Every once in awhile, a game comes along that gamers will put in the “must play” category. You may run into some folks that might say:
You must play this just to see the final boss
or
You must play this for the music.
Allow me to be one of the gamers that will place L.A. Noire in the “must see” category as you spend most of your time orchestrating interrogations and searching for clues, which is not a bad thing at all.
A game seven years in the making, L.A. Noire was largely shrouded in mystery up until the March 2010 cover story in Game Informer. Leading up to the reveal, Rockstar Games and Team Bondi framed L.A. Noire as a ground-breaking and innovative game with amazing new technology. I am pleased to say that they have backed up their words, because L.A. Noire is indeed ground-breaking, innovative, and a true sight to behold.
As far as lead characters go, Cole Phelps is one of the sharpest pencils in the box
The concept behind L.A. Noire is far deeper than what some thought was going to be the Grand Theft Auto archetype set in the 1940s. Clocking in around 20-30 hrs of gameplay, L.A. Noire follows Cole Phelps, an LAPD detective and celebrated World War II veteran seeking to atone for the injustices he committed during his service. As seen in multiple trailers, Phelps starts off as a patrolman who gets promoted to traffic detective and then works crimes in homicide, administrative vice, and finally arson, with an experienced partner backing him up at each position. It helps a lot that Phelps’ partners are colorful, while still compelling, characters and each of them stands out from one another. As a matter of fact, the MotionScan technology (where actors were recorded by 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle) behind L.A. Noire has a lot to do with each of the game’s character’s standing out. Every single nuance that you can imagine from human conversation is faithfully recaptured in various scenes throughout L.A. Noire, which give interactions in the game an almost hyper-realistic quality. The technology is just icing on a well-layered cake though because the story in L.A. Noire is packed with twists, turns, and a lot of “oh $#*t” moments. Cole Phelps is a very likeable lead character that always does the right thing, but never comes off like a total boy scout. Phelps’ story unfolded in a natural way that kept me intrigued and playing longer than I may have wanted to at multiple junctures. I always found myself saying “It’s getting late, but I gotta play ONE more case.” I must give kudos to this game’s faithful recreation of the 1940s vibe. From the dialogue to the racial tension felt in some cases, L.A. Noire does not skimp on the drama. Be warned, there are TONS of profanity laced barbs thrown between characters, very minimal racial slurs, and mutilated dead bodies that clearly make L.A. Noire well deserving of its “Mature” rating.
The only knock I will give the game’s overall linear narrative depends on your individual tastes. You may find one particular set of cases to be more compelling than the other (Editor’s note: I enjoyed a lot of the earlier homicide cases but as that section went on, things got a bit repetitive and probably could have benefitted from a minor shake-up), however the overall story keeps everything tied together to keep you hooked and encouraged to unravel the countless conspiracies in Los Angeles, which brings me to my next topic:
1947 Los Angeles is effed up. Seriously.
I am fully aware that L.A. Noire’s setting was constructed to give a gripping backdrop for players, but wow. There’s corruption around every corner. Contractors, bar tenders, husbands, wives, children, cops, you name ‘em, don’t trust ‘em. With that said, this all makes for a very entertaining experience, even for those who are just watching you play. L.A. Noire’s story is FLAWLESS and easily surpasses some of the best cinema out there.
The later chases in L.A. Noire are great, just wish there were more
Now that I covered the narrative of L.A. Noire, let’s dig into the gameplay because if this title falls short anywhere, it’s here. As stated before, L.A. Noire is the perfect hybrid of a movie and a game; however, the movie aspects greatly outshine the typical gaming components. The core gameplay of L.A. Noire revolves around getting assigned a case, driving with your partner to the crime scene to search for clues, following the leads from those clues, interrogating suspects, following more leads with more interrogations, with action sequences interspersed between each for good measure. The beauty of all this is that the strength of the story makes this a fun process for each case. The traditional gameplay moments come with action sequences, which also make up the bulk of the 40 different street crimes that you can complete. Street crimes are optional mini-missions heard over the police dispatch radio as you drive to various destinations and are not connected to the game’s overall story. I found myself picking up the street crimes to get a quick burst of action (most are done in two to five minutes with minimal to moderate challenge) however, they are somewhat shallow in comparison to everything else going on in the main story. You have chases that can be done on foot or in your car and they are pretty straight forward. As long as you avoid obstacles during a chase, you will be fine. The driving mechanics were a bit sensitive but once I got used to it, I wished for more long chases. Shooting sequences were the most unpolished, mostly because of the stiff cover system.
Fortunately, Phelps is able to take a generous amount of damage and recovers health by avoiding hits. The game also has an auto-aim and aim sensitivity function that can be toggled on and off to adjust shootouts more to your liking. My main issue was maneuvering while under gunfire. Too many times I wish I could have run low while maneuvering toward another place for cover. The gun fights were serviceable though and in the game’s climax, I just forced myself to scale back and wait out enemies as opposed to moving forward. Speaking of enemies, the AI was pretty laughable at times. There were multiples instances where enemies would move forward on my position and just stand there waiting for me to gun them down. Finally, we have fistfights which felt like they controlled the best but were over the quickest. Fistfights had a punch, block and grapple mechanic that worked very well and were a good fit for this title, however these altercations were few and far between. I feel like the game’s story definitely could have allowed for more instances where a fistfight would’ve fit. Nevertheless, the action sequences were decent and definitely did not hinder my overall enjoyment of L.A. Noire.
Enough about the action stuff, let’s get into the real star of the show, L.A. Noire’s interrogation scenes.
Interrogations were by far the highlight of my experience with L.A. Noire, playing these scenes was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Again, the MotionScan tech really allowed for an experience unrivaled by any other game. Throughout the game, you have your trusty notebook that lists persons of interest, clues, questions, and everything pertinent to your case. When interacting with a suspect, you will be able to look over relevant questions, clues, and evidence to assist your investigation. Interrogation scenes were by far the most fun I had with the game and were well worth the price of admission alone.
Weren't you on the Cosby show??
These sections really force you to pay attention to every detail around you and focus on what Phelps and your suspects are saying. Besides your own wits, you also have intuition points that you get from completing missions and street crimes. Intuition points can make interrogations a bit easier when you are truly stumped on whether a suspect is lying, holding back details, or telling the truth. The learning curve to get good at these sections really depends on how good you are at sniffing out lies in people’s faces based on eye contact, if their hands are shaking, furrowing of their eyebrows, and constant swallowing after every word, every person is different. Some are
great liars and some are not. This alone kept me eager to solve more cases to break more lies. Oddly enough, succeeding in interrogations is what pushes the enjoyment of investigation scenes. You will go through multiple locations searching for clues to make sure a suspect’s story adds up. Music plays in the background and the controller will vibrate when you are near a clue. Some clues can be investigated further and the game will prompt you to do so. Initially, I wanted to breeze through crime scenes to hurry back to interrogations, but when I began to stink those up because I didn’t have all my facts straight, I saw the clear goal Team Bondi had in mind for L.A. Noire players and I must say it works together nicely.
As I said, I bombed out on a couple of cases in the earlier part of the game, but fortunately, you are able to replay cases to improve your ranking. The replay value comes from the number of ways a case can unfold based on how well you are getting all the facts to solve your case. For example, one case I got a 1-star rating on turned out completely different when I replayed it and got the 5-star rating. Aside from replaying cases for a better ranking, completing the 40 street crimes, and obtaining other collectibles, there isn’t tremendous replay value in L.A. Noire, but you are still looking at getting 40-50 hours of gameplay if you seek to see 100 percent of all this game has to offer.
Without a doubt, L.A. Noire is one of the greatest looking games on the market and could hold that crown until its inevitable sequel. The close attention to detail is a real sight to behold. If you are outside, traffic and general activity continue while you conduct an investigation, Phelps’ fingerprints can be seen when you are holding an object, I can go on and on. The soundtrack is also very smooth and compliments the setting tremendously. While in various homes and in the car, you can hear old time radio shows or hits from the era from legendary artists such as Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Tex Williams, and Louis Armstrong to name a few. Team Bondi really did their homework on getting the game to sound right, and it shows. My only knock on the audio would be the regular citizens of L.A. as every time I went outside to walk to a destination, the same guy or the same girl would always say “isn’t that the detective who solved the big murder mystery?” Lines like that got very repetitive and became noticeable quite quickly when heard it five times in an hour.
Overall, L.A. Noire is a phenomenal game that should be experienced by gamers and cinema fans alike. However, keep in mind that while L.A. Noire revolutionizes how a movie can be successfully converted into a game, just remember that the title is more movie than game. Also remember that L.A. Noire is a story-driven title that is based on investigation and interrogation. At any rate, this romp through 1947 Los Angeles is still guaranteed to provide a refreshing experience for all in attendance.
L.A. Noire gets 9 out of 10
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5 Comments
[...] in film or in print, is a particular type of narrative that I find compelling. A reviewer at VG Lounge describes the game: “Every single nuance that you can imagine from human conversation is [...]
Very very nice, I’ve been waiting for this review for awhile. Now I just have one ultimate question, especially since you put this in the “must see” category and said the gameplay was a lesser part of the experience. I watched a playthrough of Heavy Rain on Darksydephil’s Youtube channel and I’d take a wild guess that him or somebody else on da Tube has a playthrough of LA Noire.
The question being: Is this something where I have to have my hands on the controller during this or can I take the “must see” thing literally, watch the entire experience, and still get all the love out of it?
Thanks man. I’ll have to say that while the gameplay takes a back seat (especially in terms of depth), I mostly count the “core” gameplay as the driving, shooting and on foot chase sequences (the things that “core” gamers may be enticed in). There are some other sections where you have to tail suspects but they are few and far between.
Interrogations count as gameplay as well and the one thing I will say that if any section was “must play” for L.A. Noire, it’s that. When you watch a playthrough, you will see how the interrogation flows and you may want to have it flow a different way, especially if you’re watching someone else play and can tell the suspect is lying, then your brain automatically triggers a “WTF, I would’ve done that differently” sense and that will make this a must play.
At any rate (b/c I’m rambling, but I love this game and what it brings to the industry), I will still say this is a must see as the story alone is one of the deepest I’ve seen in a game and you can still get some quality love out of that but if you do decide to put hands on it, your love and appreciation will definitely be more fulfilling as you make your own story.
Yeah, I think I’ll roll with that.
I’m really starting to wonder now. The reason I watched Heavy Rain and MGS4 were due to lack of a PS3 mainly. I watched FFXIII because I really don’t like RPGs but wanted to see the cutscenes and everything that connects them. But this is something I can actually get and probably love, but for something that I may only play one time (I am definitely NOT the 100% guy) I dunno if it’s worth the full price for the experience alone. So I’ma have to think about that one for a bit.
[...] at the Lounge loved L.A. Noire for its depth, interrogations and life-like qualities. Unfortunately, a videogame in the style of [...]