All right boyz, here we go! LA NOIRE Impressions Thread

[korme]

Just loaded up the game, early thoughts are it's pretty cool... lots of investigating as a beat cop

[RainMaker]

This will be what I do this weekend. I'm trying to hold off on playing it till then or I'll end up staying up till 4am and being exhausted at work.

[panerd]

I was about to start this thread also. Haven't bought it yet but would love to hear some first impressions. Will be picking it up soon.

[illinifan999]

I'm pretty awful at picking the right response in interrogations.

[panerd]

This will be what I do this weekend. I'm trying to hold off on playing it till then or I'll end up staying up till 4am and being exhausted at work.

Yep. Summer break coming up for me so I figure I can hold off the marathon sessions until then. :)

[bob]

I've played the first four or five cases so far. I realize those are easy ones to show you what to do and how to play, but I don't feel like I've done much of anything so far. Not a lot of gameplay options so far.

[panerd]

I've played the first four or five cases so far. I realize those are easy ones to show you what to do and how to play, but I don't feel like I've done much of anything so far. Not a lot of gameplay options so far.

I have read mixed responses to whether it is like Red Dead and GTA as far as going outside the storyline. Can you just wander Los Angeles like the other Rockstar games?

[Atocep]

I have read mixed responses to whether it is like Red Dead and GTA as far as going outside the storyline. Can you just wander Los Angeles like the other Rockstar games?

You can wander around LA but the game really isn't meant to be a sandbox game. There's around 20 or so random cases you can pick up just patrolling that give you a reason to roam a bit, but that's pretty much it.

I'm enjoying the game quite a bit so far. I'm a huge fan of sandbox gameplay, but I wasn't expecting it here so the lack of it doesn't bother me a bit.

The game has some annoyances, but it's different than anything I've ever played.

[samifan24]

I'm enjoying the game so far but it isn't exactly what I thought it would be. For instance this feels more like an interactive tv show or movie than a game to me, at least in the early going. I've been 0 for 2 in questioning witnesses or in interrogations and one time I found that I just repeated an interrogation until I made the right decision, which was somewhat disappointing. I wasn't expecting a fully open sandbox game but right now this does feel a bit too "on rails" for my liking. Still having fun, though.

[panerd]

You can wander around LA but the game really isn't meant to be a sandbox game. There's around 20 or so random cases you can pick up just patrolling that give you a reason to roam a bit, but that's pretty much it.

I'm enjoying the game quite a bit so far. I'm a huge fan of sandbox gameplay, but I wasn't expecting it here so the lack of it doesn't bother me a bit.

The game has some annoyances, but it's different than anything I've ever played.

Guess its too much to expect a blend of Police Quest and GTA eh? :)

[bob]

I need to see if you can turn off some of the helpers or make the game harder, but it reminds me of an old point and click. Instead of moving the mouse around looking for something to click, you walk around waiting for the controller to shake and the "press A to examine object" text to appear.

[samifan24]

I need to see if you can turn off some of the helpers or make the game harder, but it reminds me of an old point and click. Instead of moving the mouse around looking for something to click, you walk around waiting for the controller to shake and the "press A to examine object" text to appear.

This.

The prompts at the crime scenes make the game too easy (at least in the first few missions)

[Carman Bulldog]

Haven't played it yet, but you can apparently turn off the vibration, the "ding" and the background music that plays until you find all of the clues. It would likely add quite a bit to the game (and re-playability) if you started with all of those off.

[RainMaker]

So is the game a bit like Heavy Rain? And how big is the city?

[Autumn]

Keep it coming guys, i'm interested to hear more about this game. the world needs a modern Police Quest bad.

[RainMaker]

Keep it coming guys, i'm interested to hear more about this game. the world needs a modern Police Quest bad.
I've been saying this for years. I think the next GTA should come from the police perspective. Am really surprised that one of their DLC on the last game didn't feature a storyline like that.

[Peregrine]

My impression is that they should release this on the PC.

[stevew]

You guys aren't making me very excited to play this. Glad I didn't go pick it up on release date. I loved the first few days of playing Red Dead Redemption, but I thought that was way too on rails.

[Icy]

You guys aren't making me very excited to play this. Glad I didn't go pick it up on release date. I loved the first few days of playing Red Dead Redemption, but I thought that was way too on rails.

Same, i was so excited about RDR too, and got bored after a few days. Yeah you could ride your horse by huge scenarios, but i got tired of shooting at the birds. At least in the GTA series you can have more fun in the crowded cities if you don't want to follow the storyline. At the end you were too limited by the storyline and LA Noire seems even worse.

I'll keep reading comments before buying.

[dacman]

I've played through the first 7 cases, and done some roaming. So far, I'd have to agree with all the earlier comments -- this game is just not a true sandbox game. The scope and technical achievements are quite remarkable, but the game itself is just not up to GTA or even RDR levels.

That said, I think it's definately worth one play-through -- I just would recommend a week or weekend rental vs. a full purchase. The cases do get a lot more interesting and involved and I have found it easier and easier to interogate and pick the right responses. Replayability, however, looks to be extremely limited -- I seriously doubt I would ever play it through more than once or twice (maybe with all the hints turned off the 2nd time).

[RainMaker]

Same, i was so excited about RDR too, and got bored after a few days. Yeah you could ride your horse by huge scenarios, but i got tired of shooting at the birds. At least in the GTA series you can have more fun in the crowded cities if you don't want to follow the storyline. At the end you were too limited by the storyline and LA Noire seems even worse.
One of my gripes with the last GTA was that you really couldn't have that much fun. They built this incredible city with all this detail and there wasn't a whole lot of fun that could be had with it. San Andreas allowed you to do a ton of stuff but that was sort of taken away in the latest version.

My thing is that if you're going to build a great environment, let me dick around in it a lot and do some cool stuff.

[Coffee Warlord]

http://v.cdn.cad-comic.com/comics/cad-20110518-8cc03.png

[Buccaneer]

The driving physics in this game is horrendous, as well as the AI driving. The interogation mechanisms appear to get old fast since, so far, it's all there is. Not worth playing and I see no replay value.

Caveat: I'm not actually playing the game since I can't but those are the opinions from several people that I trust (and fellow Mafia players) and verification from gameplay videos. I shutter to think how this would have played on the PC.

[bhlloy]

Wow... sounds like I'm glad I didn't drop the 60+ to preorder this. Probably pick it up on sale or through Gamefly at some point.

[Groundhog]

Kind of crazy the (from what I'm seeing) universal acclaim it's getting from the review sites.

[Buccaneer]

Kind of crazy the (from what I'm seeing) universal acclaim it's getting from the review sites.

Don't get me started on the worth of review sites. They had lost credibility long ago when they are more interested in game/genre promotion than actually playing a released game all the way through.

[Balldog]

The driving physics in this game is horrendous, as well as the AI driving. The interogation mechanisms appear to get old fast since, so far, it's all there is. Not worth playing and I see no replay value.

haha I just fell asleep during an interrogation. I'll be shocked if I complete this one.

[Qwikshot]

"We all have it coming..." -Unforgiven

Look, I've read about the flaws. I've read the reviews, IGN calls Noire "a different beast".

Indeed.

The first few GTA had you playing for the most part an amoral character, by Vice City you finally had someone who at least had a background, San Andreas was a little more involved (I'll admit I didn't finish it, my computer died). GTA Liberty City still had someone rated as a sociopath, so it still justified the murderin' acts but started to give him something more of moral compass.

Then came Red Dead Redemption - Marston was the epitome of a guy who did wrong but "cleaned up". He was doing this for his new life, but he had yet to pay for his old life. Still his moral compass was no different than Eastwood's William Munney (apologies for the spelling), who went from weak, to dying, to being "reborn" with a thirst for vengeance so great not all the bottles of whiskey could salve it. It is his history (spoken so chillingly before he kills Little Bill), his past that he cannot escape, Munney doesn't find redemption but he does I guess accept who he is. Marston always seems to be fighting to keep the past from occuring but he's doomed by it. He just wanted to be left alone, but the past and the encroachment of progress prevent him.

If you finished, Red Dead, you'll know the price Marston had to pay for his old life. But damn if the scenery and atmosphere weren't beautiful. I got lost in RDR, I never felt bored. But you know there was a linear story there and that you had to follow the pieces for it to complete.

This is where I'll stop a moment concerning Rockstar games, and kick to what I think was the best open world game I've yet to play - Just Cause 2. The story line is generic but the freedom, the side games, the hidden packages, the use of the grappling hook and the multiple parachutes, the fact that you could drop anywhere on this south-Asian island and create havoc was so refreshing (I feel like taking out a military base, or I feel like doing a race game, or I feel like flying a jumbo jet). When you went around with Scorpio, I felt like there wasn't any area that I could go to and do what I wanted. So if you want a game that is pretty non-linear, go for it...it's a great game.

Onward to LA Noire. Which I cannot stop playing. We've hit LA Confidential here, but with broad strokes. Your partners are stereotypical, your bosses are demanding. You do the cases and yes, it can be hit or miss. But if you've ever watched the reality show 48 hours, the leg work is tedious, the interviews are intuative, it's guess work, it's demanding.

But somehow, I felt compelled to move on. Cole Phelps isn't the most engaging character, but I've seen more from his flashbacks to see someone who is trying to find purpose again, something from the war changed him, he's trying to change things but realizes sometimes putting a bullet in the bad guy is the only option.

I'm up to vice now, I must confess that homicide wasn't that fascinating until the last part. I did figure out who the bad guy was long before the pieces came together. It doesn't hold back on the gruesomeness.

Still I think Noire isn't open world as much as being part of the world, you have your job, you can't go on a spree kill when things get rough, there's no points for getting your car up major air (the hidden cars thing has been meh for me). But I do feel when I figure out a case, when I manage to get a witness caught in a lie, when I figure out a clue, when I can piece it together, that it's rewarding and it pushes me further.

Like Marston, I believe Phelps has a reckoning to face. But where Red Dead Redemption can have you ride off into the sunset a few times, Noire seems to put on a one way road to the ending and there's no exit.

[bhlloy]

So I finally got a copy of this for my birthday... it's a peculiar game for sure. Doesn't even feel like a game for the most part. You can screw up every interrogation , just pick up the obvious clues and you'll still get the case solved for you by a eyewitness showing up at the final stage or just by following each location you are given until you stumble upon the suspect.

It's beautifully done and there's definitely some new ground being broken here, but as for actual fun and challenging to play... not so much. Can't shake the feeling that I'm playing the 21st century version of Black & White, a game with an unreal amount of hype and that previewers and early reviewers creamed all over, but with very little substance or gameplay underneath.

[Neon_Chaos]

I'm hooked.

Basic description would be Phoenix Wright 3D.

[cartman]

I haven't been able to play it much, as I've been traveling during the week for work, and have had family down the last two weekends. I've only made it a few cases in, and I can see the similarities to RDR. The first missions are formulaic, but they serve to introduce you to the game. I didn't mind the framework of RDR, and if this is similar, I'm sure that I'll spend the latter stages of LA Noire doing more exploring of the environment than slamming through the missions to finish.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Like cartman and others, I haven't been able to put much time into it yet. I don't really play console games much lately, and haven't played a Rockstar game since Vice City (played about 10 minutes of San Andreas), so take that into consideration with my review.

The game is very pretty. The facial expressions on the characters are pretty well done, and a nice change of pace from your typical game. There is definitely a storyline, and they start feeding it to you early with character flashbacks to help develop your backstory. The controls are somewhat intuitive, although like Bucc mentioned, the driving physics seem to be completely awful. I drive around like a drunken 10 year old on crack even when I'm putting significant effort into driving well.

The main gripe I would have with the game is that it feels far to force-fed to me. I'm going to have to turn off the notifications (vibration, sound effect, etc) for clues when I go back to it, because it definitely feels like you're watching a movie and have very little impact on the game. Hopefully that gives it a bit more of an interactive feel, and makes it a trifle challenging.

[Neon_Chaos]

I'm hooked.

Basic description would be Phoenix Wright 3D.

I am now deep into Vice, and I don't think this game is going to open up any more than it already has.

It's more of an adventure game than anything else. In some respects, the modern day Police Quest, for Sierra fans out there.

The star of the game are the actors, definitely.

edit:
Friendly tip -

There is an EXTREMELY thin line between Doubt and Lie. If you're certain the guy isn't telling the truth, always go for Lie first. If you can't present evidence, you can always back off. Doubt should only be used as a last resort.

[jetpunk2000]

Anyone know if you need to restart the game to access the pre order downloadable cases? Looking online I see that the cases from are plugged into the Vice and Traffic storylines and since the PS Store is still down I haven't been able to get to them. Would suck if I had to start over again.

[SnowMan]

I'd imagine you could go play them via the "Cases" option in the main menu.

[Qwikshot]

Finished the game and I'm still mixed on it.

I enjoyed the atmosphere and the look of the game, but it was such a straight procedural that you really couldn't deviate from the storyline. There is a certain inevitability then. You never really do much else.

I would've liked some action side missions, like bounties to break up the monotony (yes I know they have calls in the game but let's face it, the drive to the incident takes longer than the action of the call.

I know that they didn't want to break from character so driving say a fire truck isn't going to allow you to take care of fires. I mean money was a none factor in the game, at least to me, it wasn't like you could go buy new suits or weapons or cars. You could discover new cars, drive them around and when you got to a case scene your old car would be present after the next course of action.

I liked the expanse of Red Dead, I never felt fully tied to the story that I couldn't wander off a few days and discover something new to do, Noire doesn't allow for that and while the story was never boring, I never could just drive off and find something else to do (no not chaos, but I didn't find a golden reel until near the end of the story, there was no point going back to find them all).

Rockstar has been going to great lengths to kill off the main protagonists, when you get some side missions with Kelso, you know something is up. I'm sure because I missed a few things that my ending is different, but I don't feel compelled to go back. I'm curious to what a sequel will mean but Phelps dying doesn't really do anything for me. My wife couldn't understand the ending, but I felt it was more like Chinatown. In the end, you cannot stop corruption, you only change those who are in charge.

That being said, it be worth a rent, but instead of the Long Goodbye, it's more a Big Empty.

[dawgfan]

It's interesting the variety of opinions you get out there on all forms of media, and games are no different. Me, I loved RDR - I've grown a little bored of the GTA games and environments, and I enjoyed the different kind of world that RDR provided. I felt more inclined to just fuck around in the environment in that game than I have since GTA3.

Regarding L.A. Noire - definitely a different type of game. It uses Rockstar's open world game engine, but it's not really a sandbox game. They have a few mild concessions to that style of game in there, but the game would not really have suffered had they left them out.

I'm really, really glad they added the option to let your partner drive, because I'm tired of the GTA driving mechanics and the way they program the driving AI so that every intersection is a red light and cars go out of their way to get in your way. Having your partner drive eliminates that frustration and gets you through the game a lot faster, at the expense of eliminating the police call side missions (which aren't that compelling anyway).

Ostensibly the game is about finding clues, reading faces in interviews/interrogations and solving cases, but what it's really about (IMO) is being an interactive movie. As noted, you can't really ever fail - the game designers wanted to ensure that you can always progress through the game to the next story points. The facial animation tech really serves to allow this to be an interactive 3D movie, where the actors are driving the vast majority of the performance rather than the Rockstar animators.

Regarding the story itself:

There's a lot to like about the story and the way they tie the flashbacks to the present day. And the actor performances are in many cases really outstanding.

A couple of things I didn't like though - the fact that Phelps has a wife and kids is seriously underplayed in the story. They only become a part of the story once Phelps is busted for his affair with the singer. And the motivations for his affair are never really explained adequately.

As well, I didn't like the choice Phelps made at the end to not try to get out of the sewer - he seemed to give up, and as a father that made me mad, that he wouldn't make every effort to save himself - if not for himself and his lover, at least for his kids.

[Neon_Chaos]

Finished the game. Gonna go find a walkthrough, play New Game+ and 5* all the cases now.

All in all, it was an awesome ride.

One question though, for those who've played to the end...

Is the narrator who disappears midway through the game Herschell Biggs?

[Marc Vaughan]

Enjoying it so far - definitely agree, its Pheonix Wright 3d + guns ;)

[cthomer5000]

All my thoughts on the game:


At it's worst, the game absolutely descends to a 'hidden object' game.
The tech is really impressive, and I hope we'll be seeing it in a lot of future games. I certainly have never played a game with more life-like facial characteristics.
The game has excellent voicework (having pretty much the entire cast of Mad Men helped there).
They make some utterly bizzare story-telling decisions in the game. Story spoiler ahead.Wait? I'm banging this German chick? Huh? This was so out of nowhere that I assume Cole was faking the relationship to see if he could trust his partner. I was blown away when there was never any second twist. Rang totally false.
They made a very strange game decision decision late in the game. Story spoiler ahead.Having to start using another character so late in the game felt forced and annoying, even with the story tie-in. You don't want game play twists in the final chapter of a game IMHO.
The shooting mechanics were terrible. They should have just lifted the shooting mechanics from Red Dead Redemption. Strange decision.
The side missions are largely a waste of time. Almost every situation is resolved with killing a bunch of bad guys. Even worse, some resolve by insane things like going on a hyper-dangerous car chase and risking tons of lives just because a guy was taking up-skirt photos. No rational cop would react like that.
Los Angeles did look great, but it felt pretty wasted. In fact, the whole open-world element of game felt tacked on. Rockstar should really find a way to recycle that map into Grand Theft Auto DLC or something. It just feels like a waste to have put so much effort into that environment when it mattered so little.
Once you realize that it is literally impossible to fail a case, it just knocks the wind out of your sails


Now, this sounds like a lot of negatives, but I actually enjoyed playing the game. That being said, much like Red Dead Redemption, when I was done with the game....I was done with the game. The annoying things kind of pile up until you're satisfied the game is ending, and know you won't be replaying it.

If they make some changes I would be interested in checking out a sequel. But this game, upon examination, really doesn't hold up. Each piece of the game is severely flawed, and it all fits together poorly.

[dawgfan]

The tech is really impressive, and I hope we'll be seeing it in a lot of future games. I certainly have never played a game with more life-like facial characteristics.
Speaking to this point as an animator with extensive experience working with mocap and directing actors and someone supervising cut-scenes in games, I have mixed feelings about their facial animation tech:

- It obviously provides very lifelike facial animation in many respects, and that realism is fascinating to watch
- It makes the actors even more important in the performance, especially in terms of the facial aspect

On the other hand the tech is still new, and there are obviously some flaws, as well as some major limitations in doing facial animation this way:

- The tech doesn't hold up to close scrutiny - if you recall, there were no close-ups in the game, only medium or longer shots; even with medium shots, you could see that there were issues around the mouth of the visual projection not matching the surface normals
- As a director, being constrained to not go closer than a medium shot would be highly frustrating and limiting
- Since the facial capture has to happen separate from the body capture, you get times when the two don't work well together - eyelines not matching up, the face looking kind of "floaty"
- The look is very realistic in many ways, but it also kind of feels like a video projection on the face rather than an integrated part of the character model; in many ways, I prefer a really well-done facial animation such as what NaughtyDog has accomplished with the Uncharted games

[cartman]

Just finished up getting the 100% Completion in LA Noire. I think I'd rather have to kill 100 Grizzlies two at a time with a knife in RDR than try to find all of the vehicles again. :)

Looking back, here are my thoughts:

Impressive technology, but didn't quite get the implementation right.

The city was beautiful and incredibly well done, but I didn't pick up the same familiarity and attachment during the game as I did with Liberty City or the RDR world. When a call came over the radio or an address was mentioned, I never did know where on the map they were talking about.

As for some of the things mentioned earlier in spoilers:
At the time it happened, it didn't make sense as to why Phelps would cheat on his wife with the singer. But as more of the back story came out, it became clear. He really wasn't the morally pure war hero with the unwavering ideals. He was trying to live up to that image, and was nowhere near being able to do that. To me, it seemed that Kelso was closer to the ideal than Phelps was.