10 Long Video Games That Fall Apart At The VERY End
7. L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire, Rockstar's take on the 1940's crime genre, is generally considered as a great example of storytelling in gaming. Following the rise, fall and redemption of Cole Phelps, it does a fine job in showing players his character arc.
Set across his ascent through the ranks and different divisions, his out-of-nowhere affair and subsequent disgrace, L.A. Noire's pacing mostly gets it right. Even when the game switches to former war-unit-cum-rival Jack Kelso, it's still at the same pace. Which, depending on your view is either stretched out or just right.
Yet it's the denouement that lets down everything this massive game has built up.
The endgame reveal that one of Phelps' unit is intrinsically linked to the Elysian Fields development scheme, the police corruption and then some, players were wanting some meaty conclusion to it all.
What they got, however, was a run-of-the-mill, generic cover shooter section, which was always a secondary feature in the game, culminating in a payoff that sees Phelps pay the nobleman's sacrifice and die.
Whilst it may seem fitting for the L.A. Confidential-style trope it was trying to fill, it felt rushed to all after an overly long buildup.