LA NOIRE. Overrated by critics Underrated by gamers

I thought LA Noire was incredible. I don't think it was at all overrated.

The game was ok, not that big of a deal and way too repetitive.

Some day I may finish it, but not really interested in doing so.

I just can't find the interest in the game, I have it since christmas only played it once. I really don't like the 40s vibe one bit. I pass the game to my cousin ( the one who brought me the game) and even him wondered why he brought me that game

[QUOTE="xOMGITSJASONx"]

This is what i ask of gamers who hate LA Noire. Show me a video game that made you feel more like a old school gumshoe? You can't. LA Noire was great at what it was to trying to do.

funsohng

And that's where the disconnect is between players that liked it and those that didn't.

I found it highly entertaining. Each of the main cases were engaging. With the facial animations, the acting was vocal as well as visual. The social commentary of that era in that city was fascinating to me. I found the more primitive investigation methods equally fascinating.

For those that found it boring, exactly what was boring about it?

I thought it was a good game but not a great one. It had very unique gameplay and a great physics system with the faces and what not, it also had a pretty good storyline and it recreated LA perfectly, like it's literally block by block accurate.

Problem with the game is it has no replay value and it's a little too slow for some people.

Oh yeah I remember that game. Bored the crap out of me, like most Rockstar games.

i think it was short. if there were 5 more main story missions...and a couple more side missions then it would be nice.

Haters gonna hate.

[QUOTE="funsohng"][QUOTE="xOMGITSJASONx"]

This is what i ask of gamers who hate LA Noire. Show me a video game that made you feel more like a old school gumshoe? You can't. LA Noire was great at what it was to trying to do.

VoodooHak

And that's where the disconnect is between players that liked it and those that didn't.

I found it highly entertaining. Each of the main cases were engaging. With the facial animations, the acting was vocal as well as visual. The social commentary of that era in that city was fascinating to me. I found the more primitive investigation methods equally fascinating.

For those that found it boring, exactly what was boring about it?

All it did was showing how boring and unsophisticated 50's police work in LA was to the players.funsohng

Oh yeah I remember that game. Bored the crap out of me, like most Rockstar games.

coasterguy65

I really don't like the 40s vibe one bit.da_illest101

Again, you should read my review. I'm not disappointed because it doesnt have a lot of guns or doesnt have many baysplosions. I appreciate what it was trying to do, and I find that specific aspect of the game very well done. But it doesnt save the game.funsohng

You didn't give a numbered review so your opinion in meaningless :P

LA Noire was overrated by critics, and the consensus from a lot of gamers is spot on...it is boring as hell. The premise is interesting, but the execution of that premise over and over got old fast.

Again, you should read my review. I'm not disappointed because it doesnt have a lot of guns or doesnt have many baysplosions. I appreciate what it was trying to do, and I find that specific aspect of the game very well done. But it doesnt save the game.funsohng

I read your review and can totally relate to your points. Heck, I think I had more bad things to say about the game in my own review. However, I'm more willing to forgive the shortcomings of the interrogations. In fact, I think that the positive impressions the game left me outweighed the negative in the end.

The setting(which can be a whole discussion in itself), the performances, the music, the pacing from case to case, the investigation process that reminds of old-school adventure games... it all came together for me.

To each his own, I suppose, but I think we need more games that try to do what LA Noire tried to do.

The game was awesome until the Arson's desk missions. The game reach a peak with homicides and then went downhill from there. The last desk was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring... I dont give two sh*ts about white collar crimes. They're just so... boring, who the f*ck had that lamest idea? It should get fired (yes, I know Team Bondi no longer exists)

4dr1el

probably the same guy who designed the last few missions of red dead redemption

LA Noire is rather contentious for gamers because there are gamers who value writing/dialogue more than gameplay for a game like this. And then you have gamers who want good gameplay no matter what. I am part of the former group, and while LA Noire might not have had the greatest shooting, the greatest puzzle-solving, or even the greatest driving, it was the story, the banter between Phelps and his partners, and the authentic setting that made LA Noire for me.

Say what you want, haters, but there will never another game like LA Noire for a very long time. And I appreciate Team Bondi for making such a game, despite certain flaws in its design.

i liked it, suprisingly the only rockstar game i beat without losing interest and going to something else. got bored with red dead and gta4. im actaully playing gta4 right now, and its better than i remember. red dead bored the crap out of me though

I thought it got pretty boring. At first, it was pretty cool and I was digging it for a while but I just lost interest.

One of my top favorite games this gen.

it was the story, the banter between Phelps and his partners, and the authentic setting that made LA Noire for me.The_Capitalist

The only thing I liked about it was the facial animations the overall game was meh imo.

I loved the game, I played it constantly for a couple days and just wanted more. It's sad to see Team Bondi go down, they deserved more for their hard work.

I loved the game, I played it constantly for a couple days and just wanted more. It's sad to see Team Bondi go down, they deserved more for their hard work.

NoirLamia777

The atmosphere is fantastic. The voice acting is really good.

The dialogue/writing is inconsistent, but what ultimately ruins the game is that there isn't much to it. You're not doing any real detective work because the game holds you by the finger. Be it the rumble that tells you that is where you should look(which sure you can turn off), or how ham fisted the reactions are so you know they are lying. Plus any time the game asks you chase people down or shoot them down it's flat out dull. More importantly you can be the worst detective ever and still end up catching the right guy. There is no real game to it.

So when it comes down to just the story elements I can get better. I can go through a host of detective films if I need to. If I need a fix to watch something with a 50s/60s vibe I got access to Mad Men. That's ultimately my beef with the game. It pull its eggs into its presentation, and never really did anything worth praising as a game.

A lot of people expected the game to be like a 40's GTA. It wasn't.

Sure it had flaws, but something so ambitious can be allowed a few. The sense of persistance in the world was great, the setting fantastic and the actors amazing. It was a great game I think, and it achieved what it set out to do, which was quite alot.

It was like Assasins Creed 1. At first the game seems amazing and then it got repetative as ****

It was boring when you got to the arson desk, but other than that it was awesome. homicide and vice were insanely fun.

The right thing to say is that LA Noire is one opf the games that stand away from the market and do some innovasion that is not for all people. I definetely liked it though. The boring game for me is Skyrim. I have two months to play it until now.

played it like 30 minutes , got bored . until reading this topic forgot i even own it lol , not feeling to play it ever again since new (and better) games being released all the time , guess i just bought it cause it was rockstars game

[QUOTE="freedomfreak"]

It's soooo boring.

I still haven't finished it. Haven't played it in months.

Swift_Boss_A

na the game is garbage im srry

The game was awesome until the Arson's desk missions. The game reach a peak with homicides and then went downhill from there. The last desk was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring... I dont give two sh*ts about white collar crimes. They're just so... boring, who the f*ck had that lamest idea? It should get fired (yes, I know Team Bondi no longer exists)

4dr1el

The atmosphere is fantastic. The voice acting is really good.

The dialogue/writing is inconsistent, but what ultimately ruins the game is that there isn't much to it. You're not doing any real detective work because the game holds you by the finger. Be it the rumble that tells you that is where you should look(which sure you can turn off), or how ham fisted the reactions are so you know they are lying. Plus any time the game asks you chase people down or shoot them down it's flat out dull. More importantly you can be the worst detective ever and still end up catching the right guy. There is no real game to it.

So when it comes down to just the story elements I can get better. I can go through a host of detective films if I need to. If I need a fix to watch something with a 50s/60s vibe I got access to Mad Men. That's ultimately my beef with the game. It pull its eggs into its presentation, and never really did anything worth praising as a game.

jg4xchamp

I can see where you're coming from and each of your criticisms are valid.

I think it boils down to how much you're willing to overlook those shortcomings.

In my perspective, I didn't expect the investigation or interrogation mechanics to be any more competent than a classic adventure game. The cases were just a means for me to be a part of the atmosphere. The interrogations were nothing more than a means for me to uncover a character's story.

The game conjured memories of Dragnet or The Naked City and followed the aesthetic to a tee. What appealed to me was the historical context about LA and the sneak peak into the culture of the time. I really wasn't in it for the challenge. I found more value in the mere participation.

I thought L.A. Noire was... okay overall I guess. The facial animations were truly amazing, as was the voice acting, and they did a great job with the setting, but I don't know, something about it just felt very restrictive and the game felt incomplete (Rushed) to me.

A lot of the cases seemed too linear, and even if I knew for a fact that a suspect wasn't guilty, I sometimes had no choice but to arrest him, I couldn't try to figure things out more, it was just "Case Closed". I understand how difficult trying to create a game like L.A. Noire would be, but I still think some things could've been done a bit better.

I also thought that the ending was... really bad, and I remember it having a big plot-hole, but I won't talk about it (Don't want to spoil anything). It took me quite a while to eventually finish it, but after I did, I thought that it was overall, an ambitious but flawed game. Just my 2 cents.

The interrogation system was flawed. For example, during one case I knew someone was lying, but I didn't have the proof because I investigated this suspect's number's operation before investigating a booking operation. When I called them out using the "doubt" option, the option you use when you have no proof and know they're lying (these were the direction in the tutorial) I was told I was wrong.

Many times the questions asked and the answers given are too vague to understand what the game wants from you. If a little girl says, "I was at the dance until my father picked me up." What she said was true. She was at the dance until her father picked her up; however, you get it wrong because she didn't mention her father took a long time to pick her up. Was she lying? No. Was I pennalized for saying she wasn't lying flat out too me? yes. The dialogue trees are too limited they don't give you enough information to wisely make a decision. Sometimes you'll pick a question in your notebook and Cole will have a totally different line of interrogation. Then after the suspect answers and you pick truth, lie, doubt Cole is liable to have wild mood swings as if he was on roids or pregnant.

Cole's character was also a pain in the ass. He was probably one of the worst protagonists I've ever played. He just gloated to everyone and had this giant smug attitude. He gets everyone killed in his squadron, and then complains about everyone not following orders. Even when he's the rookie on the force he has a air of superiority that make him seem like a dick.

The game would have been much better if you were a hardened cop who could plant evidence, and use physical violence on interogations. Sure this defeats the purpose of actually catching a bad guy, but anyone who's played the game knows that Cole barely ever caught a murderer; he just pinned it on some innocent guy. You even got pennalized if you didn't pick the guy your captain wanted you to pick.

The game was good. I finished it last night. I loved the atmosphere, but the game has some obvious and jarring flaws that hindered my experience.

The interrogation system was flawed. For example, during one case I knew someone was lying, but I didn't have the proof because I investigated this suspect's number's operation before investigating a booking operation. When I called them out using the "doubt" option, the option you use when you have no proof and know they're lying (these were the direction in the tutorial) I was told I was wrong.

Many times the questions asked and the answers given are too vague to understand what the game wants from you. If a little girl says, "I was at the dance until my father picked me up." What she said was true. She was at the dance until her father picked her up; however, you get it wrong because she didn't mention her father took a long time to pick her up. Was she lying? No. Was I pennalized for saying she wasn't lying flat out too me? yes. The dialogue trees are too limited they don't give you enough information to wisely make a decision. Sometimes you'll pick a question in your notebook and Cole will have a totally different line of interrogation. Then after the suspect answers and you pick truth, lie, doubt Cole is liable to have wild mood swings as if he was on roids or pregnant.

Cole's character was also a pain in the ass. He was probably one of the worst protagonists I've ever played. He just gloated to everyone and had this giant smug attitude. He gets everyone killed in his squadron, and then complains about everyone not following orders. Even when he's the rookie on the force he has a air of superiority that make him seem like a dick.

The game would have been much better if you were a hardened cop who could plant evidence, and use physical violence on interogations. Sure this defeats the purpose of actually catching a bad guy, but anyone who's played the game knows that Cole barely ever caught a murderer; he just pinned it on some innocent guy. You even got pennalized if you didn't pick the guy your captain wanted you to pick.

The game was good. I finished it last night. I loved the atmosphere, but the game has some obvious and jarring flaws that hindered my experience.

Minishdriveby

About Cole's character:

He was never meant to be liked. The writers built his character around flaws, and it is these flaws you mention that define him. I thought Cole was an ass at first myself, but when I got to the end, I realized that I possessed a few of the same flaws that Cole did, and as a result of this realization, I started appreciating his character a lot more. He's realistic. Not everyone is liked, and the existence of Cole Phelps only serves to reinforce that.

Flawed characters can be great too, sometimes.

[QUOTE="Minishdriveby"]

About Cole's character:

He was never meant to be liked. The writers built his character around flaws, and it is these flaws you mention that define him. I thought Cole was an ass at first myself, but when I got to the end, I realized that I possessed a few of the same flaws that Cole did, and as a result of this realization, I started appreciating his character a lot more. He's realistic. Not everyone is liked, and the existence of Cole Phelps only serves to reinforce that.

Flawed characters can be great too, sometimes.

The_Capitalist

[QUOTE="Minishdriveby"]

The interrogation system was flawed. For example, during one case I knew someone was lying, but I didn't have the proof because I investigated this suspect's number's operation before investigating a booking operation. When I called them out using the "doubt" option, the option you use when you have no proof and know they're lying (these were the direction in the tutorial) I was told I was wrong.

Many times the questions asked and the answers given are too vague to understand what the game wants from you. If a little girl says, "I was at the dance until my father picked me up." What she said was true. She was at the dance until her father picked her up; however, you get it wrong because she didn't mention her father took a long time to pick her up. Was she lying? No. Was I pennalized for saying she wasn't lying flat out too me? yes. The dialogue trees are too limited they don't give you enough information to wisely make a decision. Sometimes you'll pick a question in your notebook and Cole will have a totally different line of interrogation. Then after the suspect answers and you pick truth, lie, doubt Cole is liable to have wild mood swings as if he was on roids or pregnant.

Cole's character was also a pain in the ass. He was probably one of the worst protagonists I've ever played. He just gloated to everyone and had this giant smug attitude. He gets everyone killed in his squadron, and then complains about everyone not following orders. Even when he's the rookie on the force he has a air of superiority that make him seem like a dick.

The game would have been much better if you were a hardened cop who could plant evidence, and use physical violence on interogations. Sure this defeats the purpose of actually catching a bad guy, but anyone who's played the game knows that Cole barely ever caught a murderer; he just pinned it on some innocent guy. You even got pennalized if you didn't pick the guy your captain wanted you to pick.

The game was good. I finished it last night. I loved the atmosphere, but the game has some obvious and jarring flaws that hindered my experience.

The_Capitalist

About Cole's character:

He was never meant to be liked. The writers built his character around flaws, and it is these flaws you mention that define him. I thought Cole was an ass at first myself, but when I got to the end, I realized that I possessed a few of the same flaws that Cole did, and as a result of this realization, I started appreciating his character a lot more. He's realistic. Not everyone is liked, and the existence of Cole Phelps only serves to reinforce that.

Flawed characters can be great too, sometimes.

Waaaaaay too boring for me. The driving was pretty pointless and time consuming as well. HoolaHoopMan

People just can't seem to understand the type of game LA Noire was I guess. I certainly wasn't garbage, gamer's just have the attention span of a goldfish these days with all them calla dooties and what nots.

I enjoyed the game immensely, but can recognize its flaws. One thing is for sure: it's not for the attention deficit gamer that craves high action above all else. LA Noire shouldn't be marathoned. I approached it like a TV show. Each desk is a season, each case is an episode.

VoodooHak

About Cole's character:

He was never meant to be liked. The writers built his character around flaws, and it is these flaws you mention that define him. I thought Cole was an ass at first myself, but when I got to the end, I realized that I possessed a few of the same flaws that Cole did, and as a result of this realization, I started appreciating his character a lot more. He's realistic. Not everyone is liked, and the existence of Cole Phelps only serves to reinforce that.

Flawed characters can be great too, sometimes.

The_Capitalist