Returning to the slick, seedy criminal underbelly of 1947 Los Angeles as rookie detective Cole Phelps has been a great ride. This homage to noir detective thrillers of old passes the smell test with flying colors as it also manages to be a great noir story in its own right.

This darkly bleak and honest, and at times darkly comic, look into the criminal underworld and high-level government corruption of the city of angels juggles many themes and poses countless moral questions with a level of maturity and introspection not commonly found in game narratives.

The protagonist of Cole Phelps himself is a deeply flawed individual constantly running from a past he'd much rather forget and finding himself drawn into webs of conspiracy that he's frequently ill-equipped to handle. It's really compelling stuff, and is a truly bold creative choice to put the players' in the shoes of a troubled and in many respects unlikable protagonist, but to also let the players themselves come to their own conclusions by the story's end.

The technical prowess on display here is truly a sight to behold, even today. There are definitely some gaps in the sleek presentation, namely that the body capture doesn't always match well with the facial capture, but nevertheless it's immersive enough to draw you in 9 times out of 10.

The core gameplay loop is simplistic, consisting of interrogations, gunfights, foot and car chases. However, even in its most tedious moments, these segments of gameplay are short and sweet enough to hold your attention while not necessarily depriving you of your time and energy.

Playing in black and white also helped add a lot to the experience, even if it largely is just a simple filter and nothing more. However, it almost felt wrong not to be playing it like that, given the context of the story and setting. It also helped to smooth out the graphics nicely and prevent it from showing its age too much.

A truly great yet troubled game with an equally great yet troubled hero from a great yet ultimately troubled studio.

9/10

bought this back when it came out for the ps3 and got up to homicide before gradually losing grip on it as usually happens when i get really into a game for a hot minute. decided to come back to it last summer though and was immensely rewarded for that. while at times it is still incredibly frustrating due to the early tech being somewhat hard to read, and the updated button prompts during investigation still being somewhat obtuse as to what cole is actually going to say, once you get lost in it there’s very few experiences like it. the game creates such a richly detailed portrayal of the noir film genre, at times really playing like the game version of something like sunset boulevard, double indemnity, or the maltese falcon. as a film girl myself was such a wonder to see the lovingly recreated intolerance set and bombing down hollywood boulevard in these classic cars, hearing the jazzy score that feels ripped straight from the 1940s, it’s a remarkable vibe even if the world itself is maybe a little less developed than one would expect from rockstar.

what really pushes this over the edge and makes it a near masterpiece (other than the very novel detective work gameplay loop) is it’s characters and story. i don’t want to go too in depth as this is obviously a game that rests upon its mystery, but if you’ve seen noir films from the time period you’ll know somewhat what to expect. bad people committing heinous acts only to be stopped by slightly less bad people working for a corrupt system. it’s a game fundamentally about the loss of america’s innocence (if it even had one in the first place) after the second world war, tons of broken men coming back to a country completely different from the one they left, struggling to survive in a world just as harsh as the war zones they just left. it’s also got a ton of other ideas floating around, like the manipulation of the mental health industry, the corruption of institutions meant to protect the people, the systemic racism perpetrated by those institutions, and all framed by cole himself, a character that though being played by the player, has an interior life completely unknown to us, parcelled out piecemeal over the course of the game but for me remaining as mysterious as a cold case

Recomendo não jogarem esse jogo esperando uma experiência padrão Rockstar. Não é isso que ele é, não é o que ele propõe fazer, e não é nem desenvolvido diretamente por eles.

Aborde L.A. Noire com a mente limpa; aceitando-o pelo que é; um mergulho no submundo de uma Los Angeles pós segunda guerra mundial, através dos olhos de um detetive eternamente manchado pelas sombras desse terrível conflito. É uma história pessoal ao mesmo tempo que é profissional e abrangente, e mesmo que tropeçando, é uma jornada que vale ser experienciada, principalmente aos fascinados por comportamentos humanos; de certas formas, é um dos jogos mais reais em que já encostei.

This game is just fun.
Pure and simple.
The cases are real, the cops are not…this is…LA NOIRE!
Seriously, did you know the cases are all real? They went through newspaper archives to dig up facts about cases to put in the game.
I think that’s pretty neat.

meus casos favoritos nesse game foram o serial killer com nome Black Dahlia, muito foda todo o enredo e como o assassino se preparava pra matar as vitimas e ainda colocar alguem como bucha de canhão pra ser preso no lugar dele, o arco desse caso e bem fechadinho e bem desenvolvido até, um prato cheio pra quem ama true crime.
Meu segundo caso favorito foi o The White Shoe Slaying, a lore do caso e bem crivel, pra uma mulher isso aqui e um pesadelo diario e nos mostra que homens são muito privilegiados na sociedade, mas o que faz esse ser um caso marcante e o uso da fotografia e ambientação, aquele clima chuvoso, cinza e nublado o tempo inteiro contribui um cenario muito bonito e ao mesmo tempo triste, aquele lugar urbano que não tem espaço pra liberdade ou segurança pública.
jogar la noire pela história vai ter satisfazer bem por vários momentos, mas as mecanicas de direção de veiculos, gunplay e acessibilidade podem te irritar ao extremo ao ponto de vc largar o game, investiram pesado na tecnologia de expressão facial pra no final isso não ajudar ninguem a resolver o caso ou perceber quem está mentindo ou falando a verdade.
o final é meio meh, um pouco esquecivel e jogado na trama

L.A. Noire - A Review

L.A. Noire was the first game that got me heavily interested in experimenting with gaming. Therefore, it holds a special place in my heart.

With this game, it’s your chance to shine as a detective and solve cases. The game structure incorporates multiple styles of cases that you get to cover which I thought was a good experience. You get to drive fancy vintage cars and so at least digitally, I got to live my dream of owning one. There’s great attention to detail present and I’d say the storyline is worth experiencing. I’d certainly revisit this game sometime ahead, it’s a win for me.

I've got mixed feelings on this game. There's a lot of tedium to it, having to scour the area to make sure you don't miss a hint leads to you picking up a bunch of useless items most of the time and that's not ideal. There's...far too much uncomfortable content for my tastes, don't think we need an unapologetic pedophile once every three cases, for example. And at no point in the game do they ever develop Cole Phelps in a way that makes me care about him at all. Some of the cases are also very unforgiving with expecting perfection or else you're locked out of the correct ending.

But I had fun driving and seeing all the crashes I cause and how my partner yells at me for it. Shootouts are satisfying to win. The story and how it slowly unravels as you go is interesting.

I like some parts of it and don't like others.