LA Noire's ending (SPOILERS)

[googleback]

DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS...

Spoiler: About the ending...

I think that ending sucked. VERY hard...
It was going well until I was forced to play as that other guy, I literally cant even remember his name I had so little interest (im even writing this as the credits roll haha)

To put it bluntly. it turned into Gears of War for the last hour. I was HOPING the core game play would stay. I would have preferred a challenging investigation or a really hard case to crack... instead we have to storm the castle and gun through 800 odd bad guys to reach the climax.

It stinks of a rush job I have to say and that's disappointing to say the least.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I was wondering whether the whole "uncharacterised wife" thing was deliberate, then i noticed they were hanging the few hours on the 2 least characterised people in the plot (the wife and that german chick)

Yeah it wasn't the best ending, as much as i like mind screwy villainous masterplans LA:N's masterplan was a bit... Overly drawn out.

 

[jpoon]

Yeah, it was a bit of a letdown, although I guess I didn't really expect an awesome ending for how boring the game was.

 

[hazabaza1]

Someone mind summing up the ending for me? Not massively bothered about this game, but I'd interested as to why the ending was so bad.

 

[Dragonborne88]

You play as the Sergeant in charge of the company that Phelps served along side, trying to solve a "malicious accident", since the guy works for an insurance company. You do a few investigations, find a plot that all the bigwigs of the city are in on, and the final mission of the game is a huge romp through a sewer system with tons of guys you have to shoot. Insurance guy shoots the final bad guy as a mercy kill since he was part of your unit in Okinawa who went crazy and set fire to stuff.

Oh, and Phelps dies, and Ray gives his funeral speech. Elsa storms out in anger, and your partner tells the Insurance Guy that Phelps never hated him.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I thought cole dying was a bit of a slap in the dick.
Kinda saw it coming though seeing as we were playing as the other guy for so long, which i didnt really like.

Apart from that i really liked the game, even if the plot wasnt terribly great.

 

[Littaly]

I was let down by the last act as well. I think the story went from good to better, it's just a shame that it stopped being well... a game

Seriously, never mind Gears of War, that sh*t went MGS4 on our asses. The last few cases had one measly interrogation each, and even that felt like it was shoehorned in for good measure. All in all I kind of liked the game, but there's little excuse for how lame the last part was.

 

[googleback]

I wanted to sit Monroe down in an interrogation room. THAT'S how it should have ended, the pyromaniac should have been the only shootout in the last act.

and another thing, The hunt for the serial killer was the high point of the game for me. but the climax of that story was crap too. it was over in a flash and pretty boring too.

There is so much wasted potential in this game it makes me rage. I think it has something to do with the writing talent only being one man. he directed it too. I'm sure to HIM it was all perfectly paced and satisfying. shame that didn't translate onto the screen. the script was solid, the execution lacked in almost every aspect. bloody shame.

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

I thought the ending fitted but I also found that it hurt.It was a very very bitter game that left me kinda drained and honestly gameplay shouldn't get in the way of story for a game L.A. Noire.You can't end it on and the bad guy goes to jail after a long interrogation process that's not how Noire works.

 

[Aleate]

I hated the ending for LA Noire. Like googleback said, the story was great, but how it was executed in the end just made it fall flat on its face. Also after the almost 15 minutes of credits (yes I counted), there is something after it. Which means the Insurance Guy (Continuing in the long trend of not remembering the fuckers name) knew about the Morphine the whole time? D:<

Well, I'm done with it. I'll finish up all the collectables and probably trade it in. I need to go and pick up the new 3ds BlazeBlue next week.

 

[Charm Offensive]

I thought that the ending was brilliant. In fact the last four hours or so were brilliant. Everything comes together beautifully.

The guys name is Jack Kelso. If you were paying attention to the flashbacks and newspaper cutscenes, you'd know this, and would probably have a better understanding of the story and would be more qualified to pass such a harsh judgement.

 

[Akihiko]

I don't think I hated the ending, I wasn't amazed by it though. Saw his death coming from a mile off and it was awfully short and unfufilling.

What really pissed me off was Cole cheating on the german chick so randomly. It just came out of freaking no where. I mean earlier in the day before he goes to her room, if anything the girl was pretty nasty to him, so there was no 'connection'. Not to mention the game doesn't mention any fighting with his wife or anything, so he wasn't doing it because of that. So considering those and his 'high moral compass' it seems ridiculous that he would cheat, and to me, seemed like they just threw it in to make the story make sense.

 

[Charm Offensive]

I don't think I hated the ending, I wasn't amazed by it though. Saw his death coming from a mile off and it was awfully short and unfufilling.

What really pissed me off was Cole cheating on the german chick so randomly. It just came out of freaking no where. I mean earlier in the day before he goes to her room, if anything the girl was pretty nasty to him, so there was no 'connection'. Not to mention the game doesn't mention any fighting with his wife or anything, so he wasn't doing it because of that. So considering those and his 'high moral compass' it seems ridiculous that he would cheat, and to me, seemed like they just threw it in to make the story make sense.

His high moral compass was a facade - an act he put on as a coping mechanism for his experiences in the war.

If you notice in the early flashbacks he shows no qualms about putting the men under his command in danger to further his own career. He earns the silver star, essentially at the expense of soldiers like Kelso, who did much more on the hill.

The other characters are always commenting on his "need to be a hero". Throughout the game he is a borderline-sociapath. The one time he says that he wont let innocent men go to jail was the one time he standed to directly benefit from the real culprit being outed to the media.

Throughout the game he will do ANYTHING to further his own career and name. Culminating in him getting Elsa to talk Jack Kelso into carrying out the investigation into the property scam, in spite of the danger.

However, the very last thing he does is put somebody else over himself. It was a beautiful ending.

And he actually does comment on his wife during a piece of dialogue, in which he states that she doesn't understand what he's going through. During his conversation with Elsa, he gets the impression that she does.

The signs are always there if you're paying attention, but by the time you start playing as Jack comes around, you know exactly how flawed a human being Cole Phelps is. Even though it's a dark and unhappy ending, the final few hours are really about his atonement for his actions in the war/to Kelso. It's supposed to leave a bitter feeling in your mouth. It's called L.A. Noire.

 

[Akihiko]

I don't think I hated the ending, I wasn't amazed by it though. Saw his death coming from a mile off and it was awfully short and unfufilling.

What really pissed me off was Cole cheating on the german chick so randomly. It just came out of freaking no where. I mean earlier in the day before he goes to her room, if anything the girl was pretty nasty to him, so there was no 'connection'. Not to mention the game doesn't mention any fighting with his wife or anything, so he wasn't doing it because of that. So considering those and his 'high moral compass' it seems ridiculous that he would cheat, and to me, seemed like they just threw it in to make the story make sense.

His high moral compass was a facade - an act he put on as a coping mechanism for his experiences in the war.

And he actually does comment on his wife during a piece of dialogue, in which he states that she doesn't understand what he's going through. During his conversation with Elsa, he gets the impression that she does.

The signs are always there if you're paying attention, but by the time you start playing as Jack comes around, you know exactly how flawed a human being Cole Phelps is. Even though it's a dark and unhappy ending, the final few hours are really about his atonement for his actions in the war/to Kelso. It's supposed to leave a bitter feeling in your mouth. It's called L.A. Noire.

I realise that, it's shown in the flashbacks throughout the game how flawed he is, but that's why he went into the police force, and it's also why he doesn't want to explain his past. Sure, the cheating COULD account for the game wanting to show that he is still very flawed. But that could have easily been done through other means, or even them just giving a cutscene between Elsa and Cole sometime before him deciding to go up to her room, to show their interest. I wouldn't have minded then. Instead it felt thrown in.

Oh, and the dialogue with his wife came just after when he cheated. So that was hardly a precursor to it.

Anyway, I'm not starting an arguement over this, because no matter what you say, I still feel it felt thrown in.

 

[Charm Offensive]

The story was told in such a way that the motivation for an action was usually made known after it was carried out. I think that was pretty cool... it kind of made the main narrative into one long mystery to be solved just like the individual cases.

Also, a big part of the game was reading people. You read the facial expressions of the person you're interrogating correctly, and you are rewarded in the form of a new piece of evidence usually.

The Elsa interrogation was great, because if you notice, Cole starts to behave visibly different facially. That was my first clue as to what would happen, and i wasn't at all surprised at what followed when he tailed her to her apartment.

 

[googleback]

I thought that the ending was brilliant. In fact the last four hours or so were brilliant. Everything comes together beautifully.

The guys name is Jack Kelso. If you were paying attention to the flashbacks and newspaper cutscenes, you'd know this, and would probably have a better understanding of the story and would be more qualified to pass such a harsh judgement.

I knew his name when I was playing it, just couldn't remember once it ended, ie it wasn't very memorable.

I understand Noire too. I'm all for downer endings and ones that don't all come together. however the bad guy DID get what was coming to him, just not in a very interesting or unique way like the rest of the gameplay leading up to that point, What I didn't like about it is that it traded everything that made it interesting for a few bland shootouts and a rushed ending that didn't fit the rest of the game. This is my opinion of course. It fell flat on its face.

 

[googleback]

The story was told in such a way that the motivation for an action was usually made known after it was carried out. I think that was pretty cool... it kind of made the main narrative into one long mystery to be solved just like the individual cases.

Also big part of the game was reading people. You read the facial expressions of a person you're interrogating correctly, and you are rewarded in the form of a new piece of evidence usually.

The Elsa interrogation was great, because if you notice, Cole starts to behave visibly different facially. That was my first clue as to what would happen, and i wasn't at all surprised at what followed when he tailed her to her apartment.

yeah, literally, EVERYTHING up until Kelso became playable was awesome! I loved it, but Kelso's missions got boring very quickly, All of a sudden I'm supposed to change character? SO far into the game? it just felt weird and I found it hard to care about anything other than seeing what was happening at Phelps' end.

I mean we spent the whole game as phelps piecing everything together only for him to be almost completely cut out of the ending until they bring him in to die. he's not even there when you go after the guy in the tunnels. just pops up when the sad bit requires. it felt lazy.

 

[Citrus]

The ending wasn't as good as it could have been. I was okay with the fact that it wanted to become a shoot-'em'-up for the climax, but the whole sewers level was one big missed opportunity in my opinion. It could have been really tense, walking through the dark sewers, hunting the crazy guy with the flamethrower. Originally, I thought it was building up to a survival/horror kind of section, what with you catching glimpses of enemies getting burned to death by the unseen guy. I thought it would culminate in creeping through the dark with your flashlight on, with just you and him left or something.

But then you pick up a flamethrower yourself for some reason (which felt really tacked on), and it just kind of goes downhill from there. I think Cole dying was right from a story perspective, but I do agree that it all felt rushed. I also agree that the affair with Elsa needed a lot more build-up.

But all in all, I'd say it was a good game. It had its flaws, but I'd definitely put it above, say, Heavy Rain.