In LA noire, you don't solve challenging cases, you point out the obvious.
User Rating: 7.5 | L.A. Noire PS3
In LA Noire, you play as a 1940's LAPD detective. You start out as a patrol officer, which is basically a tutorial going over the basics, before the real cases start. Then you get promoted to the traffic desk, then the homicide desk, vice, and finally arson. Each case, starts out with you questioning witnesses, looking for evidence, chasing the suspect, questioning suspects, and the occasional shootout. When questioning someone, you select a question, they give you a statement, and by analyzing their facial expressions, you decide if they are telling the truth, lying (you'll need to pick one of your clues to prove that they're lying), or you "doubt" them, which means that you think that they're lying, but you don't have any evidence to prove it. Sounds easy, right? WRONG! It's really hard, it's almost impossible to guess all the questions right in the more challenging cases, after 1 play through, without a strategy guide. Sometimes you think they're lying, and you think that the evidence you provide is good enough, but you're wrong, because there's only ONE piece of evidence that disproves your lie, and if you don't have it, you're f**ked. For example, you ask a suspect, if they've ever met the victim, they say no, you pick 'lie', and you present them a witnesse's statement, that they saw the victim argueing with him (the suspect). Good enough, right? WRONG! YYou were supposed to show him the picture of her, in his apartment, the one you didn't find yet. ALso, you can't 'restart' an interview, so if you're like, and want to get 'perfect' on a case, you'll have to restart the entire case.Looking for evidence is much easier. It involves you walking around an area, waiting for your controller to vibrate, when it does, you press 'X', and that's it, you either found a clue or just a unrelated item.. If you're looking for a challege, you can turn the vibration off, so you can rely on your eyes, only to find ALL the clues. The clues are never hard to find, and if you're patient, and look through the entire area, you'll find them all, in a matter of a few minutes. Shooting, and driving in LA noire, isn't 'amazing', but of course, this game isn't about the action. The controls are much like GTA's, but there's no 'jump' button, you run at your obstacle to jump over it. The cases are pretty slow, and unsatisfying, if you're looking for fast-paced shooting action. But 40 different 'Street Crimes', which are short shooting/car chase sequences, are scattered all over the city, just in case you start getting bored. If you're planning to cause havoc, in 1940's LA, you'll be dissapointed. Driving over citizens doesn't attract police (you are the police), or even kill them, if you even manage to hit them. You can't pull out your gun, unless you're in the middle of a shootout, and you get penalized, if you decide to shoot innocent bystanders. You can "steal" cars, but it's not really stealing, it's more like: "LAPD, I will have to ask you to leave the vehicle sir, it's an emergency". That's dissapointing, but it's the prize you have to pay, for being a cop. Car chases are exciting, and often challenging. They involve you jumping into your car, and chasing after another car, that will do whatever it takes to evade you. They usually end with the suspect driving into a wall, or a truck. Cases, take between 30-40 minutes to complete. So you'll probably finish the game in about 10h. The voice acting, and the script is great, but there' one problem with the cases. They're very predictable, and simple. In LA Noire, you're not solving master cases, you won't feel like a genious, but more like an ordinary cop, pointing out the obvious. they usually end with you finding a knife, in the suspect's puse. These criminals, aren't masterminds, in fact they leave behind so much evidence, that it might seem, like they want you to find them.
The most appealing thing about LA Noire (besides the engaging interrogations), are the visuals. The graphics, are exactly, what we've come to expect from Rockstar Games. LA is huge, and really does felel like a living, working city. There's a theatre, in Hollywood, the street names are accurate. There's busy apartment complexes, hobo camps, and unfinished suburbs. There's a travel agency downtown, several bars, that have a unique looks, and throughout the entire game, the cases give you plenty of oppurtinities to explore the city of angels.
Eventough, LA Noire has it's flaws, it's still an engaging, and beautiful adventure, that you shouldn't miss if you're lookig for something different.
