This was revealed in a Question & Answer session at the Tribeca Film Festival with Rockstar’s Art Director Rob Nelson. If a player you fails too many times, a pop up will come onscreen and ask the player if they’d like to skip ahead. “You can skip those action elements and still experience the bulk of the narrative,” said Nelson.
The reason the game allows this is that the action sequences comprise a mere 20% of the game's content. The other 80% involves sleuthing and character development. It has already been revealed that LA Noire takes over 25 hours to finish as well.
LA Noire arrives on store shelves on May 17, 2011 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.