L.A. Noire

Plot synopsis:
Following the end of World War II, Cole Phelps (Aaron Staton), a decorated USMC veteran of the Pacific Campaign, returns to Los Angeles, California to live with his family while taking on work as a Patrol Officer of the LAPD. In 1947, working with his partner Officer Ralph Dunn (Rodney Scott), Phelps successfully solves a major murder case and impresses his superiors, who promote him to detective. Working alongside Stefan Bekowsky (Sean McGowan) in Traffic, and then Finbarr "Rusty" Galloway (Michael McGrady) in Homicide, Phelps earns a reputation for solving difficult cases that eventually land him a promotion into Vice. During this time, he begins falling for German lounge singer Elsa Lichtmann (Erika Heynatz) and soon has an affair with her. Unknown to him, Roy Earle (Adam J. Harrington), his partner in Vice and a corrupt cop, uses this information to help several prominent figures in the city, including the Chief of Police, cover up a major scandal by making him a media scapegoat, in exchange for a place in a syndicate known as the "Suburban Redevelopment Fund" (SRF)—a development program that supplies homes for homecoming WWII veterans. When his adultery is exposed, Phelps becomes disgraced in the LAPD, while his wife ends their marriage.
Prior to his demotion to Arson, Phelps had found that several Marines of his former unit had been selling morphine syrettes stolen from the ship that had taken them home, the SS Coolridge, which had later led to most being assassinated by mobsters working for Mickey Cohen (Patrick Fischler), who controlled the drug trade and had resented the competition; most of the stolen drugs remains unaccounted for by the time he is demoted. While investigating a pair of suspicious house fires with his partner in Arson, Herschel Biggs (Keith Szarabajka), Phelps notes a connection between them and a recent housing development, known as "Elysian Fields", but is warned by Earle to back off from tycoon developer Leland Monroe (John Noble). Seeking help to investigate the development, Phelps advises Elsa to refuse a life insurance payout in order to prompt his old comrade Jack Kelso (Gil McKinney), now an investigator for the California Fire & Life insurance company, to look into the matter. Kelso quickly discovers that the development is using unsuitable building materials, and becomes an investigator for the Assistant D.A. whereupon he soon learns that Monroe and his former employer, the owner of Fire & Life, are involved in the SRF syndicate.
Kelso and Phelps eventually learn from their investigations that the Fund is merely a front to conceal its true purpose: to defraud the US Federal Government. Run by several local businessmen, dignitaries, as well as Monroe and the Chief of Police, the syndicate had learnt about the proposed route for the Whitnall Parkway through the Wilshire district of the city, and thus bought the land it would run through. Monroe then built communities of "matchstick" houses, while Fire & Life falsely claimed the land was a higher value, knowing that the government would pay whatever the land was worth in order to gain eminent domain over it. Further investigations reveals that Courtney Sheldon (Chad Todhunter), a headstrong corpsman of Phelps and Kelso's former unit, had been involved in the theft of the morphine. The remainder of the morphine had been given to Sheldon's mentor and pop-psychiatrist Harlan Fontaine (Peter Blomquist), who sold it on to finance the Fund and murdered Sheldon after he began questioning the syndicate's plans. Following a shoot-out at Monroe's mansion, Kelso discovers that the SRF had used Ira Hogeboom (J. Marvin Campbell), a former flamethrower operator from Phelps' and Kelso's unit, to help them with their plans. Hogeboom, suffering from PTSD and schizophrenia after inadvertently killing a large number of civilians on Phelps' orders during the Battle of Okinawa, had been unknowingly manipulated by Fontaine to torch the houses of holdouts who refused to sell out to the SRF, until eventually going insane after he inadvertently incinerates a house with an entire family inside.
After learning that Hogeboom had murdered Fontaine and kidnapped Elsa, Phelps and Kelso pursue him into the Los Angeles River Tunnels as a heavy rain begins, fighting their way through corrupt policemen and thugs. The pair rescue Elsa, with Kelso killing Hogeboom to put him out of his mental anguish. With the water level rising, the group use an open manhole to escape, but Phelps is swept away in the current. Whilst the SRF scam is exposed, several members escape justice to attend Phelps's funeral, each delivering eulogies to his memory, much to the disgust of Elsa. Biggs remarks to Kelso that Phelps was never his friend, to which Kelso agrees but responds that he was never Phelps' enemy.
An epilogue flashback scene soon reveals that Kelso had known about the stolen morphine and Sheldon's involvement, after they and their other fellow Marines found the surplus supply on their ship home. However, Kelso refused to be involved in Sheldon's scheme to sell the drugs along with the other Marines, telling them all that they will lose his respect for them as Marines if they go through with the drug profiting, setting in motion the events of the game.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, depressing, plot twist

Review:
I've played through this twice now, nearly two years apart, and been completely and totally engrossed by the story and the amazing facial motion-capture technique that just adds an extra dimension to the characters you'll come across during it's very long running time.Some comments have been made about the extended cutscenes and what can be viewed as tedious and repetitive gameplay, but I had no problem with either of these aspects of the game, as the plot completely sucked me in.
It's probably something that's best revisited maybe every year or two.Overall, I found this to be a stunning and eye-opening look at what games can look and feel like.
Rockstar have been slowly draining away at my insanity for the release of this game, the teasers were enough to wet the appetite of myself and other players respectivly who were interested in this type of game.It wouldn't seem fair to compare this to GTA as other reviwers have ,purely because it has taken a completely different direction.
Need i say the last case made me shed a tear....so it can be emotional for some.Gameplay wise, L.A. Noire is no where near fast pace by any means, but there is always something new going on, whether it be a police call for a shooting/robbery or even a real case to solve, there's nothing that ever lets the player feel bored or exhausted of the same thing.
The facial animations using the facial motion capture are just breath taking, i sometimes forget i'm playing a game and instead watching a movie, it's that realistic!
Hats off the story board guys, to make a story that ties in so well with each other must make them incredibly imaginative.Overall L.A. Noire has really taken me by surprise, I really wasn't sure what i would expect to get until i played it through and my god you get hell of a lot for your money.
Especially with games like Heavy Rain and LA Noir (amoung countless others, such as Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption), whose stories are rich and gripping.
I know that I will probably get a lot of comments about the tag line I used, but I sincerely believe that L.A. Noire had the potential to be an amazing game, but it fell short in several areas.
It's a success because it -is- a great game, fun to play, good story...
This, coupled with the wonderful lighting and amazing detail to the city makes for a beautiful game to look at.Sound - 10/10 The voice actors are phenomenal.
You won't be having those in L.A. Noire.Another part of the game that some may not enjoy is that it often feels as though you're watching more than you're playing.
Also, you will learn how to read people during questioning and interrogations as to whether they are telling the truth, doubt them or lying by backing up your claims with evidence.Set in Los Angeles in 1947, the story centers on LAPD police officer Cole Phelps played by Aaron Stanton (Mad Men), a former US Marine Lieutenant who served in World War II in the pacific.
Phelps also finds himself caught up with German lounge singer Elsa Lichtmann (Australian model Erika Heynatz) and butts heads with former US Marine comrade Jack Kelso (Gil McKinney) who is working as claims investigator for California Fire and Life following the death of a former marine Phelps and Kelso served with during World War II.L.A. Noire is very addictive gaming at its best and you can't help but feel you are being thrust into the world of a post World War II Los Angeles.
i love the fact that you can free roam it tells you on the top left screen when you start the homicide case after you finish you click on streets of la so you can do the free roam look around and if your into trophies and getting everything you can do it here street crimes etc...
LA Noire is the most recent game from Rockstar – a name synonymous with quality sandbox gaming, big open worlds where you follow a main story but have some element of freedom within a larger world.
As a result I was excited by the idea of being a cop in the sunny yet seedy world of late 1940's Los Angeles, with its movie stars, its drugs, its secrets – basically it looked like we would all be playing in LA Confidential.
I recall one murder case where I was really engaged in the clues and complexity, went to a grocery store, found the murder weapon on a table in an unlocked room, chased the owner, caught him, case closed – it really hurt my interest and the thought I was putting it for it to just "end" like that.Outside of interviews there will be occasional car chases and shootouts, but again these are far too easy.
So in terms of the story game-play I can understand the complaints because I did start to tire of the repetitive nature of it and I stopped caring so much and the cases started feeling like going through the motions.
Well, this is a sandbox game so in theory you should be falling over with stuff like in Fallout 3 (where I could never go anywhere without getting another quest or random event) or Red Dead (where I played poker for hours and regularly found random little events while travelling).
The game needed random street robberies – people calling for help like in Red Dead, not cut-scenes, just people.
The very limited free-roam essentially wastes this massive city but also means the makers didn't seem to understand what the appeal of free-roam is – its freedom, not just the freedom to drive places for no reason.LA Noire is still an impressive game though, but it is repetitive and not as clever as it thinks.
Therefore it's more like interactive movie with Grant Theft Auto mechanics and some people expect more challenge from games.
Rockstar Games made this clear that L.A Noire will not include a lot of shooting.
For me L.A. Noire is located quite close to the narrative perfection, it's a precursor to the new wave of adventure games along with games like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls or Wolf Among Us or The Walking Dead.
Both the original score and the selection of classic tracks just wants me to say, "these cats got great taste mac." Thank you to every good soul that worked on this game, it is a beautiful game, a masterpiece.
After 6 years of development Rockstar decides to take the risk again with their new game LA Noire.
LA Noire is unlike many games I have played this past year or anything developed by Rockstar; you're not the bad guy running crazy, free to kill, steal and etc, you're a cop trying find truth in the city of lies: Los Angeles.
I've never played anything like LA Noire before in my life, it's unique in many ways; and I'm glad that Rockstar Games decided to take a big risk to create what was thought to be and impossible task yet fully succeeded.
However, LA Noire isn't really my pick for the game of the year, but it's still a fun ride throughout the whole experience.STORYThe story in LA Noire follows the former WWII veteran Cole Phelps trying to prove himself in the LA police force in 1947, Los Angeles (1947 was one of the most violent years in the city's history).
None of the game play would've been possible without the innovative technology of Motion Scan (a device that fully captures an actor's face with 32 cameras surrounding him/her) and I hope that Team Bondi gets remembered for it.
Note: If any of you are thinking of this as a GTA game from Rockstar in the 1940's, it's not, it plays more like a interactive movie.
The standard format of the game play goes like this: Intro Cutscene, Go to locations, Find clues, and interrogating (The best part of the game)ending with a rating based on the clues you found, questions you got correct and the amount of damage you done to the city (I always get one star because of my reckless driving {sad face}).
In addition, the game isn't all about cases, there are also street crimes to be solved which feels like a chore to get through as you progress further.
LA Noire may have its negatives with its repetitive game play, lacking of stuff to do in an open-world game and the unsatisfying ending, but the positives of this game far outweigh the negatives.
The reason I played this game was because it reminded me of Heavy Rain, the great story & the brilliant characters.
LA Noire is just too repetitive, you go to the crime scene, look for clues, then investigate and interrogate suspects, someone will run from you etc.
Collecting the film reels, badges and cars is addictive fun and becomes an obsessive distraction from the main game.For me it's a great game, not quite as good as RDR, but after the sun has set on L.A and Phelps etc, and DLC missions etc have come and gone, I may have a change of opinion....easily a 9/10 game for my money's worth..
It's one of those rare games where the story completely sucked me in and the cut scenes became just as engaging to me as the shootouts and the car chases.
Things got a little repetitive as the game went on, particularly in the form of the interrogations, but for a game that was three discs long they did a surprisingly great job of keeping it fresh and exciting all the way through.
It got so exciting seeing all of the pieces with the flashbacks and the newspaper backstory start to fall into place as the story went on.The actors were all great too, probably the best acting I've seen in a game, it helped a lot in making it feel like I was playing through an actual film or television show.
I understood how it worked within the context of the story, but I thought it was pretty ridiculous to have us play 95% of the game as Cole Phelps and then abruptly switch us over to Kelso for that last 5%.
when playing the game i started to think wow so far this is pretty good but the best buy guy was completely wrong about it being just like GTA.
the Levels are well written the dialog is very sharp and the game play is very easy.The Only Thing that i didn't like is the main character, he was so self righteous and literally a pain in the ass, i thought it would've been better if the game let's you decide what kind of a cop you want to be, Bad or Good i guess that would've been better but maybe way harder to develop.as a conclusion once you start playing the detective you are going to become an addict to this brilliant game that reminds me so much of many good films like the untouchables and Public enemies many action scenes reminded me of these movies and furthermore it's a good appetitive for the upcoming The Gangster Squad..
When playing LA Noire, it personally felt like a movie because there was so much storyline and there's just something about it that kept me intrigued right from the beginning to the very end mission.
As the game and story progresses, you get to know Cole more and that he really loves his job and he wants to keep crime of the streets.
I was amazed with the efforts and just the game play in general that I've completed it 13 times and got all the achievements (for the xbox 360)and I just love everything about it.
You connect with everyone you meet and the special features are amazing because in every other cop game that I've played there has never been things like searching for evidence, interrogating suspects, chasing suspects, meeting new partners on every desk and on top of all that it brings in Cole's life as well so it isn't all just about police work.
This game has to be one of the best i have ever played the graphics are stunning the characters facial expressions are incredible and the story line is gripping from start to finish.
Another brilliant game developed by rockstar, although this is not grand theft auto or red dead redemption i requires patience to be able to complete the game,you cant just run around and repeatedly shoot people for no reason, that may disappoint some players who play the game just to get kicks from ultra-violence.i was nearly put off buying this game as i had read a number of reviews saying that the game had a poor ending,but i thought the ending was great,it leaves the storyline wide open for a sequel.
Rockstar coming out with LA Noire: A game so rich in story that it rivals some of the best detective novels out there.
The action in the game is very linear: main character goes to a crime scene, eyeballs all evidence, then uses said evidence to interrogate a suspect.
Much less "noir" in appearance, the game holds more in common with the looks of "L.A Confidential" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (actually, it has a great deal in common with "L.A. Confidential", from the story's scope and thread weaving to characters, tone, etc).
LA Noire's general premise is noticeably similar to those of its GTA sibling: it's a sort of open-world action game where you walk, talk to someone else, driving cars to various destinations, even at points of 'hijacking' other vehicle...well, nothing we had never seen in GTA.But is LA Noire really worth it to look at?
Noire puts you as a police officer in charge of solving various cases, interrogate suspects, witnesses, until finding the real culprits, the procedures like the ones you'll find in, say, CSI series, with the addition of - being an open-world game - more freedom of movement of course.
Sure, they are modeled after real actors, but the motion scan does make the difference - you won't believe that you're playing a video game rather than watching a movie.
Oh, and plus you got some nice tracks to give you more taste of how life in 1940s sounded like.So, yes, I'm here to conform to other gamers that LA Noire is a great game.
We should not forget that LA Noire is an open world game, like other Rockstar games.
Right, if you're still thirsty for some chase-and-shoot things after the main game finishes, you can play about 40s extra side missions in forms of street cases scattered around the city.Well, in my experience, at first, they're enjoyable, but as I played, I realized how boring these missions eventually became.
OK, the ending may not be so bad, many games do that, but considering that you'd STILL play the very same character after finishing the story??
We're just guessing and guessing...In the end let's make it clear: LA Noire is a great action game, good storyline and beautiful graphics are truly the strong points.
It's time to look at the case notes & see why 'LA Noire' is worth playing.
Inspired by pulp fiction novels & film noirs of the 1930s & 1940s, along with drawing inspiration from real-life crimes like the Black Dahlia case & Mickey Cohen; the game is set in a stunning recreation of Los Angeles from that time period, with most of the gameplay focus on your ability to read people's faces, search out clues, and determine, who is lying or not, rather than chaotic shootouts, car chases & explosives.
A great example is whenever, you have to solve riddles, leading you to landmarks across Los Angeles or playing as a different character, such as private investigator, Jack Kelso (Voiced and Motion Capture by Gil McKinney).
The cases you have to solve aren't repetitive either, each one involves different people in different circumstances (except for a few in the middle of the game, though those are just as gripping as the victims of the crimes all have exactly the same M.O).The game is long and packed full of things to do outside the main story line - it ships on 3 Xbox 360 discs because it's so huge - and you won't get bored with street crimes to solve (side missions), cars to collect and tourist attractions to find.
The city of L.A. was beautifully constructed for the game and is apparently quite accurate to what Los Angeles would've looked like back then.
The actors do a great job of conveying a "noir" feel and the music suits the mood.Gameplay - 8/10 The only reason I gave the game slightly less points in this category is because there are a few things that'll annoy you when you play the game...Things like getting stuck on random corners or on chairs you're trying to walk past, etc.
Sure, you might be able to catch up because the game is a little bit forgiving in that department, but you'll most likely run into a fence that won't break or something else you'll get stuck on, which is also another thing that annoyed me...In "L.A. Noire" it's hard to tell what's OK to plow through in a car and what's not.
You can't draw your gun, which sucks if you like to just screw around on the game and not always stick to the story and there isn't much to do outside the cases.
It's a game that expects its players to be interested in investigating crime scenes by looking for hidden clues and such.
I much enjoyed a more cerebral video game experience that while slower paced was a lot more interesting and rewarding to me.Oh, and one more thing...I know some people have complained about having to play as Jack Kelso toward the end of the game instead of Cole Phelps, but I actually loved this aspect!