L.A. Noire: The 2o2p Community Review!

Are you still unsure about picking up L.A. Noire? Hop into the sandbox with us and check out what our community members say about this recent release from Rockstar Games.

LA Noire Introduction

L.A. Noire - one of the most talked about video game events of the Pre-E3 season- dropped Tuesday the 17th. Team Bondi has delivered The "largest videogame ever made in Australia" in reel style.

That's not a typo. Old-old farts on the site will recognize shades of "Chinatown" and young-old farts will harken back all the way to 1997 and "LA Confidential." The "film noir" aesthetic and hyper-real recreation of post-war Los Angeles introduces another city-as-character as captivating and eye-catching as any since Liberty City. L.A. Noire Publisher Rockstar has a long history of delivering compelling single player campaigns, but is L.A. Noire the Law abiding offspring of the classic GTA Series?

Metacritic clocked it at a cool it a 90 out of a 100 demonstrating the critical acclaim the game has garnered, but a deeper investigation (get it) of the reviews turns up evidence of some potentially game-killing flaws. Most reviewers note repetitive gameplay elements and cutscenes that can make you feel like you are playing on rails. But who listens to critics anyway?

Down in our own Sandbox Forum the erstwhile game testing community of 2o2p is not only clocking some overtime solving cases, they're filing reports like good little fascist cops should and the body of work they've compiled should help you decide if L.A. Noire is the Game-of-the-Year or a Gamefly afterthought. We'll intersperse a few of our own observations along the way, but pick your site veteran (or site newcomer) and decide for yourself how the debate shakes out.

Early Impressions

Early Impressions


PhatOldMan - I've played a crap load of cases and side quests (street crimes) and I'm still on disc 1. I have a Criminal Justice background so I may be a bit biased. This is one of the better games I've played in a while. It plays like GTA and RDR. I'm loving this game.

TANK - The newspaper I found had a little full motion video to fill in the backstory of the headline which was neat. There's one misc. thing that I really like, if you link into the SocialClub you can pull up your friends statistics page and see where are in relation to you. It's kind of fun to see that stuff I think.

FadeIntoBlack - … if you have the clues you will know whether they are lying- So far at least. Without divulging too much, having an eyewitness account means you know someone will be lying...again so far.

KamakazeTaco - Between the restricted free roam fun and the near useless facial reading this sounds like something I'm gonna wait til the price drops for.

OutcastB - Wait til you guys hit disc 2... then the choices really get tough. Multiple suspects, choices and it gets A LOT more difficult. Disc 1 is almost like your tutorial; disc 2 is where it stops holding your hand. I can't divulge too much. All I can say is hold judgment as you haven't even scratched the surface yet.

Our Own Observation (OOO) - As of the compiling of of these posts, nobody on the site reports completing the game. And we've got some grinding mofos on this site. Even the relatively straightforward early cases will give you a good idea if this is your kind of game or not. For us, graduating out of the traffic squad (21-25% completion) felt like stepping through the door of the precinct into a larger Los Angeles. We're along for the ride.

Graphics

Graphics


TANK - First the facial animations are second to none, they look very, very human.

DIGITALciphers - This is why I love this game so far. I don't want to put it down. I am glued to the cases, voice acting etc. It really does feel like a good 1940's crime movie.

IAmTheLiquor - The highly touted facial recognition shit is awesome and the actors are very believable. No one you talk to seems robotic or stiff or hokey in terms of how the act or look.

OutcastB - I haven't felt this much feeling out of characters in a game since Heavy Rain. The facial recognition tech Bondi used should be a new standard in gaming.

TANK - And I have to say it's really fun recognizing the likenesses of many different well-known actors from TV and Movies. I don't know all their names but I know who the character is a likeness off, lots of familiar faces and voices in the game. They must have paid a bundle to get all this talent in the game.

OOO - It can't be overstated. Depth Analysis, the Aussies that invented the MotionScan technology, have thrown the gauntlet down to other developers. These faces look like faces. They act like faces. Goddammit, we even think they smell a little like faces. This is the new standard by which all other videogames will be judged for the next five to seven years. If that last statement isn't true, doodi will personally award the people that disprove it one million dollars. Really. We swear.

Gameplay

Gameplay


TANK - I'll start by saying the actual crime scene investigation elements kind of remind me somewhat of the CSI games. There is a lot more free roam around the crime scenes though that the CSI games don't have… Stuff like vehicle damage, private property and city damage and pedestrian damage all drag down your rating and the fun you can have. So you have to really be careful driving…On the subject of driving, I’m having some trouble with the vehicle driving. It's really touchy and for me, doesn't take much of a nudge on the stick to go too far then you need to correct, then correct again and you end up in a downward loop of trying to connect until you hit something or someone. And driving like a good little boy sucks…

FadeIntoBlack - I like to get perfect scores on missions so I dislike the fact that if I mess up an interrogation I have to start the entire case all over again and cannot skip the dialogue portions. I find myself twittering while waiting for them to complete.

Fetal - i actually dig this game. The driving is car specific. I commandeered one vehicle and it drove much smoother than the police car. Reading people isn't really the hard thing; the hard thing is finding all the evidence. Sometimes you know the people are lying, but if you don't have the evidence to prove they are lying, you'll get shut down and lose out on getting an interrogation right.

IAmTheLiquor - The cases are so much better and more interesting once you get to Homicide. The story really starts to pick up. But at the end of the day it’s the same shit, go here collect clues, talk to this dude, go there collect clues, talk to some broad, solve case and move on to the next one.

SofaKingSpecial - But its damn fun trying to solve the cases and move onto the next one.

PP2 - The presentation of the game is outstanding, there truly is some neat stuff going on here. That said it’s repetitive and the interview chains seem to be a bit arbitrary as far as your responses go.

Coolpengwn - This is not really a game.....it's more of an extremely interactive movie crossed with those old "Choose your own Adventure" books. It's very slow, methodical, and linear. This is not a typical Rockstar game, and I wouldn't even call it a sandbox game… Finding clues can be tedious. The music tells you when there are still clues to find, and the controller vibrates when you are near something to can check out. If it is a clue relevant to the case, it gets put in your notebook. It's basically an old point 'n click adventure game to find the clues.

OOO - The decision to essentially eliminate the ubiquitous "Action-Button" and contextualize all of the doors and jumps and ladders and drainpipes is a good one. This game is not really about "playing," it's about experiencing. Don't listen to us though. Head on down to the sandbox forum and dive into any of Tank's posts. Many people have done a good job categorizing parts of the game, but as always, our info guru Tank is leading the band.

Story

Story


SofaKingSpecial - One thing to add…is how good the dialogue seems. I'm glued to crimes as if I'm watching a good crime movie. I need a story; this game has it, to me at least.

Memphis10 - The story is really what’s holding my interest. I’m just as excited to see how the war back story turns out, or what the crazy doctor guy is gonna do next.

TANK - And at least in homicide, even though I’m solving a case at a time, i feel like there's a grander story unfolding.

OutcastB - You know that it's all got to come together in the end. I'm just trying to figure out how the doc plays into it... can't wait to get home.

Coolpengwn - It's so linear with hardly any real choices to be made other than in interrogations that it bothers me sometimes, but the story is starting to heat up on disc 2 and I really want to find out what is going on. The cases I've worked on seem connected, but aren't, or maybe they are.....I need to figure it out!

OutcastB - I really love the "Noire" filmstyle to begin with so this game holds a special place with me. It's a great story driven game that has me sucked in.

Beyond the Plot

Beyond the Plot (Collectibles, Cars and Free Roaming the City of Angels)


TANK - So the street crimes are random events that happen around the city that you can take off and do at any time. Since the game goes from case to case, I think it's intended to do these street crimes while you're working on your main case as a bit of a break from that. The street crimes unlock based on what case you're working on, so while you're driving around for your case you'll get a dispatch over the radio that you can respond to, or choose to ignore it. If you ignore the case, it'll come up again later so you could save them all till the end of the game to do if you wanted.

IAmTheLiquor - If you don't do the side missions and don't drive around much and explore, the game does get a bit repetitive. You basically do the same thing over and over again.

PP2 - The controls are clunky as hell and the driving is abysmal. Typical Rockstar there, especially with the driving. I have my partner do all the driving when it’s available now.

TANK - I also finally figured out how to 'Free Roam', it's not what I would call easy to find. What you have to do is go out to the main menu, pick Cases, pick the Traffic Folder and then pick "streets of LA". This is free roam mode. In this mode you can roam around the city in a traditional sandbox style finding cars, landmarks and film cases you need as well as respond to street crimes.

OOO - We're with PP2 on the driving. The floaty car physics are a step back to San Andreas Era drift. But finding the newspapers is like switching the channel just as Sigourney Weaver is about to strip down to her space undies in Alien. The exotic cars tucked away in hidden corners of the city are worth a detour, and uncovering landmarks just adds to the crazy level of immersion the game can drag you into.

Wrapup

Wrap-ups and General Impressions


Coolpengwn - This is no GTA or RDR. Some reviewers (Sessler) think this is the best Rockstar game ever, and I completely disagree with that....RDR is the best R* game ever. But this game is a really cool and interesting diversion that is worth playing through for the experience. I would even venture to say it is a totally new genre of videogame. Maybe it is the same genre as Heavy Rain and Alan Wake, I don't know, I didn't play those games, but this isn't an RPG and it is barely a sandbox game. Maybe this is the first truly great Detective Story Game (DSG?).

buckeye75 - I just can't do it. It feels like Shenmue to me. The voice acting and face mapping are stunning. But I just can't play an interactive movie for 30 hours. I understand why anyone would love it, but I just don't think this is for me.

JOK5TER - This game is great; I mean it’s different from the norm, which is good.

IAmTheLiquor - I can see how this game would not be for everybody. The majority of the game features no action in terms of gunplay (minus the street crimes) and if you get your partner to drive, you will avoid those and avoid having to drive from point a to point b.

PP2 - I dunno, I'll keep playing but if this doesn't pick up soon it will go down as my first gamer’s remorse purchase of the year.

PhatOldMan - Great game. Not for everyone but it's for me.

DIGITALciphers - I am really enjoying this game. I got about 3 hours in last night, and as soon as it slows down at work I plan to start playing again.

OutcastB - Just wait... til you wrap up the B.D. case... jaw dropping. This game is fucking awesome.

OOO - Money well-spent. While the promise of the technology is not being fully met in this game, it's an intoxicating view of the future of gaming. The story, characterization and amazing interpersonal exchanges would be worth the purchase alone. Add onto that the chance to experience what may very well be the birth of a new genre and Team Bondi and Rockstar have scored an impressive victory.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to the building of this article. If you want an even bigger hand in creating content for the site make sure to PM new editor-in-chief ElektraFi. It will make her feel good too. Most of us in the old Press and Writers Forum have been studiously ignoring her like 14 year old girls in a High School Yearbook editing session.

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