LA Noire Review

Nearly a year since this review went up, and I'm on the last case... that says as much about the difficulty I've had in playing this game as much as the amount of time I've had to play it. LA Noire 2 (if such a game does exist) would have to go a long way to fix some of the big issues in this game. It's incredibly buggy as well, quite big bugs that you can't really help but notice.

I've found the interrogation a bit frustrating at times. Why does he sometimes go mental at a suspect when you hit doubt and other times he goes softly on them?

I will have to agree on the side missions. I haven't apprehend them (set from car chases), but I have never done the tackle on the person you are chasing. I'm finding it a tad 'unrealistic' as you are a detective, and you don't go around killing most of the people that are committing a crime. I clearly disarmed someone but the option of arrest doesn't appear, it just went into a scene of his body going into the back of a van, for post-mortem related stuff. The only other thing I have performed besides from killing the escapee, is to fire a warning shot.

I think the interrogation alone is enough to steal the attention from the gunplay and driving, which people have been complaining about. Indeed we will have to disagree on this James, but I just find it to be spot on with the gunplay and driving. I think there needs to be more happening in LA than just travelling to your next questioning location and street crimes. I have been going off finding the secret cars to add more exploration, but isn't enough if you ask me, but I do enjoy the street crimes, and I am enjoying the game as a whole.

Still on disc 1 on the 360 and now starting the Homicide desk. Taking the moment now to explore, and increase my rank to get more intuition points to help me in the interrogating.

a couple of times where i have given chase, if you get close enough a tackle option appears, but mostly i have had to kill the suspect, which i agree is a little harsh in some cases but if a suspect is firing upon police then police will usualy return gun fire and if a gunman has a gun at the head of some poor lady threatning to blow her brains out, and if negotiations are not the best option then they will put the suspect down again and that seems to be the case quite often in this game, it is america after all

Mafia II had the driving for these types of cars spot on. They probably weigh about 3 tonnes, have V8 engines and crap tyres. They should not feel so light and twitchy.

So far it's an 8/10 for me, I'm being slightly generous as well with this. There's too many faults with the core gameplay elements for it to be a 10.

Another negative point for me - during a couple of side missions, involving a chase then a shootout, I didlike how when the game says to subdue someone, you HAVE to shoot them. You can't sprint, tackle, then engage in fisticuffs, perhaps with the option of kicking a dropped firearm away. Such a restraint is needless, and such sequences *could* have been made more action-like.

Perhaps I just expected too much from the game's hype, but there are many gameplay aspects done better within RDR last year. The side missions, and shooting, as I have been arguing, definately feel as though they have regressed. Which is a big damned shame.

The driving is just like The Saboteur. I would have preferred the cars to feel heavier, less arcadey and more realistic, as per the rest of the game is trying to be.

Seems like an 50/50 split on the driving, Scott - you and I are going to have to disagree on this one. You can't please everyone, but for a game trying so hard to separate itself from the crowd, you would think they would have tried to do so in more than just a single area.

I remain convinced that LA Noire is not worthy of a 10.

I didn't have any issues with the gun play or the driving - I'm with Wido on this as I found it reminiscent of RDR's Gun controls. I think with the driving you are supposed to be driving properly with the traffic - not driving as if you are in a stolen car! - I do however have other gripes with the game, which I've posted in the LA Noire topic in general gaming, but so far for me this isn't a 10/10 game - I'd go with an 8/10 personally although I'm hoping this changes as I delve further into the game.

id have to agree with wido on this one, i think the driving is pretty good and the gunplay is ok too, the whole game seems to have a nice clean flow to it, im very impressed so far and im well and truly hooked,

I'm going to have to disagree on driving and gunplay there James. I found the driving to be very responsive, and a lot more better than GTA IV. The gunplay is borderline Red Dead Redemption and isn't sluggish or clumsy when going into the cover, as its just like RDR.

I think there is skill to aiming, as I did my first street crime mission, which involved gunplay. A well timed precise shot soon done the job.

So far, so good!

Hmmmm... I posted my thoughts in the thread in General, but having played the game now, I'm not quite convinced L.A. Noire is worthy of a 10. There are too many little flaws, and I've got to disagree with the gunplay part of the review. It's just bad. The use of cover is clumsy, and there's no skill to aiming.

Driving, gunplay, and other non-storyline elements could have been polished and made a lot slicker. Which is a real shame. This game is more an 8/9 to my mind.

Great Review. Love it when a game gets a 10. No games is without flaws but when a game is plain awesome it deserves a 10. : )

Great review Neon, can't wait to receive my pre-order for this. It will be fantastic if we can see some more games like this with a more mature theme.

Going to try to sneakily read the review at work today and then all your comments, but I just had to say that my amazing wife pre-ordered this for my birthday! So happy :)

VERY looking forward to it...

Nice review.

Unfortunately I will not be picking this up for a while yet due to limited funds and Dirt 3 arriving in about 6 days.

It's one that I shall put on the list along with Portal 2 as a "must get it soon".