What began as a game with original gameplay, an interesting story and unprecedented technology ultimately ended as a disappointing, degrading experience with monotonous dialogue.

L.A. Noire began to rub me the wrong way from the very beginning. I had it all planned out: Play in black & white, turn off all hint systems and never use intuition points. My goal of an engaging authentic experience was quickly shut down. Playing in black and white was not an option because the game forces the player to find gold-coloured doors which don't exist in black & white. How exactly does something this simple pass through QA? Was it too much to just keep door handles gold?

Each person the player talks to is a liar in some capacity. Nobody tells you the whole truth, no matter how much a person is willing to help. Everyone is guilty of at least wasting your time and it gets old fast. Where are the innocent citizens? Where are the characters wishing to give you all the information they have?

Very often there will be two possible correct clue selections for choosing "Lie" and the game punishes you for selecting what it believes is wrong. Selecting "Doubt" isn't any better. Cole Phelps' dialogue is unpredictable and again, the game punishes the player for it. The jarring "losing" jingle rubs it in just a little more while being forced to wait for dialogue to complete.

If you've yet to complete L.A. Noire you may want to avoid this paragraph for it's a spoiler. In the last quarter of the game is a case involving a house fire. Unlike every other case in the game, some cigarette butts are a clue you must find before progressing. These are the same cigarettes that are non-clues throughout the rest of the game. The game trains the player to ignore these objects just like bottles, but somehow we're supposed to think these smokes are somehow different in this one instance? In fact because this clue is far away from the house fire itself, I was forced to use an intuition point. I was outraged and had enough of the game.

At this point I'd lost all trust and interest in L.A. Noire. I began skipping cutscenes wherever I could. As soon as I got to a crime scene I would run as fast as I could mashing X (A on the 360) until I found a clue. I didn't care about questioning; even though I had intuition points left I would press anything just so this insulting experience would end. When the credits rolled I was relieved. The torture was over.

L.A. Noire is a game with great graphics, an engaging story and a welcome change for an Australian developer (with the help of Rockstar Games) to make a game on a real budget. This is all nice, but when your nitpicks repeat themselves over and over again it leaves a sour taste in the buyer. I'm glad I hesitated on purchasing the Rockstar Pass for it would've been a waste of my money and internet. L.A. Noire has already robbed me of my time and money. Without an extensive range of improvements and some spare time I refuse to invest in a sequel, and that's the truth.




elektrixx.