Main L.A. Noire story 25-30 hours long

By Robert Purchese Published 15 March, 2011

Without side-quests, DLC.

The main L.A. Noire story lasts 25 to 30 hours, Rockstar has revealed.

On top of the unmissable "assigned cases" you can investigate "unassigned cases" - side-quests, PlayStation Life reported.

Consider that more unassigned cases will be added through DLC and L.A. Noire should keep you happy for weeks.

Just like Homefront. What?

L.A. Noire is an ambitious detective game built on a new generation of performance capture technology. The result is so real you can deduce clues from interrogations by catching suspects out and watching their reaction.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Co_Starring #1 1 year ago

    Not sure what to do this time.
    Wait for the extra bits before buying or go for the release date.
    It always seems to me that playing the extra stuff (DLC etc.) after finishing a game isn't as fun.

  • abdo #2 1 year ago

    I wish this was the norm for all games. It's a shame game length is now just a feature rather than a standard.

    Also, the guy in the vid is the cop in Heroes, right?

  • DUFFMAN5 #3 1 year ago

    That will do me. Looking forward to this so much

  • Alf-Life #4 1 year ago

    Unfair(stupid) comparison with Homefront, which will [hopefully] have an awesome MP suite.

    If you don't have MP (which LA Noire doesn't, does it?) then you need your SP to be this long.

  • ruddiger7 #5 1 year ago

    Oh god i love rockstar

  • Alf-Life #6 1 year ago

    @abdo

    Yep; it's Greg Grunberg, JJ Abrams' friend from kindergarten (Alias, pilot in Lost, etc), and of course Heroes. :)

  • Vex #7 1 year ago

    Probably going to get negged for this, but while I am happy that the LA Noire story is so long, that is only going to be the case if it can hold my interest. There is a market out there for people like myself that want to complete a game, but simply don't have time to devote 30+ hours to more than one, maybe two games in a year.

    That said, this could be one of those two games for me.

  • LazyNinjaUk #8 1 year ago

    To get you in the mood for this, I recommend watching L.A. Confidential.

    Cracking good film, and if you've seen it already, watch it again a day or so before L.A. Noire comes out. ^_^

  • Ultrasoundwave #9 1 year ago

    Very happy with this news.

    Rockstar are one of the few game companies who are putting the majority of the efforts into single-player gaming, which i support 100%.

    LA Noire, Batman : Arkham City and Uncharted 3 all in 2011............the year of single-player greatness!

  • BigDannyH #10 1 year ago

    I really hope there's no MP in LA Noire. No need, and have no idea how it would work? Unless my girlfriend sitting next to me and helping me decide what to do counts.

    As for Homefront, very strange comparison. Although from what I've seen it looks like it could be a stinker. I really hope not as CoD has gotten stale.

  • DiamondIce #11 1 year ago

    I love this game more every time I hear about it. Please be good.

  • mooseti #12 1 year ago

    I really hope this isn't going to be a huge let-down.

    I trust and love Rockstar, but the fact it's externally developed concerns me.

  • ZizouFC #13 1 year ago

    It's going to be amazing.

    What I find interesting is the mention of side-quests - does that mean this will be open world like GTA? I got the impression that this would be more linear compared to previous Rockstar games.

    Sooo excited.

  • spekkeh #14 1 year ago

    Way too long. No Rockstar game has ever made the 20 hour mark without extreme padding, getting strung along gratingly while the story is getting more and more ridiculous. The main storyline of such a game should not go past the 12 hour mark. Then make the other 20 hours optional.

  • spekkeh #15 1 year ago

    Crime movies seldomly take longer than 1h45m, for very good reasons, as opposed to say westerns that can get really epic at 3h. And already RDR took way too long (the Mexico bit anyone?).

    I'm still really looking forward to this game, but I don't think this is good news, games that are long just for the sake of it are really getting on my nerves. I'll get negged to shit for saying this, but somebody has to.
    Edited by spekkeh at 15/03/11 @ 10:33

  • Darren #16 1 year ago

    This is definitely my most eagerly anticipated game of 2011 and it sounds a decent length too, comparable to Red Dead Redemption and that was my favourite game of last year. Rockstar have produced some outstanding games this generation IMO - even Table Tennis was enjoyable - so I doubt this game will disappoint in any way, shape or form. Can. Not. Wait.

  • Lexx87 #17 1 year ago

    Yeaah DLC should never really be used as an example of game length.

  • FireMonkey #18 1 year ago

    But how much of that is actual game play and how much is cut-scene / scripted events?

  • Syrette #19 1 year ago

    Well that's just pushed this to the top of my most wanted list.

  • MrMaaaaattt #20 1 year ago

    I'm honestly surprised. Because of the new MotionScan tech, and all the work needed in setting up, filming, processing etc. I was honesty expecting a 8 hour campaign. In fact I'd almost convinced myself it was going to be short.

    If it's not fleshed and padded out to oblivion, 25 hours sounds good.

  • xandoodle #21 1 year ago

    A decent length single player campaign? Sold.

  • NewbieZilla #22 1 year ago

    I recommend looking to the proper noir films of the 40s and 50s. LA Confidential is a neo noir. Might as well go to the real thing.

  • NotSoSlim #23 1 year ago

    Great and the game will be mint. Now pretty please can we have some Agent news?

    LA Noire day one tho :)

  • HistoryTeller #24 1 year ago

    Isnt there a saying that 80% of police work is waiting?

  • bikmate #25 1 year ago

    God damn DLC.

  • bratmandu #26 1 year ago

    I hope the 'investigating' part is a bit more involving than simply walking over to glowing bits of 'evidence'. I'm quite a fan of cop shows, and too much handholding/glinting objects would take away from the 'figuring-out-what-you-need-to-look-for-yourself' aspect.

    I remember one of the Resident Evils (Veronica i think) had a puzzle where you had to not only find an object in the world - but you also had to open up your inventory and rotate the object around to find a hidden compartment or code written on the bottom. Hopefully there's a bit of that, and not just - walk over to big pink arrow - 'you found the evidence'.'

  • makeamazing #27 1 year ago

    I will take the 30 hours and the side quests... there are games that i will play over a few months...dont mind it being 30+ in fact the more the better :)

  • Tinrib72 #28 1 year ago

    I plussed 1 for Spekkeh. Cant understand why stupidly long games gets everyone in a tizz. Would much rather play a focussed 8-10hr game than a rambling 20hr one.

    This news has put me off a bit tbh.

  • Syrette #29 1 year ago

    @Tinrib72

    If I can complete a game in 8 hours or less I might as well rent it. If I paid full price for it I'd make a loss selling it on a week or 2 later. My idea of value for money might differ from yours.

    If a game is consistently good from start to finish - and doesn't start to drag - what's the problem? Have you already presumed LA Noire will be "rambling"?

    RPGs are almost always longer than this and people just accept that nowadays.

  • drivenstorm #30 1 year ago

    Noticed someone recommended watching L.A Confidential. Absolutely atrocious adaptation of Ellroy's book. If you want to really get into the mood read the book. It's dark and gripping.

  • spekkeh #31 1 year ago

    @foreverafternothing: If it's 8 hours of pure awesome and you buy the game online, you will get the same value over time as going to the cinema, only you'd actually own the game afterwards. So you could play it again or sell it on. Maybe it's because I have a job and therefore enough money to spend on what little leisure time I have, but if gaming is my main hobby then I don't feel cheated if a game lasts me six hours or up.

    That LA Noire will be rambling is pretty much a given, because a single crime case will lose your interest after ten hours, let alone thirty, so they will need some heavy padding and 'pointless' cases (as in not progressing the story) thrown in to have you coming back. That means the ratio story versus not having anything to do with the story will be 10:20, just as in GTA games really.

    And RPGs nowadays all feature heavy rambling and padding ("I may help you but only if you fetch me these three items", "thank you for fetching these items, you may want to talk to that guy, who incidentally will help you if you fetch him three other items";). As games are getting more mature we shouldn't be accepting that anymore. I know I don't. 80% of games nowadays I'm actually done with them a few hours before the game is, and then you start noticing the artificial padding and bad pacing extra strongly.

  • hiddenranbir #32 1 year ago

    Can't wait for this.

    finally a proper gta-style game where I'm a COP!