I finished up L.A. Noire and I thought I'd capture my initial feelings for it. I think it will take a little longer before I decide how the game is overall, but I like coming back to things later and looking them over. So, for posterity's sake, here it is. Just the facts.
L.A. Noire (Law without the Order in 1947: The Game)
To cover basic game play stuff, I like going around a scene and discovering clues. The game's difficulty isn't really about finding everything and more about putting evidence together in interrogations. There are a few exceptions to the rule but the procedural element was entertaining. Shooting is... decent. I respect any game where the shotgun can be treated like a shotgun instead of a big knife you can only kill people with when you're point blank. And there are BARs. I mean, Browning Automatic Rifles. And considering the setting and tone of this game, they're treated as serious weapons which is nice.Patrol Desk
Tutorial stuff. Nothing to see here people, move along! They aren't great cases, but it was kind of fun to chase the jewelry store dude down. I actually shot him in the leg the first time because I wanted to stop him via non-lethal gunshots. This was before I learned that once you shoot someone in L.A. Noire, that means you have openly declared your desire to kill them. So, no foot shots or shoulder wounds. You shoot to kill.
The shooting thing also goes for Street Crimes... The way L.A. Noire is grounded as a more realistic setting I figured I'd be putting more offenders in cuffs than in caskets. But almost every single Street Crime ends with a shootout or a headshot to save a hostage. The way Phelps and his partner stand around all grim faced as a dead body is wheeled into the Corner's Van... I always feel like I've screwed up real bad. But they seem to just be shootouts to add more action in case someone was getting bored of investigations.
Traffic Desk
The traffic desk is the best desk in the game. Even though it's only three parts you get to investigate some awesome crime scenes. There's a car absolutely covered in blood, a hit and run, and a crash scene right across from the police station that dips into the movie industry scene. L.A. Noire had me hooked on the first investigation where you find a car's interior drenched in blood (like someone got blown to pieces with explosives) and then you find a small pipe covered with blood that couldn't possibly cause such a mess no matter how hard someone could swing it. It's a great "Wait a second..." moment that I wish more cases had. This is also the very last desk where you actually make meaningful arrests and get a sense of fulfillment by doing right by the law.Homicide Desk
For me, this is probably the most disappointing part of the game. When I look back on it Homicide should have been great. You're solving murders now. I imagined gunshots, and knives, and some premeditation. The stakes are higher. You have a new partner who's somewhere between lazy and indifferent but still has some great lines. Unfortunately every case on the Homicide desk is mauled for an overarching plot involving a serial killer. That means you get a lot of repetitive crime scenes with dead women, bloody ropes, and size 8 footprints. That's four cases of the same basic set up over and over again where you're questioning a husband or some social miscreant. They lean hard into the Black Dahlia stuff and that's too bad.This is also the part of the game where you can no longer make satisfying arrests. It gets abundantly clear that your bosses at the LAPD care more about headlines than the truth. Even if you have OVERWHELMING evidence in favor of a particular suspect... if you don't convict that Communist dude your ass is grass, boyo. And this emphasis of headlines over truth persists through the rest of the game. Maybe more true to life, but very unsatisfying if you're looking for a solution to your mystery stories.
Vice Desk
This is my second favorite desk. Even if your partner is a dirty cop like Roy Earle who is practically smug personified you get to solve crimes around Hollywood and go into clubs trying to make drug cases. "The Set Up" swerves pretty close to Pulp Fiction involving a boxer who didn't throw a match like he was supposed to, and you're racing against the mob and a suspicious girlfriend to find out what happened. Shooting up an old (or new?) movie theater is recipe for a good time. You also get to spend some time with Phelps' old Marine buddies and play with BARs in the streets of L.A. It's a damn shame this desk didn't last longer. I was quite surprised it was only three cases. I guess L.A. Noire does short and sweet well.The only real downer to the Vice Desk is the downer ending. Phelps decides to become a shitty human being and cheat on his wife just in time for Roy Earle to profit from it and make out like a bandit. Dude is crooked, but at least he knows how to work the angles. Asshole.
Arson Desk (More like two parts Arson, three parts endgame)
It's hard to rate the Arson desk. You only do two cases before the story's big picture hijacks everything and runs off with its new favorite playable character Jack Kelso. Again, I was pretty excited to investigate fires despite everyone in the city laying into Phelps like they had just discovered the punching bag. Your new partner is awesome. Biggs has a great voice and some good lines too. It also has a bit of the same problem the Homicide Desk had with repeat offenders. It would have been cool to look into forest fires and other fire related crimes. Although that immolated family was... really fucked up. Who jumped like Biggs at that part? I did.And like I said before, you play as another guy to the end of the game. I didn't have a problem with Kelso, but I would have liked it better if he had his own file or separate section of the game. Arson loses out a lot of potential to redirect the player to a conspiracy involving land grabbing and crappy suburban homes for returning G.I.s. Plus, you get to learn why Phelps is actually a pretty bad human being and that hating him is justified by pretty much everything he's ever done. That might be a little harsh considering you never see Phelps' home life or when he's not a cop or a Marine. But dude, the man is not fit to lead. At all.
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