This game had no right to be this good! It was the perfect detective game. The cases were interesting and well thought out, always making you think like a real detective, taking into account the evidence and details to find the right culprit.
The story has lots of ups and downs, exposing you to different types of cases and investigative approaches. At times, this game felt like a great detective TV show, keeping you engaged with its twists and turns. The Noir atmosphere of the 40s and 50s is just fantastic, and Los Angeles is the perfect city for this kind of game. Los Angeles becomes Los Angeles y Los Demonios in this game, immersing you in its dark and gritty underworld.

The facial expressions are the game's trademark, revolutionary for 2011. Many people might find them a bit cringy, but I thought they were impressive and added charm to the game. The attention to detail in capturing subtle facial movements made interrogations feel more authentic and challenging, as you had to read characters’ emotions to determine if they were lying or telling the truth.

One of my favorite aspects of this game is the main menu. It’s so creative; I love when games try to do something unique like that. Out of the letters from the light panel, only the letters L, I, and E don't flicker. A cool detail, right? You know the game will be good from the moment you see the effort put into these kinds of things. This kind of creativity sets the tone for the entire game, showing that the developers cared deeply about every aspect of the experience.

The soundtrack is amazing too, especially the main theme. It’s very moody and makes me want to drink some whiskey and light up a cigar while elegantly dressed in a suit with a nice hat on my head, contemplating life and the immortality of the soul. The music perfectly complements the game’s atmosphere, enhancing the feeling of being a detective in post-war Los Angeles. Each track is carefully composed to match the intensity and emotion of the scenes, making the experience even more immersive.

One thing I can't say i was a fan of is how large the map was, considering there’s not much to do in free roam. However, it’s not really a bad thing as they did well in creating the L.A. of that time, even if it wasn't super necessary. The detailed recreation of the city is impressive, and while the free roam activities are limited, it adds to the authenticity and scale of the game.
Team Bondi did a fantastic job with this game. It’s a shame they don’t exist anymore. The effort and passion they poured into the game are evident in every detail. I hope we will see more games like L.A. Noire at some point. Until then, this game remains a standout example of what a detective game can achieve.

Team Bondi e Rockstar se unem pra entregar um dos jogos mais curiosos da década passada. L.A Noire é ate que bem experimental pro seu custo, algo que eu gostaria de ver mais no mundo AAA (ps: não vai acontecer) Com uma historia bem conduzida e casos bem envolventes, o jogo brilha com sua mecânica de interrogação viciante e divertida que deixa o jogador com vontade de rejogar as missões só pra ver todos as opções de dialogo e resposta. Outros destaques são as expressões faciais incríveis dos bonecos e o voice acting espetacular. A parte mais sem sal do jogo, curiosamente, é onde geralmente a Rockstar brilha, o World Design. Não me entenda mal, a ambientação de Los Angeles dos anos 40 é muito bem feita, só que não tem nada pra fazer dentro do mapa fora a historia, e o conteúdo secundário disponível é curto e bem desinteressante, me da leve impressão de que talvez durante fases inicias de desenvolvimento a Team Bondi planejava fazer algo bem mais linear só que o maior envolvimento da Rockstar fez com que eles decidissem colocar um mundo aberto pra lembrar os jogos do estúdio como GTA. Enfim, muito bom jogo, esqueça o mundo aberto e se aprofunde na historia.

I wish more games would come out like this that use more than just combat to create interesting gameplay scenarios that are not only fun, but could also be maintained over one long play-through, or even multiple play-throughs. Too many games rely on combat and it’s kind of becoming tired for me. Having this, and something else like say, Death Stranding, in the big budget space is refreshing.

When most works of art share this one big thing, it can come off as creatively stifling to said works. I’m sure a lot of devs would attest to this. Given how many have departed studios they worked in or even founded, like was the case for Dan Houser, to found newer, smaller indie companies, it’s a safe bet that the industry’s got some things it needs to iron out. Yes, that includes workplace conditions and morale. The art we enjoy is nothing without the artists who bleed, sweat, and cry to make it, and they shouldn’t have do be doing any of that against their will to do so.

The “Too many games rely on combat” thing might be a pea brain take, but I don’t care. The crunch thing has ostensive backing by its long history however; employees coming out on record to what happens in their companies, the outing of scummy practices, the works. Team Bondi, the team behind this game, is no different, and it’s unfortunate what fate befell them, having to close down after the game bombed. This game was a labor of love, too much of one, and while it’s flawed, it laid this great foundation that hasn’t been built upon since, and it’s a damn shame.

All the hard work, being ground to the bone to make something, and in the end of that there’s not much to show for it. People just say “Oh, it’s that game I forgot existed from like however many years ago. It’s just GTA with cops right?” And then they move on. Feels bad, really bad. You get something that could be revolutionary if it were shone more, something so unique, and it doesn’t perform as its shareholders expected, so the people who made it have to go lights out.

To put it simply: Fuck capitalism, but also no because I think capitalism could still work, it’s just corporatism that’s the problem, but I don’t know anymore. The gaming industry sucks, stop buying the annual release 2K/EA sports games, support indie games, don’t pre-order games, sign whatever petitions you can to help workers in the industry, and last but not least, keep physical media alive. That last one isn’t as important but still, preservation matters too and physical media is one of the pillars holding it up.

L.A. Noire is an exceptional crime drama with great writing, chic dialogue, an authentic rendition of Post-War Los Angeles, and engaging detective gameplay that involves the player a lot in the process of cracking cases. It’s only let down by the lack of things to do in the open world, the stiff controls, which would be fine otherwise but get in the way once you’re placed in a chase sequence or shooting gallery, and the limp ending. This game is everywhere and you can get it for cheap, so please, try it out.

Well it's taken me a very long time to get around to finishing this game but damn, I'm glad I did.

Let's start with the setting. LA Noire perfectly captures that late-40s aesthetics with its map design and atmosphere and as someone who is a bit of a sucker for anything from that period, I fell in love with this world. It's so appealing to look at and just take in while you're driving in your Chevy to the next case location listening to Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall.

And the characters in this game mwah. Every single main character you come across in this game is so complex and has a clear personality, but this is something I've come to expect from Rockstar, and they were once again bang on the money here. Cole Phelps might even be in my top 3 favourite Rockstar characters.

The story of this game is good, however, I can't say everything is sun and roses. There is a key turning point in the story where something big happens and to be completely honest, I can't say it was satisfying. There was no build-up to it at all and it seemed completely out of character. The ending too in my opinion did feel a tad bit rushed and probably could have done from some more depth being applied to it, just to really hammer home that emotion that Rockstar is so renowned for.

I did also have a problem with one of the game mechanics which is one of it's biggest selling points, the interrogation system. Because I'm playing the old version, the labels are still Truth, Doubt and Lie. For a start lie is one of the most stupidest labels, as sometimes you actually hit lie to see the relevant dialogue to make you think of accusing them. This can cause you to hit doubt based on the original dialogue but then get it wrong because you were none the wiser. This actually ends up forcing you to hit lie whenever you're not sure now, but luckily you can back out if it ends up being a failed accusation, however, it's a bit of a pain to do. Doubt and Truth can also be very misleading at times as well with it more being like Push and Calm. Saying this, the new labels in the remastered version are much better to be honest so credit to Rockstar for that.

So overall, LA Noire does have its drawbacks but that didn't stop me from coming back to it during my playthrough. The story is engaging, the world is stunningly accurate and the characters are unforgettable. I think I'll end this on a quote I can't seem to shake

"I SAY WE BUST IN THERE AND FIND THE GODDAMN EVIDENCE!"

A game where you're meant to play as a really good police detective, but in reality, you play as the worst detective in any media you've ever seen.

I don't know if I missed it, but I don't think the game ever properly explained what "Doubting" really meant and I ended up coming to the wrong conclusions for like 95% of the cases because of this. Since you can't really fail, it meant that Cole was still rewarded despite being so shit at his job and it was so fucking funny.

I wish the game was a bit more intuitive with its investigation, but it was still very fun. Realistically, you spend more time driving around in a GTA style world than you do actually finding clues for crimes. While it's the best part of the game, there's really only 2 outcomes per mission and they're built entirely around being able to tell if the NPCs are deceiving you, some way more obvious than others. I think this is a great idea that could be reworked today but as it is, it's so goofy; there's a reason why it's memed to Hell and back.

A lot of the missions end similarly, either in a car chase or a big shootout so it gets predictable, but it was still a blast regardless.

Playing LA Noire you can feel it being pulled in a dozen directions at all times. Its core plot is reaching for noir, police procedural, period drama, and crime epic. Its mechanics attempt to combine GTA navigation, Ace Attorney puzzle-solving, Assassin's Creed tailing, and a much-hyped interrogation system. It aspires to be cinematic but authentic, literary but ludic, grand but focused. None of these are problems in isolation, and a handful of times it feels like it is achieving most of what it's aiming for. Yet rather than feeling like a cohesive meld, we have a hospital ward where each element lies on a bed of Procrustes; stretched out or cut down to fit a meagre pattern.

Let's look at the narrative genres it dips into. Noir was described by Roger Ebert as "[t]he most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic." LA Noire has plenty of the dark but little of the light, though I do wonder how well video games can present such a worldview. How can you insinuate there is seediness behind every door when 99% of doors can be seen and walked up to but never opened because nothing is behind them? How much can it feel like the player is in a naked city with eight million stories, when there's only about twenty NPC voice lines looping everywhere Phelps goes? The degree of openness and detail LA Noire aims for feels incompatible with maintaining the illusions and fogginess of noir; there are no ambiguities to fill with imagination or implication, something is either there fully realized or it's a cheap facade.

This lack of a sense of noirish possibility is further complicated by the game's aim to be historical fiction about the Los Angeles Police Department. Anyone aspiring to some degree of honesty should strive to represent the LAPD for what it is: one of the worst peacetime institutions ever organized by humans. LA Noire obliges in the broad strokes but pulls too many punches to be true to history. Phelps and his partners are racist, sexist, violent, and corrupt, though it's all ultimately superficial. We witness some slurs and beatings, but also every act of violence is provoked and in self-defense. There's blackmail and threats, but evidence is never planted nor false confessions coerced. We are aware of graft and misconduct but only in connection to the main plot and not as a daily function of the LAPD. My point is not that the game should be Dirty Cop Simulator 1947. Rather, by not actually shocking the player with just how evil the LAPD could be, the player is not actually made to question what they thought they knew. I would also maybe feel less affronted if not for the timing of the game's setting, a few years before Dragnet would forge the foundation of post-WWII copaganda around the LAPD. What came out in the wash is merely a somewhat critical piece of detective fiction with some nods to history.

Except is it good detective fiction? The game is predominantly structured as an episodic police procedural, with connections between cases gradually emerging in fairly predictable ways (with significant deflation from the non-diegetic newspaper scenes). When faced with either embracing the detailed tedium of The Wire or the sensational mystery-solving of Sherlock Holmes, the game doesn't commit to either. Again there is the noir angle, but it disposes of supporting characters too rapidly to make the ongoing mystery cut through the noise of "drive to scene, find reference to location, call R&I for address, drive there, talk to someone, repeat". To the extent that LA Noire subverts the procedural through its homicide and arson desk sequences, it feels somewhat hollow. At no point did I feel anything Phelps might conceivably feel: pressure to lock someone up, a weight on my conscience over how a case was handled, a need to break procedure to catch the culprit. Instead of being a game that's compellingly mundane or full of engaging puzzles, LA Noire is just about mundane puzzles.

Much of these issues coalesce around LA Noire's interrogation system--its sui generis mechanic. My problems lie less with the facial animation (which is usually good and occasionally great even a decade-plus on) or the simplicity (the difficulty curve flattens early when you realize it all boils down to accusing when you have evidence to contradict what they just said or doubting when you don't but they won't meet your gaze and otherwise choosing truth), both of which weaken the effectiveness but forgivably so. The damning sin is the music cue and the ✓or X appearing immediately after you finish a question, worsened by the many occasions where a correct choice doesn't give you much more than an incorrect choice. It undermines the ambiguity of noir, the immersion of historical fiction, and the suspense of detective gaming all in one fell swoop. Added to the tedium of actually proceeding through cases--which, again, could be saved by a deeper faithfulness to history or procedural structures--and you have a golden opportunity fumbled multiple times over.

Finally, the gap between how much of 1947 Los Angeles is represented physically and atmospherically versus how much of it is represented socially, economically, and institutionally is palpable. Everywhere you look, you'll find assets with remarkably immersive period detail and lovingly rendered interiors. I pulled into a parking lot and an episode of the Jack Benny Program began playing on the car radio and just... didn't stop. It was a full episode, minus the Lucky Strike ads. I probably listened for half the run-time, genuinely amazed a game would simulate something like this. Films and novels basically cannot replicate this sort of beguiling closeness to the past; it reminded me more of handling archival material than watching The Master. If nothing else, LA Noire deserves praise for these moments and details. But stand anywhere for a similar amount of time to observe the people of this world and you'll get whiplash.

Obviously, as already discussed, there is the omnipresent issue of the world being facades all the way down. But consider the NPC chatter. This is the one technical arena where I feel justified ragging on LA Noire because it is in no way a studio being hampered by budget or technology. They got people in the booth to record lines. Could have had them say anything! Yet they chose to make said chatter completely facile and atonal, predominantly acknowledgements of Cole's recent exploits and jokes ripped from an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader or spent Christmas crackers. I could have forgiven stiff animations or minimal interactivity, but neglecting to give this chatter any hint of a larger world is hugely disappointing. Every diner being an immersive theatre production unto itself would be unreasonable, but chatter that at least implies a communal presence could have gone a long way. I have to imagine by the fifteenth time playtesters heard a cop express a desire for a .45 so they can stop them in one round, they felt the missed opportunity.

Despite all this, I consider LA Noire more a noble failure than a trainwreck. You simply do not get games that reach like this or wade into these themes often. And for one shining case--the Studio Secretary Murder--it managed to pull the stars into alignment and showcase the vision they were seemingly going for. Noah Caldwell-Gervais described it as a genre orphan, and that is far more tragic than any of the game's own shortcomings. Some team should have revisited and refined these ideas, finding a more thoughtful balance of themes and mechanics. My guess is if they ever do, it probably won't be by having you play as a cop.

RIP Team Bondi you created a masterpiece.

Theres plenty stories about the development of LA Noire being hellish, and those are fair and valid and important, but on my review i want to highlight the rose not the thorns.

LA Noire feels like somebody made a game for me specifically. I love mysteries, i love detectives and detection, i love pulp and 40s era West coast aesthetics. I love seedy producers and dimly lit jazz bars. Its scraped straight from my brain and served up for me, i love this game.

I hate Cole Phelps. What i find interesting is on launch i remember hating Kelso segments and finding Cole cool and likeable. How wrong i was.

A must play, even if the animations havent held up IMO.

Investigator: Where were you last night at 10 p.m.?

Suspect: /looks left, looks right, takes a deep breath, violently throws up, cries for his mommy/

Investigator: Something's a little off about this guy.

Few games have managed to have such unique mechanics as their primary focus of gameplay. Perhaps that’s what makes L.A. Noire so incredibly special, and simultaneously so frustrating.

It’s a games that never quite reaches the heights of its potential both through its narrative and its gameplay… but it consistently tows the line of becoming something truly great.

It manages to immerse you in its 40s noire-esque atmosphere through the well executed use of music choice, dialect, automobiles, clothing, and set design. And that score… oh wow that score. I would have loved to have more to do in this open world. I’d love to get lost in it.

Rockstar managed to create a truly living and breathing world through Red Dead 2 with its over abundance of interactivity and detail. Something similar can be said with the approach to the grand theft auto games as the combat mechanics open them up to so much excitement and possibility.

The problem with L.A. Noire’s open world is that it feels so empty… there’s some stark limitations on what you can and cannot do, and there’s not a lot of interactivity with the world. I would have loved to stumble upon active crimes, or random NPC exchanges. I recognize that changes such as these have only blossomed at Rockstar over the last decade, so this game predates those lovely inclusions… but I can’t help but think about how much this game might have benefited otherwise.

The game gets a lot of slack for its narrative, as it just isn’t quite as interesting or strong as it should be for a detective game developed by Rockstar. The first half’s pacing feels fragmented with most cases lacking a strong overarching narrative structure. It certainly feels like some cases are only their to pad out the run time.

It isn’t until the back half of the game that pieces begin falling in place and dots begin connecting. I really liked the way certain pieces of information came together for me as I was playing. It was almost as if I had solved some big case of my own, as they deliberately don’t spoon feed the player. I think if they had trimmed off some fat in the first couple of departments, it would have benefitted the story they were trying to tell.

I don’t like that I can’t jump!!! Aughjhh. I don’t like when games don’t allow me to traverse wherever I want to. I mean sure, I’ll probably do something stupid and pointless. But that’s my right dammit! I want to jump off of that building or climb up the side of it! Let me have what I want!

Anyways, I mostly really liked the gameplay otherwise. You were limited to what you could and couldn’t do at times, but it all felt organic to the story flowing through each scenario you were in. I think trying to determine whether or not someone was telling the truth was a really awesome idea in theory… but never quite worked the way it was supposed to. It’s a mechanic that probably would work better today, as the technology for it is likely more ready for something so ambitious… but I think here, it was perhaps- too ahead of it’s time.

The alter in protagonists was a lovely little surprise. Especially since Kelso is an awesome character. I’m beginning to really love games that do it.

Overall, I came pretty close to loving L.A. Noire. If the elements I took issue with were refined, I probably would have. But liking it a lot isn’t too bad either.

I thought for a long time about whether the game deserved the attention then and now. On the one hand, there are big sins in general with the gameplay, but on the other hand, the game was initially positioned as an interactive movie and as a full-fledged detective story. From the very beginning to the end, the main plot stretches piece by piece, which adds up to one thing and from this you get a strong buzz, but unfortunately, a second playthrough after a long period will not work, the game is quite well remembered. A very cool experiment that ended up being one of the best AAA in this direction so far.

Долго думал, насчет того, заслужила ли игра того внимания тогда и сейчас. С одной стороны есть большие грехи в целом с геймплеем, но с другой стороны игра изначально позиционировалась как интерактивное кино и как полноценная детективная история. С самого начала и до конца тянется кусочком по кусочку основной сюжет который складывается в одно и от этого получаешь сильный кайф, но к сожалению, второе прохождение через большой промежуток увы не выйдет, игра достаточно хорошо запоминается. Очень крутой эксперимент который в итоге вышел одной из лучшей AAA в этом направлении до сих пор.