I wished Phelps didnt die... not sure how that helped the story by including it, but I'd wished to see the story further with Phelps and Elsa after all that casework xP
Did you like how it ended?
I still like the game overall though.
I completely understand why Phelps died at the end of this game, but as said by the original post, I wish he wasn't killed.
Given Cole's past (the entire undeserving/coward war hero motif, the affair with Elsa, the lack of reconciliation with Jack Kelso, etc.) it is obvious that Cole has inner demons he's never answered for in the past. The Silver Star award would be something always looming over him that he could only find peace with by truly sacrificing himself as a true deservee of the award would.
The end of the game is quite touching and was really my favorite part. The entire arson desk -- I just loved it. Herschel was my favorite partner in the game (second only to Berkowsky) and the Cole/Elsa affair was... well, I was cheering for Cole rather than Mrs. Phelps. :o To see Cole perish was heart-wrenching, but as said, given his past it makes sense. He's saved Elsa, ended the Suburban Redevelopment Fund (so he believes), made peace with Jack, allowed Biggs to realize his true character rather than the sleeping-with-the-enemy-adulterer label, and has finally earned the Silver Star that he was given so many years ago, both realistically and metaphorically. Now that Cole has finally found peace (you must remember he joined the LAPD because he felt he still owed his country. Essentially, he joined out of guilt) he has no reason to remain and therefore, he is swept away, quite romantically, by the rising waters with time only to say "Goodbye".
However, I was nauseated at the sight of Roy giving the eulogy, but I suppose being a true Noir, there was no other way for the game to end than for the corruption of the LAPD to continue despite Cole's sacrifice. Hopefully, however, officers like Biggs, Berkowsky, Galloway, and all others touched by Cole's attitude of law will follow his example.
So, what do I think of the ending? It was sad. Horrible. Heart-wrenching and utterly wrong. But there was truly no other way for the game to end.
I liked the ending. The game is all about role reversal. Cole starts off as a war hero who wasn't. He received tons of praise, but deserved none of it. Kelso starts off as the OCS recruit who has an attitude and can't hack it as a leader. Only when he had been totally renounced by the LAPD did Cole become a hero, and no one will ever know just how heroic he was. Kelso proved that he was a leader, and the guy that Cole was tearing down in OCS was the man he turned to when the chips were down to pull him through.
It's like the postscript after the credits said. *beep* medals, commendations, and citations. Those soldiers were heroes, even if no one knew it, but they sold out that heroism for money from the morphine. Their refusal to accept their own heroic nature was the very thing that finally allowed Cole to find his.
But to do that, Cole had to confront his past sins, accept his mistakes, and put everyone else first. The corruptions continued. Based on the cutscenes, I would assume that because the arsonist was dead, and it would appear the wannabe DA was getting ready to cut a deal with the police chief, probably to ensure his own election.
The moral of the story is that the system can corrupt all around you, but the individual can be strong. Kelso could not be corrupted in the face of all the other Marines' corruption. Cole could not be corrupted, even when facing the wrath of a corrupted city.
Kelso was never his friend, but he was also the one person who never wished him harm.
I have mixed feelings, personally. On the one hand it's a shame that the bad guys pretty much win (and Roy giving the eulogy was incredibly screwed up). On the other hand, it's called L.A. NOIRE (err... with an E for some reason). Isn't that whole genre less about good conquering evil and more about small, personal achievements in the face of all this darkness and corruption? I think Kelso probably gained some personal achievements but was the story really about him or Cole?
sharePersonally? Phelps didn't die.
shareHe didn't die?
Being hit by that much water with that much pressure behind it...and he only got wet ankles?
Jesus died for our sins. As he's already dead...sin away.
When the character you play as dies in a video game it's very depressing. It's almost as if 'You' have died, and all your hard work has been for nothing. I felt the same way in Modern Warfare 2 when Roach is killed. But at least in MW2 you moved on to Soap after, who was a prominent character throughout the game and (you) get to extract your revenge on Shepard.
With L.A Noire; You play the whole game as Cole Phelps and become immersed in this great character. And then all of a sudden your playing the final missions as this nobody Jack Kelso, waiting to swich back to Cole, and then Cole is abruptly killed with no resolution and nothing happens about it. It almost feels like you are meant to see Jack as the 'main guy' and Cole doesn't mean anything.
"-----S-----"
It wasn't that. It was more of a "there's going to be a second game" kind of thing. If he'd died no second game cuz that game was so freakin' boring..
shareTo be honest, I didn't really enjoy this game as much as I wanted too.
For one thing, LA was such a big place but there seemed to be little to nothing actually going on. A little more interaction between the characters and the non-essentials would have been great.
While I enjoyed the novelty of having to search for clues and interrogating suspects, if doing it on your own and not being able to do it right you'd essentially either have to do spoilers or use up the intiution. Also, I thought the longer the game progressed the more this actually began to rub me the wrong way. I enjoy these types of games for their storylines (which was my primary reason for wanting to get this, Rockstar has produced some great storylines).
The music was pretty damn fantastic IMO, the classical compositions. I didn't really dig the 1930's music and thought an option to change the radio channels would have been alright - but I get that this is not GTA.
I really enjoyed getting to play as Jack Kelso, and to be honest, I enjoyed his character a lot more than Cole Phelps who I found to be a good solid character, but some of the voice overs and acting really knocked me back a peg or two and made me go "WTF?". When you doubt someone, he just starts yelling at them. Hopefully, if there is a sequel - I'd love to play as Kelso.
As for the ending itself, it was probably the most enjoyable part of the game. I really started to get more into it when playing as Kelso and pretty much really liked running around in the LA tunnels. As for Phelp's death, I understand him dying in the tunnels (as I get that's where he died and was reborn during the war segments). I just felt that it was incredibly lackluster and as other posters have pointed out, I wasn't really that saddened by his death - I wasn't as emotionally invested in the character as I was with RDR.
And the cutscene after the credit's was pretty cool.
Kelso all the way!
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Deftones makes the world a better place
The problem w/Phelps dying was not that it was the end of that story, it's that the game forced you to play the rest of it as a lame ass side character w/no emotional attachment from the player.
shareWhat I quite liked was that you were slowly shown in flashbacks that Phelps was a complete dick in the war and a bit of a dickhead of a bloke overall, and that Kelso was the real hero, which is what happens in the game as well. By the end it's as much Kelso's story as it is Phelps. Looking back there should have been more Kelso missions earlier in the game, with the stories converging at the end, but that would mean they couldn't slowly reveal the true character of the two men. In the end, Kelso is the hero. He was the real leader, and the man that we thought Phelps was, but turned out not to be. I thought he needed to be killed off and Kelso take over. And I still think there would have been a story to be told about Kelso taking on Ad Vice with the new DA too.
But Alas, not to be. Quite like this game, I usually play it through a couple of times a year.
I thought it was lame. All of the build-up and just for that? It could have been much better.
As you mentioned, I would have preferred if Phelps did not did at the end. Or at least, had a better ending like Red Dead Redemption.
Just beat the game again for the second time, was thinking about it since it was a closed casket was Cole even in it, I mean who's to say they even found a body meaning he could have been washed out of the sewers an survived somewhere
Channel Six News, they'll finger anything with a pulse!
A bit sudden. I would have liked an epilogue wrapping things up in a more gradual manner. Some walkthrough about the guys jailed for the crimes and their release.
I don't mind the cynical nature of the ending though. Noirs are usually this way - some folks are jailed but the corruption remains.