Written by: Rik
Date posted: April 29, 2018
As someone who largely ignores debates about gaming’s issues of the day such as, for example, paid downloadable content (DLC), on the basis of an entitled assumption that by the time I buy a game on Steam for 6 quid all of it will be rolled into one megabundle Ultimate Edition and these things will ceased to have been relevant, I was of course shocked to find that my long-ago purchased version of L.A. Noire did not, in fact, include the extras.
I bought it later, for the sake of completeness, but it felt odd to be playing extra missions after the end of the game. It seemed like they would have slotted in seamlessly and made for a better experience had I purchased the DLC before playing. As to whether they’re integral to the plot: well, they aren’t, but they do contribute to it, and as such they don’t stand completely aside from the main game. It’s a bit like watching the deleted scenes from a film and trying to assess whether they should have been cut, whereas if you’d only ever seen The Ultimate Director’s Cut, you wouldn’t know the difference.
Anyway, you get 5 extra cases: two in traffic, two in vice and one in Arson. There’s nothing there that you’d call essential, but they’re decent enough cases and The Naked City, in Vice, and Nicholson Electroplating, in Arson, stand out as the most memorable. You also get some extra challenges and a couple of extra outfits for Cole (his suits are supposed to have a practical use in-game, for example boosting armour or shot accuracy, although I have to be honest and say I just chose the ones I liked the look of when playing).
L.A. Noire is hardly a short game so it doesn’t need padding. I wouldn’t say these missions were padding, but neither are they essential. If you don’t get the DLC, you’re not missing too much, but I’d say it’s probably worth getting from the start, if you can.
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