase after a suspect on foot, mildly annoying or in a car (really annoying), if you hit a pedestrian, you fail the case, but the perp can cause mayhem, thankfully these are not too long. There are incidental cases you can check out, if you choose to answer a Dispatch Call on the radion, but they all seem to lead to driving and shoot-outs, neither of which are the games strong points.

There is a story buried in here somewhere, you pick up newpapers and each seems to have a story about a psychiatrist, these are played as little dramatic vignettes and are well done, but I havent figured out what they are about and I am halfway through, there are also scenes from when you character was in World War two in the pacific, these are sporadic and although well acted, seem to have no bearing on the story, hopefully they will be fleshed out later.

All the acting is great, with some very diverse characters, the only fly in the ointment is your character, who is voiced by someone that sounds like they phoned in their lines, (which as other players have also said), really detaches you from him as he is pretty unlikeable and has an annoying voice at times.

Well thats it so far, I dont know if I will complete it, the cases are good, with interesting background stories, but the gameplay gets in the way of the story for me. Its kinda like reading a book, where someone has shuffled all the pages around and you have to sort them out as you read the story.

[spaceboy]

the description of the facial animations and eyes (THAT much better than Enslaved?) certainly piques my interest (though Monkey and Tripp as characters interested me as well while so far nothing about the characters in LA Noire interest me).  I'm intrigued to see it for sure, but thanks to your very thorough descriptin of gameplay I think I still need to pass on it.

[Fiach]

Well, you see, theres the thing, you cared about Monkey and Trip, you dont give a toss about the characters in LA:N.

Its a very disjointed game, there is a series of murders that you investigate, all have different people involved, you probably spend about 10 minutes at the most with any of them, labouriously ticking off questions in your notebook, each one of them is crossed off the list, until you arrest the one thats left, he goes to jail and you hear no more about him.

The thing is, even though you arrest them, there are more murders, all having the same MO. which gets really boring, I guess there is an actual guy that is not caught and he is doing all the murders, but if so, why do all the other perps let you arrest them without contesting your decision. As I said above, I even sent the wrong guy to jail, but because I ticked all the correct boxes, the game allowed me to do that.

But, getting back to your point Spaceboy, You dont have time to empathise with them, maybe I conveyed the wrong impression, they are more lifelike in their acting./expressions, than Monkey and Trip, you just dont care about them, hope that makes more sense :)

[Art Blade]

For some reason, your description made me think of Dark Rain. I'm not saying you made it sound as if it were like it, just thinking about Dark Rain. How the characters in it were great, how you had to solve puzzles, to find out about what on earth was going on.. and all the time it rained. I didn't play it myself but I did watch an entire playthrough on YT which was impressive.

Is this game anything like it?

[spaceboy]

Fiach - yeah I understood what you meant - made perfect sense! 

Art - you mean Heavy Rain.  That game I played and really enjoyed.  I'm interested myself to hear the comparison since I know Fiach played that too.  It's why I've been surprised that LA Noire hasn't interested me - then again, no Madison Paige in LA Noire  ;)

But seriously, the characters in Heavy Rain interested me early on from watching the preview vids (even the memorable "audition" video).  Something the characters in LA haven't done.

[Fiach]

Well yes I have played both and while I didnt enjoy HR as much as you Spaceboy, I preferred it alot more than LA:N.

Just to be clear, the only things I didnt like in HR, were aspects that I considred tech demos for the 6 axis controller, crap like taking care of the baby, putting on make-up etc. I thought they were annoying and superfluous to the actual game. I really liked the characters too.

HR had a diverse range of characters that you got to play as and thus, formed attachements with them and their respective plights, Also the rain itself was very important to the story plus it added tons of atmosphere! But as a more direct comparison, the investigator guy with the glasses (I so want a pair of them!!! :)), when he went to a site to investigate, it was quite simple, you scanned the area and picked up the clues.

In LA:N, you got to an area/house and walk around (kinda like resident evil with its tank-like controls) and wait for your controller to vibrate, then you pick up a clue and use the L Stick to rotate the item until it vibrates and the camera will focus in on a design or a name as a further clue, unfortumately the controller will vibrate for anything that is nearby, cups, bottles, cigarette buts, ashtrays.... but until you pick the item up and rotate the stick a few times, you wont know if its an actual clue or just a useless item.

The story so far seems like just a series of random killings that you plod through as I said above.

I would like to recommend two games where you investigate, by spotting clues and scanning them to your lab for information, they are Condemned  and Condemned Bloodshot the sequell of the first game. Buy spare underwear :)

[Art Blade]

Cheers both of you, and yes, I meant Heavy Rain  :)

[eor123]

I'm pretty far into LA Noire and agree with the previous comments.

A very well made and great looking game but not to my liking, really. The investigation thing has gotten quite tedious. I have to admit to consulting a walkthrough to help me get through the evidence collection and interview process more quickly....ie, I'm cheating.  8)

Very repetitious... drive to crime scene, talk to coroner, examine body and nearby evidence, drive to other places collect evidence and interview people, drive somewhere else, chase someone down, drive back to police station conduct interview, charge suspect and close case. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

While doing to the usual point a / point b  stuff you can take street crime calls that offer some action -- usually a pursuit or shoot out but the shooting part of this game is pretty weak, IMO. Unlike "Red Dead Redemption" there really are no interesting stories associated with the side missions. It's merely lip service to people who want to chase and shoot stuff, I think.

It is a huge map like you see in open world games but gameplay is awfully linear. 

I do love the music in it. The original score is great but I am partial to classic jazz. The incidental music and radio programs are interesting and the details of 1947 Los Angeles are incredibly accurate from what I can gather. My mother lived and worked in San Pedro during the war. I really regret she isn't alive and I can't show her this game and get her impressions on the cars, the clothing, and the architecture.

For me to really like a game, I need to empathize with the characters or admire what they are trying to achieve but I really don't care about them in LA Noire. The main character is an a$$hole --sort of like Jack Webb (Sgt Friday of "Dragnet") alternating between a crack head and a mean drunk, remaining self righteous the whole time. He's getting screwed over (as male leads in film noire typically do) but you really don't care... at least I don't.

I'm working the Arson Desk now which is the final act of the game. We'll see how it ends but it's obviously going to be dark. I'm expecting we will find out that Detective Cole Phelps himself is a morphine addict,  commits suicide, or something predictably tragic. Perhaps we will find out that he is actually a federal agent and the woman he has been supposedly involved with is a suspected Communist agent he has been ordered to track.

Unless something quite dramatic happens, I seriously doubt I will experience any emotions  at the end of this one like I did at "Mass Effect 2" or "Red Dead Redemption."

[Fiach]

Hope you stick with it, I would like to see what it turned out like story-wise, why they had the army scenes and the psychiatrist newspaper articles.

I just ran out of patience with the game after the White Shoe Murders (well white something anyway :)).

[Art Blade]

The main character is an a$$hole ... I'm working the Arson Desk now which is the final act ... it's obviously going to be dark.

Reminds me of "handing something to somebody on a silver platter" -- in this case replace it with an Arse On a Desk which is funny when thinking about how it might be going to be dark.. ^+-+

[eor123]

Spoiler Alert



Phelps kills the true Black Dahlia killer but the department keeps it quiet as the killer is the half brother of some high placed official in Washington. He is informed that all the people he has arrested will eventually be freed as the result of contrived procedural errors, lost evidence, etc.  He's told to keep his mouth shut and then transferred to Vice.

Phelps solves more crimes in Vice [ involving members of his old unit]  but becomes involved with a German jazz singer and drug addict. Vice needs a fall guy to take heat off an investigation into corruption and Phelps is ratted out by his partner. Phelps is suspended for Adultery, his bosses and the other cops shun him, and his wife kicks him out of the house. He returns to duty but has been demoted to Arson Desk, awaiting a board of review hearing.

We learn he really wasn't a hero in WW II. He just happened to be the last guy alive hiding in a foxhole when the shooting stopped.

So unless he is actually working undercover, he's pretty much a jerk. Maybe that will be the twist at the end. ?



 

[eor123]

But since this is based on the film noire genre, something pretty tragic is likely to happen to Phelps.

[eor123]

Actually the game seemed to find its legs in the final act ( The Arson Desk ) Phelps gets an cynical but later affable  partner and Phelps himself and has become more likable himself. He is not so arrogant and self righteous. after his fall from grace. He actually develops a personality.

You play as another character, Jack Kelso, in the last half of Arson Desk. I enjoyed playing as him more than Phelps. He will obviously be the main character in the inevitable sequel.

There is more action as the game comes to a close as well.

It took me a little over 24 hours to complete the game but I only completed 8/40 street crimes.

Spoilers

In the end Phelps works out his long standing fuel with Jack Kelso and Kelso develops a relationship with Phelps' mistress, Elsa.

Kelso and Phelps w%&k together to bring down the syndicate that is intentionally building substandard housing for Vets in the path of a soon-to-built freeway, knowing that if improvements are made to the property its value will dramatically increase when the city acquires the land through imminent domain. This effort is partly funded by the sale of Army surplus morphine syrettes  stolen by members of Phelp's Marine unit.

Phelps redeems himself in the end by sacrificing his life to save Kelso and he his buried (cynically) with honors. The crooked Vice cop that ratted him out delivers the eulogy. 

The last act of the game was enough of an improvement to give me a much more favorable impression of the overall game. I still don't think LA Noire is anywhere near the caliber of Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead Redemption.

[Fiach]

Eor, thanks very much for that synopsis, you just saved about 12 hours of my life  :-X

What was going on with the Psychiatrist in the newspapers, if you dont mind taking the time for a bit more exposition.

Thanks again :)

[eor123]

Plot spolier follows



The Corpsman from Phelps' unit (Sheldon) convinced his buddies that they should steal and sell the surplus morphine from the ship they were coming home on. Later, Sheldon was in med school and taking a class under the psychiatrist. You might have watched the cut scene in which Sheldon asked the doctor to help a Veteran friend who was really disturbed.  Turns out the friend was the unit's flame thrower guy. 

On Phelps' orders he had torched a cave the other men in the unit tried to get Phelps to bypass and move on to their objective. The cave turned out not to have enemy soldiers in it...was a makeshift hospital full of injured  civilians. They were burning alive and Phelps ordered his men to shoot them but he couldn't do it himself when they refused, telling him it was his fault and he would have to do it. The flame thrower guy had a nervous breakdown and one of the guys shot Phelps in the back. The guys in the squad carried Phelps' out of the burning cave and vowed to never talk about what happened.

That's how Phelps got his purple heart...shot by one of his own guys. So that, like his silver star, was a sham.

The psychiatrists' revolutionary method of treating patients was to turn them into morphine addicts. He was an investor in the crooked land development scheme with the DA and the Chief Of Police, among other prominent citizens. They needed someone to burn down the homes of people who wouldn't sell to the land development company so who better than the flame thrower guy who was now a patient of the doctor's and under his control?

Phelps's former squad mates got in over their heads with the morphine distribution scheme and tried to back out after getting involved with the mob. Then the mob started killing the Marines so Phelps was investigating the murders of his mates from the War.

Sheldon confided in his mentor (the doctor) about the problem with the mob and the doctor offered to take all of the remaining morphine, convincing Sheldon the proceeds would be used for the land development company to help GI's get affordable homes, making Sheldon and his fellow Marines investors in the company.

Jack Kelso, the former friend of Phelps from OCS in the beginning of the game, was now working as an investigator for the insurance company whose vice president was a partner in the land company and was writing bogus insurance policies on the development. Kelso was convinced by Phelps' mistress Elsa (at Phelps' request) to investigate the company building the houses.  Kelso discovered that they were using poor quality building materials and his investigation paralleled Phelps'. As Kelso dug deeper, he learned the identity of the mysterious partners in the land company and how high the corruption went. He was hired by an assistant DA who had political ambitions and wanted to bring the whole thing down. So Kelso and Phelps reconciled their differences from the war and ended up working together at the end.

Half the police force was trying to kill Kelso and Phelps at the end, ordered to by the corrupt Chief who knew the lid was about to blow off. The crazy flamethrower guy killed the doctor and kidnapped Phelps' mistress Elsa (also a patient of the doctor) -- shades of Frankenstein, killed by a monster of his own creation. Kelso killed the flamethrower guy in the final battle in the tunnels under Los Angeles and rescued Elsa as Phelps showed up.

Phelps died after insisting that Kelso go first and escape the rising water in the tunnel. Phelps drowned.

The Chief made a deal with the assistant DA and he, along with the corrupt Vice Cop Roy Earle were "grieving" at Phelps' funeral -- in true film noire style. In the end Phelps found his redemption and was really the hero he had been mistakenly tagged as (and burdened with) earlier. 

[Art Blade]

Sounds way more interesting than at the beginning. Perhaps if the "wash, rinse and repeat" part of the game had been significantly shorter, you'd have been more enthusiastic all the way to the end.  :)

[Fiach]

Wow eor, thanks for taking the time to write such a lengthy explanation of the plot, I'm between two minds now as to whether I should buy it later at a reduced price and give it another shot, or just leave it as is.

Thanks again for such a well written synopsis, I liked the frankenstein analogy :)

[Binnatics]

I bought the game today. It's installing now. I'm in a sunny L.A. mood, maybe that's why I couldn't resist the 'complete edition' for €40,-.

I'm expecting a game where you don't have to be on the tip of your chair all the time, where you can relax and sit back during large parts of the gameplay.
A great open world with nice music and a 'feel good vibe' all over the place.

I'm a bit worried about the repetitive gameplay and the evidence-scan mechanics.
I'm also worried that the main character's an a$$-hole, so I'm trying to imagine myself already being a donut eating prick messing up other people's good moods. Hope that helps ;D

Looking forward to great graphics and a sunny experience. With nice old fashioned guns and cars.  ^-^