Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.
Reviewed On: Xbox 360. Also available on PS3. Due fall 2011 on PC.
In a Nutshell: A refreshing update to classic point-and-click adventure games blended with Grand Theft Auto-style action and carjacking, er, commandeering in 1940s Los Angeles. You divide your time between inspecting areas for evidence, interrogating persons of interest and chasing down suspects who make a run for it (and they always do!). The story is deep and engaging, but with cut scenes that are for the most part neatly integrated with interactions. Cinematics often lead into chases or questioning, so you rarely feel like an observer despite the film noir movie feel of the game (you can even turn on black-and-white mode if you're a traditionalist!). You are the detective, and the only major downside is that you're a pretty straight-laced officer of the law - so if you dream of playing a "bad cop," this probably isn't your game.
Learning Curve: L.A. Noire eases you into the various gameplay elements one at a time, starting with a relatively straightforward beat cop case to get you started, and then it constantly reminds you if you seem to have forgotten anything as you progress through the Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson desks. You can turn off certain cues such as crime scene music that ends when you discover the last clue, if you want to increase the game difficulty and get a better chance at a higher rating.
The Save Game: The game saves automatically at various points during cases and when you pick up any collectibles. It's not "save anywhere" but checkpoints are reasonably spaced and you'll likely find good stopping places in between searching locations and interrogating suspects, or at the close of a case - though it's always tempting to start the next one right away.
Family Factor: While far from family friendly (there is bloody violence, coarse language and fully nude corpses for starters), you can choose a free roam mode from any completed desk called The Streets of L.A. You might hear the occasional salty outburst from a citizen you nearly run over while driving on the sidewalk or when causing a traffic accident. But if you're smart and stay away from the street crimes on your map, you can explore and find locations and innocuous collectibles such as cars, film cans and badges (with the optional badge challenge DLC) while a young one watches. I turned the volume down to low and let my 8-year-old watch me explore the city, and he loved it.
Buy, Rent or Skip? L.A. Noire can be beat in about 20 hours, with 5-10 hours more if you spend a lot of time collecting cars, film cans, badges, and other optional items in the game. I spent at least an hour just driving around the city to discover locations. DLC cases extend the story with missions that will be integrated into the main story if you download them before you start the police desk they're tied to, so add an hour or two for each case you add. If you want to beat it and street it, rent. But if you're a completionist, then this is a good game for you - so you might as well buy.
On a Personal Note: I fell in love with L.A. Noire largely based on its excellent writing and storytelling, and the fact that it pays homage to one of my favorite films of the past 20 years, L.A. Confidential. From the music to some of the performances, you feel like you could easily turn a corner and run into "Shotgun" Ed Exley, Bud White and Captain Dudley Smith. The actors are eerily real, to the point that you can readily identify Mad Men's Aaron Staton as your character, Detective Cole Phelps, and Heroes' Greg Grunberg as a murder suspect.
GrrlGotGame is less fond of the game, largely because she can't role play as a corrupt officer - though she did manage to toss a perp off a roof, jack many cars from citizens and gun down countless criminals and the occasional civilian.
The only serious black mark is some sloppy structure, particularly during the Homicide cases. A well planted clue to what was really going on popped up early, but the game prohibited me from running down any leads in that direction. Instead, I had to see it through in a forced linear fashion that included interpreting obtuse clues and even some platforming action (which felt mostly out of place). The finale of this section took forever because I didn't realize I had to proceed at a certain point in what had been a dodge-and-shoot pursuit, and it kept failing me. This might have been saved if the game had let me pursue my suspicions to a dead end and the last homicide case were better constructed.
But once I landed on the Vice Desk, all was forgiven. I really enjoyed the remainder of the game, and was glad I saw it through to the bittersweet end. I just hope they keep making DLC so I can extend my investigations until the inevitable (and most welcome!) sequel.
Related:
More Busy Gamer Reviews:
- You Don't Know Jack
- Fallout New Vegas [GOTY 2010]
- Kinectimals
- 7 Wonders HD
- Fable III
- Dead Rising 2
- Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (with Tips and Tricks)
- Costume Quest
- Comic Jumper
- Blur
- Alan Wake
- Guide to kids and adult games
Busy Gamer Audio Reviews and Features (MP3):
Comments (1)
My wife is NOT a gamer. She can play the occasional Mario kart on Wii, but that's about it.
And she ended up bringing up this game, as she heard a bit about it in NPR.
I need to check it out. So many games in my backlog though, I think I will give it a rent, now that Redbox has games everywhere, I will have her try it one afternoon, see if she likes it.
Who knows, this might be the beginning of a conversion ;)
Thanks for the review
Posted by Teujip | July 1, 2011 3:31 PM
Posted on July 1, 2011 15:31