Whilst Duke Nukem Forever, the subject of last week’s WeView, is pretty much in a league of its own when it  comes to development time, L.A. Noire starts to come close; although even its fairly mammoth seven years in development is only half of Duke Nukem’s.
However, it does show that a long development span doesn’t mean you have to lose your way during development. It’s also certainly arguable that Team Bondi put their time to better use, crafting a very solid representation of Los Angeles from the mid-20th century.
Of course there’s more to a game than just its setting, and it seems that where L.A. Noire starts to fall down a little is in its gameplay. Back when we reviewed it in May we had this to say:
The best way to sum up L.A. Noire is that it suffers from Assassin’s Creed syndrome. You’ll certainly get a lot of enjoyment out of it. There’s something new and refreshing about a witty, intelligent game that requires a little bit more thinking than the norm.
However, it’s a bit repetitive and kind of loses its way after the halfway point. Pull an AC2 and give me an L.A. Noire sequel after a couple more years in the oven, with more variation and a more thought-through plot, and it could be something really special.
For those of you who put your faith in the score we assign to games L.A. Noire managed to score a 7/10. However, the whole point of WeView is to hear what you think about games, so who really cares how we rated L.A. Noire when it was released?
Time for you to have your say on Rockstar’s newest hit.
Just head over to the forums and leave us your thoughts on the game. Whilst I’m not going to discount longer reviews, please remember that the aim is for short, snappy opinions. More than that I simply don’t have the time to wade through longer reviews, so if you want to have your opinion included in the verdict post try to keep it short.
Once you’ve written your review make sure you give it a score on the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. Remember, if you want your score and opinion included in Monday’s verdict post you need to have it done by Sunday afternoon, otherwise I’ll have written it and you’ll be left out in the cold.
Dan Lee
I really didnt get on with this game. Played a couple of hours and have yet to go back.
e8
“Requires a little bit more thinking than the norm.” Thats’s my main disappointment with the game, no thinking required with the crime scenes & not much more with the questioning.
MadJunkBoy
i actually love this game! the story was awesome and brought something new, love it! =)
Forrest_01
Agreed on the crime scenes (as its pretty much a case of ‘walk around looking at stuff until the music stops’), but I have to say that the questioning has thrown me a couple of times though – That’s mainly down to the flimsy (& often misleading) ‘doubt’ category though, as I usually go for that over downright lie.
I mean, if you ‘doubt’ that they are telling the truth then they are probably lying no?
Forrest_01
Apologies – That was supposed to be in response to e8’s post. :S
Youles
I found this confusing at first – I think the difference is, you should only accuse them of lying IF you have the evidence to prove it. So you can still get the right answer, but if you can prove they are lying, then you unlock extra “things”…I think.
Rocket_345
Yeah thats correct. If you don’t have the evidence to prove it but you think that they are lying you click doubt. The problem that i sometimes have is if i miss something then click doubt im wrong because i didn’t pick up something. Thats my fault though i guess but i still included it in my review.
aerobes
Really enjoyed this one. Terribly flawed in many areas but I loved it enough to make it one of my very modest collection of platinums.
R4U Eldave0
Haven’t got round to playing this yet. It looked pretty decent until I heard the final chapter(s) was absolutely dreadful. May pick it up on the cheap some day as the actual core focus of the game really appeals to me
Rocket_345
Love this game but i allways break up playing it with another game to try and avoid repetition kicking in so far it’s worked brilliantly and have just started vice over the weekend but hearing about cash bonus’ in UC3 if you reach 25 made me stop.
Youles
Cash Bonus – please explain? :)
R4U Eldave0
Just to clarify, he means in-game cash before you get too excited :) I believe you get some extra funds to spend on perks etc in the full release if you reach level 25 in the beta.
Youles
Yeah I realise it’s in game! :)
Have just searched it and think it’s a bit annoying, I wouldn’t mind the extra stuff but am not really going to put too much time into a Beta when I know I am going to buy the game anyway, as I can use the time to finish games such as LA Noire instead! Shame I’ll miss out of the stuff.
And sorry to be off topic!
Rocket_345
@Youles I did’t think that i would be able to get it myself as i wasnt playing it that much but after a few games of co-op hunter i went up a level a match and went from level 8 to 19 in the space of 2 hours game time. After i reach level 25 i doubt i’ll play it anymore except for the meet tommorow night so if i reach it today then tommorow will be LA NOIRE day. However i agree that it’s stupid as people just don’t have the time to put into to it to get to level 25.
Youles
Agreed – and annoyingly I can’t get any of the other bonuses since you have to of played 10 or 5 games in each game mode, and some of the game modes are no longer available. Just a bit annoying since I have bought both previous games, and have already preorder #3, yet someone can download the Beta for free and earn these unlocks, but never buy (or have previously bought) one of the Uncharted games! I think we all pay a reasonable amount of money for games, so we should all have the right to the same content. Guess my gaming OCD doesn’t help, rant over :(
Youles
And I like your “LA Noire” day…I do a little bit of LA Noire at a time, when the wife and my son are out or busy, as I need to pay attention to the conversations etc :)
R4U Eldave0
Speaking of pre-ordering, I just logged into game.co.uk to buy a couple of things in their sale and realised I still had U3 on pre-order despite not having a PS3 anymore.. :|
Samiro05
That was very bizarre, I clicked on this article and got directed straight to the review. I wondered why you were talking for so long about it :p. I will be contributing to this as I’ve just finished it and I’m one of the people who loved this game :)
TSBonyman
The best thing about LA Noire for me was the 40 euro trade-in i got towards DNF when i completed it!! :)
Kevatron400
…And was it worth the swap?
R4U Eldave0
Bonyman seems to love him some Duke Nukem judging by his comments in previous articles :)
SpikeyMikey23
I enjoyed the 1st half of the game but then became incredibly bored by it! (apparently i have stopped just before the going gets better) I won a copy courtesy of Davs and MediaKick. Safe to say, im glad that I didnt pay for a copy, although I would have bought it day one.
I will finish it one day though…. ;)