The story goes around classic and kind of cliche cop/detective stuff, cop/detective main protagonist with a war hero background and talent for solving cases, corrupted cops, detectives, and high-ups, some drama involving them, main protagonist getting involved with some corrupted cops, some stuff happening, his name getting dirty because of it, in the end after he dying it's getting cleared, some detectives who ♥♥♥♥ on his face before acting like his buddy at funeral, and with his death corrupted detectives, etc, not coming to light and story ends with no closure at all. The story itself is like what you would expect from a game like this, aside from a nonsense ending, but story-telling is another subject, it's pretty boring, slow, and done worst way possible.


Well first of we play as Cole Phelps for 80% length of the game, and last 20% with Jack Kelso. Cole is a character you would have mixed feelings about, in his past we saw him as an egoist and ass-licker character, then in our first hours of gameplay he is a likable guy who is not corrupt and with good core character, then he starts tripping again with cheating on his wife, etc, and then dies while saving Jack in the end. And since we play as Jack for a very short time, can't say he is really that important or interesting, he had ups and downs as well like Cole, and wasn't that great character either. Aside from protagonists, we have our partners, they got changed when we changed departments, and all of them are useless. The thinking part is done by us, heavy lifting is done by us, the f*ck you are doing then partner? You can't do the thinking part? You are dumb? Sure, no worries, then do physical parts, but no they don't do jacksh*t and say things like ''these are my best shoes, I can't do it'' Yeah makes sense... I wish we were alone, at least that would save us from their dumb opinions about everything, from that point Jack's gameplay was better, but since happened in the end and was pretty short can't say it really matters that much.


No, your choices mean nothing in the long run. You can give all wrong answers, fail the cases, get a 1-star rating from cases, and hear sh*t ton of bad words from your captain, yet in the end, you will be promoted or sent to another department.


I'm going to be fully honest, In the first hours of the game gameplay feels interesting with all those cases, finding evidence, trying to ask the right questions, etc, but after the first hours, the game becomes boring and annoying AF to play. First of all, all those case-solving actions become very repetitive and boring at some point, after the first 5 cases, etc, there is nothing new, and if that's not enough some cases are annoyingly long and bothersome like the homicide last case. Secondly, the controls are too rough, the character moves annoyingly slow, and most of the time you don't even feel like they are responding to your actions at all. And lastly, combat is not enjoyable either, we have very limited weapons we can use, and we can't even have more than one weapon on us aside from taking weapons from enemies we killed and all action scenes feel nearly the same. We have some interesting outfits tho and they kind of give some change of scenery feeling when you open them with progressing the game more, but that alone is not good enough of course.


We have an open world, but it's not even worth mentioning, aside from some landmarks you can visit, some cars you can collect, and some random cases like catching burglars, etc, the open world literally has no purpose aside from going from place to place.


Visually the game looks old, and face animations look like those moving pictures done by using AI.


This was one of the most boring, if not the most boring game I have ever played... It's a soulless, boring, and time-for-time very annoying game to play, I literally have to force myself to play this game after the first hours, and I'm having a hard time understanding how someone would not see how boring this game is when they make playtest with testers... It's literally unimaginable for anyone making a boring game like this, let alone Rockstar... Considering we don't have too many games letting you solve cases as a detective and how the same base features are actually working fine, this game has big wasted potential, it could be a classic game as some people act like it, but sadly it's not, it's just empty shell of what it could be, and with the current state it's not worth wasting time to play.

• Main Story & Story-Telling = 3
  
• Gameplay Mechanics & Combat = 3
  
• Outfit & Weapon Variety = 3
  
• Open World = 3
  
• Visual Style & Quality = 5
  
  
  
• General Rating = 3.4

Masterpiece! I've finished this game on so many different systems and always have to go back and play it again!



Just so great, so atmospheric

I picked this game up on sale because I love mystery/puzzle/detective games, and while it’s an impressively made game in some regards, I can’t recommend it because it’s simply tedious. I got up to the second to last case (an extra DLC case that’s included) and I’m honestly tapping out. I did want to finish the game and complete the story, but having an unnecessary filler case to grind through just killed my last shred of will to finish this slog.

THE PROS:

- Beautifully crafted environments and scenes to explore. It felt like admiring high quality dollhouse dioramas. The graphic artists/designers who made this game kicked it out of the park! As someone who used to live in LA, I found the breadth of the city and the incredible attention to detail to be fascinating. It’s very immersive. (That being said, 1940s LA is not exactly my idea of an exciting environment. It’s got a mood… a dusty one. Your mileage may vary, but wow, I’m glad I don’t live in the 1940s.)

- Great voice acting and characterizations. I wouldn’t say that I got emotionally invested in anyone or their events, but the characters felt very lifelike and I enjoyed the unique dynamics with your different investigation partners. The NPCs in this game have lots of personality and voice lines. The game also doesn’t shy away from the time period’s racism and misogyny, in a way that feels bluntly realistic rather than indulgent. Again, awesome attention to detail.

- Interesting themes of corruption, guilt, tribalism, exploitation, morality, etc. Unfortunately, there aren’t many thought-provoking decisions to be made, which brings me to the cons.

THE CONS:

- This game is extremely railroaded. I’d barely call it a puzzle because it doesn’t require much critical thinking. Even in the few instances where you choose between suspects, your decisions are irrelevant to the plot. As far as the investigations go, you have to be dense to not finish them. The process is formulaic: examine all objects, drive between locations, question NPCs based on their facial expressions, and a scripted story will play out. Periodically you will be tasked to do little action routines like shootings, chases by foot/car, and fist fights.

- It’s so tedious! This is my major complaint and why I can’t recommend this game. It’s bloated and slow. There are so many games out there to play, and if you’re limited on time, it’s very hard to justify what LA Noire puts you through for hours on end. While the game has its entertaining moments, this juice is not worth the squeeze. It’s drawn out and there is no respect for the player’s time. One of the worst of many examples is being required to manually input long numbers into a calculator, slowly moving the protagonist’s finger to each button. WHY??? I dreaded picking up newspapers because they initiate long and boring cutscenes. The game alerts you to examine far too many irrelevant objects, like beer bottles and cigarette butts. In what world is this fun or challenging? It’s just a nuisance, an artifact of a bygone gaming era where this sort of mind-numbing padding could still be considered a novelty. Moreover, many of the cases just feel like depressing filler involving random idiot criminals and their sad pointless crimes which you couldn’t pay me to care about. LA Noire frequently feels like a crappy job simulator. It's too bad, because I did find many of the characters to be enjoyable, and again, the visual detailing is gorgeous.

In short, I would only recommend this game if you have 1) some particular affinity for the post-WW2 era with its lack of technology, trilby hats, smoking indoors, racial slurs, smooth jazz, and rampant objectification of broads; and 2) an abundance of patience and free time to kill. This game took the concept of immersion too far and forgot to ask, “But is it fun?”

Edit: And to address what many people are saying about the launcher, you indeed have to download and register with Rockstar's launcher. This game sometimes glitched and crashed on me, which was annoying, but overall it was still quite playable. My lack of recommendation has nothing to do with this aspect.