L.A. Noire has been out for nearly a month now, but that doesn't change the fact that it's one of the more popular games going right now. Therefore, I see no reason why I shouldn't jump into the fray and share my thoughts on it, especially now that a majority of the "high" has worn off from the market hype. And when you think about it, the hype really was what probably cost the game something... maybe.
When I first heard about L.A. Noire all I could think of was, "Holy Hell!! It's Grand Theft Auto but you're a cop! And, oh man, check out the graphics they're using to record faces for the interviews. Sweet!!" It was a high amount of hope that I was placing in Rockstar Games' endeavor to pass the developing torch to another group. For the most part, I'd say it did well what it wanted to do (the interviews/story) but lost sight of nearly everything else. Sadly, that's where I felt my hopes were not as well placed as I would have liked.
Let's start with the parts that really rocked, and were the major selling points of L.A. Noire; story and the tech that Team Bondi used for the interview scenes. First, the story was pretty fantastic, overall. I felt drawn in from the start and never really felt that I was confused. The use of the random newspapers that helped to develop the back story were a great idea so that the player knew more than the main character, so it helped to drive some of the interviews that the player would later encounter. A really smart way to go about making everything add up. There were only two drawbacks that came about in the storytelling. The World War II flashbacks that came up between cases were a bit confusing as to where they placed in the current story, especially the last one at the end of the credits. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm a total dumbass. Maybe I wasn't really paying much attention after beating the game at 3am... Then there was the ending all together... (I have yet to say this on my blog so forgive my enthusiasm...ahem) **SPOILERS!!!** Seriously? A semi-challenging shootout in the sewers that is left with the main character dead and a majority of the corruption left in the city? GAHfdsiqongdjkalauy301298(*&&*%($*&#*#!!! **END SPOILER*** It's like they didn't even try to finish the storyline with effort.
Now that's not to say that I hated the story. I actually loved it and thought it was the best part of the game. I honestly felt that the 1940s were happening around me. It was completely believable and a solid performance was achieved by all the actors. It seriously was a damned good story (you know... up until the end).
In addition to the story that did so well (for the majority of the game), Team Bondi used a new type of technology for their game that involved the game's voice actors being.... actors. Seriously. The actors got into make-up and hair designs and they performed their roles. But, it was in a chair... and they were surrounded by cameras... and only their faces were the focus. Why? Because Team Bondi used both motion capture (that's the traditional stuff where little balls are attached to the body to use as points for scanning and making body movements) and facial motion scanning. Yeah, they scanned faces for expressions and it paid off. It was definitely an exciting thrill to watch the faces of people as you ask them questions and get answers. Now you decide whether those answers are met with a "Lie", "Doubt", or "Truth" response from you the player. Get it right and you're gonna know more. Get it wrong and you're bound to look like a jackass, just so you know. Definitely a great addition and well worth Team Bondi's money.
However, the novelty of the story and the facial expressions wear off over the 20-30 hours that you'll probably put into this game. It did for me. At some point in the Vice Desk, I started to realize that the story was driving the game, but the game wasn't really... fun? anymore. It just seemed like I was more in a "choose your own adventure" book from my childhood. But instead of choosing the next path, I just was choosing what answers were bullshit or fact from my Persons of Interest. While that may seem like a nice thing to some, I felt that this game could have given more to drive away monotony of the game.
Eventually, you'll realize that it was the same formula over and over; get an assignment, get to the scene, look around the scene, question the people, chase someone on foot, shoot someone, fight someone, more scenes to check, ask some more questions, interview, charge, rinse and repeat. That formula may change things up every so often with how those objectives arrive, but they still end up feeling the same.
Overall, I enjoyed the game for what it was, a great story-teller and a wonderful innovation in video games. Game creation will probably never be the same thanks to this one. However, like any good relationship, it's the small things that count and this time Rockstar and Team Bondi hurt our feelings by ignoring the desire for those small things. Hopefully, they'll give us flowers, or some really nice DLC to make us forget about that little slip up.
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 6.5/10
Replayability: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
