Once upon a time, I picked up this game on release for the Xbox 360. It came out on May 17, 2011 and five days later my world was turned on its head when my town was hit by a devastating tornado. L.A. Noire being the game I was playing at the time, it garnered a sullied reputation by no fault of its own.

Fast forward to 2017 and the remaster that came to PS4 and I decided it was time to conquer this dark spot on my gaming history. And I did. Great game experience. One of the last times I feel like Rockstar did something fun and unique. I love GTA and RDR but I think Rockstar needs to do more stuff like this, Bully, hell, even the Table Tennis game.

It's very rough around the edges but I can't help but enjoy it. Despite all the stupid facial animations, awkward and sometimes random evidence needed to progress, the weird ending. The experience overall was really special and cohesive.

Phelps is a great but flawed protagonist, which I prefer as it gives the character a form of complexity. And you're not always sure what to think of him. All of your partners are likable (except Roy) and each case has tons of memorable characters. There were a lot of just complicated and thought provoking moments where I was just sitting there trying to find the right evidence I needed and I felt really in the moment trying to figure out the mystery. There's lots of intense moments and really awesome vocal performances from everyone.

Some gripes. The open world is not great and does not really add much to the game. The collectibles SUCK. Why even put them in if you can't do anything with them? Collecting the cars is fine. But why the film reels? Just don't bother by that point.

The switch port is ok, but it can be choppy with some bugs. In general the gameplay is simple: gunplay is nothing crazy with basic shooting and cover systems. A lot of the chases have awful rubber banding once you notice it. It is impossible not to once you see it.

Still, a very unique title from Rockstar that could have been expanded on more. But I think it's still a great time on its own.

This game is a bumpy road that constantly flip-flops between repetitive gameplay loops and redundancy, to well-written story beats and enticing characters. At the end of the day, this is a game that took me four or so months to beat not for its length, but for its sheer lack of replay-ability. I adore some parts of LA Noire, and find others tedious. The ending is decent, but in no way makes up for the quick exhaustion that comes from hours of doing the same thing over and over. Feels more like a prototype of an idea than an actual fully-fledged and completed idea. I think the kinks of the sloppy motion capture, lack of cutscene skippability and same-y mission structure could’ve been worked out with a sequel, but I don’t think we’ll ever get one. I enjoyed more than I didn’t but I come away disappointed with my experience and don’t find it something I’ll be returning to anytime soon. Oh well, at least I can move on to another game.

A game I plan to return to in the future to experience again. Just an incredible recreation of 1950s LA by the developers at Team Bondi that deserves all the praise in the world. It's only fair to also mention that this game is a product of extreme crunch that unfortunately seems to have adversely impacted many of the devs at Bondi as they made it. I feel so conflicted praising the game but I still believe it is a must-play. One of the most non-traditional open world experiences where I feel like the map and details of 1950s LA serve as their own character, something that speaks to the film noir inspirations this game takes from.

I really like just how interesting it is to solve crimes, it's almost addicting for some reason, especially with the interesting game mechanics. Thought it's kind of weird that I haven't failed so far, it should be a realistic outcome if I make enough mistakes, which I think I had at times. Also a lack of focus is not really my thing, I know barely anything about the main character for example, or what his actual goals are.

Basically this is like all those crime-solving shows or whatever, just so much cooler to do, but definitely not blowing you out of the water either because when it comes to story it's much more similar.

L.A. Noire é um game que eu amava jogar no meu finado Xbox 360. Eu amo a temática, amo a ambientação, amo a trilha sonora, os carros antigos, a estética de filme noir dos anos 40/50. Os personagens são carismáticos, as expressões faciais continuam surpreendentes, ainda mais pra época, embora outros aspectos, como os cabelos, por exemplo, tenham envelhecido um pouquinho mal.

A história é extremamente bem escrita e tem um dos finais mais amargos que eu já vi nos videogames. Toda a gameplay baseada na leitura facial pra deduzir se as pessoas estão mentindo ou não é muito gostosa, a investigação também é bem legal e os casos são tão bem feitos que cada um poderia render um filme diferente.

Tive um bugzinho aqui e outro ali mas nada que prejudicasse a gameplay. O maior defeito de L.A. pra mim continua sendo o fato de que o game não te pune por erros. Tu pode perder estrelas se bater o carro, quebrar propriedade pública, se tu errar perguntas nos interrogatórios e tal. Mas isso não influencia em nada, o game meio que te força a seguir a história independente de tu estar fazendo certo ou não. E isso eu acho muito errado.

Ainda assim, L.A. Noire é um jogo que envelheceu muito bem. Divertido, envolvente e cativante. Poderia ficar horas andando pelas ruas de Los Angeles da década de 40. Não sei o que rolou com a Team Bondi depois de toda a treta envolvendo a produção desse game, mas eu queria muito que a Rockstar pegasse as rédeas e desenvolvesse uma sequência. L.A. merecia uma sequência na geração atual, só de imaginar toda a ambientação e os personagens com aquela expressão facial realista com os gráficos da geração atual, fico babando.

Detalhe, eu finalizei esse game ano passado, mas como só fiz a Platina agora, foi que decidi cadastrar. Deixei ele no drop por muitos meses. Fica aqui o meu vá tomar no cu pra quem teve a ideia de fazer aqueles dois troféus malditos de achar 95 carros e 50 rolos de filme.

12 years ago, I LOVED this game.
12 years later, as I anxiously revisit this detective-adventure game, I struggle badly to pinpoint anything positive about the game, because story- and gameplaywise, it aged very, very poorly.

You play as Cole Phelps a Marine Corps lieutenant, just returning from the Second World War, so we are in the late 40s, a time-frame very rarely picked. Our goal is to climb up the career ladder at the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) starting at the patrol service. Even if this environment is already suggesting another Hero’s Journey, this premise COULD have led to an interesting story. But it just did not deliver.

L.A. Noire is a power fantasy through and through. You speak the language of violence and war, screaming at suspects, pointing a gun at them or even shooting them in the back as they are running away from you. The developers at Rockstar are not well known for very sensitive or self-reflexive characters or stories, but with L.A. Noire they reached their pinnacle of ignorance. This game is dripping of problematic tropes: It is full of antisemitism, racism, sexism and unconcealed patriotism. And it is not only the „bad“ guys, who embody this way of thinking, it is you and the structure of police, that is based on violence, discrimination and corruption. It hurts to the bone to get to a crime scene over and over again, to see another femicide, or a raped body or a beaten up immigrant. Most of the cases are build like that. Yes, I can imagine the streets of L.A. in the late 40s, were not the safest place for liberal women or people of color, but to use this „historical truth“, to rebuild and reenact this brutal way of interacting is just not my type.

The L.A. we drive through is a vivid place, atmospherical and you can really feel the will to „build something“, but besides the feel of it, the glimpse, you just can’t do anything in this world - besides a bit of sightseeing. You are limited to your duty, driving from crime scene to crime scene, cutting blocks and avoid another car crash, due to the whacky car controls. The intention is clear, that Rockstar did not want to create another open-world gangster-adventure but quite the opposite. And this would be understandable, IF the gameplay of being a cop thriving for justice and recognition would be interesting and thrilling. But it simply isn’t.

The gameplay loop is boring and hilariously linear. You arrive at a crime scene, investigating it, searching for clues or evidence, waiting for the fulfilling melody to signal you the completion of the scene. Sidenote: This melody is the only thing in the game, that led to a warm nostalgic feeling in my playthrough. After that, you interrogate a witness and this part was sold as the main attraction back in the day with ground-breaking facial motion capture, making it easy to immediately recognize a liar. But this gimmick is just dated and the expressions are not that clearly readable, leading to frustration or the feel of a multiple-choice test. Because the other two options besides accusing someone, are to play the „good cop“ or the the „bad cop“. This means either calmly assume someone is lying or openly yelling or threating them, how they will rod in jail, if they are not cooperating. Then you drive to the next location, either searching for clues, repeating the next inhuman interrogation or chasing a suspect either by foot or by car.

The investigation part is the „best“ as you just shut up and try to do your job for a moment, like you should. But this promising mechanic is just torn down, by the incomprehensible need for action, spectacle and heroism, which leads to a dumb, rail-roaded and tedious experience.

In some cases, you will find newspapers, reporting about the psychologist Dr. Harlan Fontaine, a shady man willing to cure all men from their post-war traumata, a story told in little cut-scenes. The same happens to the backstory of Cole, as we experience little flashbacks of his time in war. These parts are the most promising and intriguing, as we get a glimpse of this collective trauma a war can cause. But the result of this trauma is displayed exclusively in beating your wife, becoming a murderer, an alcoholic or being abused by a narcissistic psychologist.

After replaying eleven cases, I have heard and seen enough. A part of me is sad about the failed replay of one of my favorite games. As a teen, I played this with my sister and I remember, that we enjoyed it. But I grew up and the game did not. And that is why the other part of me is grateful to went through this again. To realize that this type of game and especially the content and values it transfers, does not represent my understanding of the world nor a compelling character, I want to embody. And that does not imply, I only want to play as successful, soft and sensitive characters, which try to „make the world a better place“. Take Disco Elysium as a great example of a game that did it just right: A struggling cop, unable to remember his own name, known as a loser, a tramp, an asshole, but someone who is trying, or to be more accurate: a character thrown into a game that gives you freedom of choice and a feel of consequences and not only the outdated repetition of the binary idea of good and evil.