LA Noire Review · 3:46pm Apr 1st, 2020
Time to do another game review. And before anyone asks, this is not a joke for April Fool's Day, I do not joke on that holiday. But I am however wanting to give you a legit game review. So let us not waste any time. Let's begin!
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My new assignment was a tricky one. They were all laid right in front of me, plenty of work for me to review and give to the police. But I picked my target; something I knew I could delve right into having experienced the entire thing. And I was determined to solve this case...
Hehe, okay, so let's not beat around the bush. I love the noir genre, I love the aesthetics, I love the mystery elements, it's pretty cool. And you can probably guess this was a game for me, which I got for my birthday 5 years ago. I had been working on this game for years, but now I finally finished it, so I can give a proper review. So let's get down to it; this is LA Noire!
LA Noire is a dark, gritty, noir, mystery adventure game set in the 1940s. You play as Detective Cole Phelps, a former WW2 veteran now cop, and eventually detective, as you work to solve cases in 1940s Los Angeles, searching for the truth in a city filled with nothing but liars.
I had never heard of this game before, the only first hand exposure I got was from a review from Angry Joe, which is a solid review by the way. I highly recommend giving that a check. But I got curious, so I decided to check it out. And what do I think?
...
This game is solid as HELL. This is a fantastic mystery game, it captures everything about Noir perfectly, and if you're a fan of the genre, you'll love it. Though I will say this right off the bat, the game is a bit slow, it's more like a movie. But it's really well done. And I am saying this now, just like with Grand Theft Auto 5... this is an adult game. However this is a bit more dark than GTA, and to some degree, it's not as in your face... but it's still adult. There's corrupt government, talks of dealing with post World War 2, racism, drugs, bigotry, even rape. And the murder events; they are insanely detailed, bodies left mutilated, completely naked, so if you don't have a strong stomach, this game will definitely not be for you.
And now that I got that out of the way, let's talk about the game. I will also mention this, its better to play this game in chunks, this isn't something you can marathon or binge play on end, cause it will feel repetitive and monotonous, depending on the kind of gamer you are.
Now the game has five main story pieces; you start off with patrol cases, that's where you get the tutorials. And eventually you work your way up to Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson. The mysteries in each are all interesting, they have their own stories, their own characters, and it's really fun to play them. If I had to pick favorites, probably... hmm. I guess Traffic and Homicide, really love those. 
And not only are the cases great, but the characters are fantastic as well. I really love the characters, each of them is interesting, I love talking with them, and the acting for these characters? Solid as HELL. The acting from everyone involved is great, even the NPC characters have great acting as well. And the partners you get to work with? Love them.
First off, Stefan Bekowsky, the detective for Traffic cases.
He's probably one of my favorites, he's focused, he stays on task, he does the job and he does it right. Really love this guy, and as usual, the conversations with him are a ton of fun to listen to.
You got Rusty Galloway, the detective for the Homicide cases.
This dude seems like a lazy boy, not giving two shits if the guy we find is innocent or not, he just wants them arrested and done, he's seen it all. But he does deliver some really funny commentary, and he does get better as time goes on.
Then you got... Roy Earle, Ad Vice chief detective.
He's a smug son of a bitch, he's jaded, mean, brutally honest, but knows his way around Ad Vice. ... However that's all I'm going to say.
And our last partner; Hershel Biggs, detective for the Arson squad.
He's a gruff old man, who's clearly seen some serious shit back in his day. But he's a great partner, love this guy.
And the main story that we follow, with our boy, Cole Phelps is a really great story, I loved following him, and I loved watching his journey throughout the game. Especially the little flashbacks to WW2, those come back into play, keep that in mind.
The environments, are fantastic. I love looking at interiors of many of these buildings, they look great, hell, they give me inspiration, I would love to see recreation of those, they look great! And pay attention to the detail, you'll be looking around for clues and evidence, you'll need to keep a constant eye out for those. And if you miss one, it will affect the overall interrogations as you go on. Now if you screw up a case, you will be allowed to play them again if you do, but the story will continue to progress normally, so it won't punish you that hard.
And speaking of, real quick, the animations for the faces are great, there's a ton of expression, apparently they used a shit-ton of lights and cameras to capture all the movements of the character, I can imagine this took an awful long time to do. But they still did a great job, and I applaud them for that.
Now throughout the game you have to interrogate suspects to get answers to figure out who's guilty or not. When you ask them questions, you have to decide whether they are telling the truth, withholding information, or lying their asses off. They're all liars though. That's one of the biggest themes of the game, is lying. Everyone lies, and you have to figure out if they are or not; now you can figure it out usually by people's facial expressions, but surprisingly, it threw me off a good portion of the game. The big deciding factor was whether it was doubt or accuse. If you accuse, you need to go to your handy-dandy notebook and find the evidence that backs up your claim.
And again, don't worry if you bomb all the interrogations, you'll still move on and continue with the story. And in relation to driving around, you have the option to either drive yourself, or have your partner drive there to skip it, depending on how you wanna go about it. Though they do deliver some funny commentary if you drive like a maniac 
Now I don't have a lot of problems with the game at all, but there are only really three cons I can name in particular.
For one, we don't really have any side activities or things to do to take a break from the overall main story. Honestly, I'll admit I was disappointed in that, the only side activities I could really do was seeing how many people I could maim with the car and how much shit I could destroy. ... I was bored! 
I mean, okay, it doesn't have to be like GTA, but you could have at least included some side activities. Let us go to a movie, see the new pictures. Maybe do some bowling, go to a gun range to practice our aim, hang out with some of the other detectives and do some fun things together to just chill out. Give us a break from the main story.
Admittedly some of the graphics do show a bit of their age. There's some textures here and there that look a bit off, but let's not forget, this came in 2011, so I shouldn't really judge it so much.
And the last thing I will say is the game's ending. ... That ending... was one of the most unsatisfying, anger inducing endings, period. Honestly, it felt like a massive slap in the face to everything I had worked up to, to this point. And I know noir usually comes with grim outcomes for each endings, but I mean COME. ON. After that slap in the face? It feels more like a massive F@ck You. Maybe I'll accept it for what it is, but it honestly didn't feel that satisfying.
But aside from those issues, I still had a ton of fun with the game. I highly recommending picking this one up, it's a great detective game; solid characters, acting, story, atmosphere, music, it's just a fantastic mystery game.
I give LA Noire, a solid 8 out of 10.
Thanks for giving it a read, and have a great day everyone. 
Solid review, even if you know what I already said in regard to the ending... one, that it's Rockstar.
And two...
"Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown."
Anyway, glad that you still enjoyed the game.
Apparently there was going to be more to the game, but due to financial, and poor working conditions it just couldn't do that and maintain the deadline. But there's a lot to take in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN-Hv3pnVz0