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Introduction
L.A Noire is a game developed jointly by Team Bondi and Rockstar Games. Released in May 2011, it is a free roaming, sandbox 3rd person adventure game, with shooter elements. It re-creates a stunning version of 1940's Los Angeles, and envelopes it in a sense of intrigue and mystery, with a healthy dose of conspiracy. As is hinted at by the title, this game takes a lot of inspiration from the noire genre.
You play as Cole Phelps, an up and coming police office just returned from fighting in Okinawa during World War 2. The year is 1947 and the police force is rife with corruption, and Phelps is one of the few good men left.
You work through a series of crimes, eventually getting promoted to different desks. At each ?desk?, which respond to different types of crime, like traffic, homicide or vice, you will be given a different partner with whom you will travel around with to solve crime.
During the course of a case you will have to drive to various locations, check them for clues, and talk to witnesses and suspects. Oh, and occasionally you have to chase people on foot or in a car, and occasionally there's a shoot-out to worry about.
During the game you will meet a host of characters. Cole Phelps is a veteran from the war, and is seemingly haunted by it. Despite numerous attempts from his partners, he refuses to talk about it, and doesn't think he deserved the medal he got. He puts all of himself into his policework, although later in the game some more of his personal life is revealed. The character is interesting enough, and the flashbacks to the war are intriguing, but his character is a tried and tested archetype. The dedicated but haunted policeman isn't exactly new.
There are also all of Phelps' partners. He has 5 different partners in the game, each of which have a different personality and work ethic, but most of the character interactions are the same. The partner starts of hostile towards Phelps, then after a couple of cases warm to him. Tell me you haven't seen that in every cop film ever.
The two partners with the most story impact are Roy Earle and Herschel Biggs. Roy is a sly and aggressive character, who is only out for himself. Biggs is a tired cop, who feels resigned to the lesser arson desk, and is incredibly pessimistic about getting anything out of their cases, These two characters play a big part towards the end of the game.
One other character worth mentioning is Jack Kelso. He was in the army with Phelps, although the two don't get along. He is now an insurance investigator, and ends up helping Phelps in some cases. He is an upstanding citizen, who dislikes crime and always wants justice to be done.
The characters in L.A Noire are mostly well done. The suspects all have varying personalities when interviewed, and finding out about partners during your cases with them is interesting enough.
Since L.A Noire is played case by case, their isn't an over arching storyline, except for Phelps' progress through the police. Although there are some story archs, such as the Black Dahlia or the conspiracy late in the game, it's the story within each case that is of interest. Trying to decide who was the killer, or who supplied the drugs, that's the real story in L.A Noire. Until you hit the last few cases.
The end game has you investigating a massive conspiracy, which covers all sorts of high positions, and it was incredibly gripping. There is a lot of action in a short amount of time, and it was so intense that the game kept me hooked till the credits rolled.
L.A Noire is a third person, free roaming sandbox game. That means it comes with all the usual trappings.
A lot of time might be spent driving from location to location. And if you choose to drive, you will be doing a lot of it. Even if you ignore all the street cases that come up, you will clock up a lot of in game miles. That is, if you choose to drive. You always have the option of making your partner drive to whatever destination you want to head off to next. This was a good design choice, as getting from one side of the city to the other takes around 15 minutes, and getting your partner to drive skips straight to your destination.
There are also a few chase segments where you will be after a suspect fleeing in their cars. The driving in the game is tight and intuitive enough to be able to handle the high speed pursuits, during which your partner will try and shoot out the tires of your suspect. Driving is fairly tight and weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds can be quite fun.
You'll also have to chase criminals on foot. These chases are less fun, and are pretty simple. You hold the run button, and go in the same direction as your target. Whilst holding the run button you will automatically vault any objects you come across, so no need for extra button presses. One small but good features is that when going up emergency exit ladders on building, it will automatically switch sides as you go up them, as long as you keep hold of up. This is clearly just a small thing, but it does make it a lot easier, as navigating small spaces like that can occasionally be a little clunky.
Finally in the more usual aspects of L.A Noire's gameplay is the combat. The shooting in this game is functional, but is nothing special. There is a cover system, and it's wise to use it, because Phelps can't withstand many hits from bullets. You pop out of cover to aim, and then shoot your aggressors, who also die fairly quickly. If you aim near an enemy it will automatically aim at them, and then allows you to fine tune your aim to go for a kill. The system is simple and easy to use, and although it won't inspire the future of 3rd person shooter, it is a good diversion.
Speaking of getting up close and personal, there is also a pretty basic brawling system. It is a simple fight system: Hold the fight button, and the dodge your opponents attacks, counter punch till they're weak enough to use a finisher on. It's not very exciting, but it doesn't come along all that often, and is a good diversion.
Now, all of the above doesn't add up to much more than a generic sandbox game. In fact, it doesn't really count as a sandbox, because you can't do as you like. You can't kill civilians, and hitting cars will severely impact your case score.
What takes this game above that is the investigation aspect. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a perfect system, but it does make for an interesting game.
Firstly there is finding clues at crime scenes and other locations of interest. This is fairly basic, and at any given location there are usually only a few items of interest to find. Phelps has to look around the location and interact with objects to see which are relevant to the case. When investigating a location, special music plays, which indicates that there are still clues left to find, and a short tune plays when all have been found. This is a useful, and subtle, way of showing the player that everything has been found.
A small chime plays when Phelps walks past an object that can be interacted with. This does make it very easy to find items, and essentially makes investigation more of a task in making sure you walk around every part of the room. It's similar to old point and click adventures, where when stuck you might just click every inch of the screen to find the vital clue. However, the music and chimes can be turned off to make it more challenging for yourself.
Personally, the more fun aspect of the investigation is interrogating person's of interest. You ask the suspect questions, and then using the amazing motion capture technology they used to create facial expressions, decide whether they are lying or not. The better you can recognise a liar, the more valuable information you will get. The system isn't perfect, but it's a start, and certainly an interesting new game mechaninc.
The visuals in this game are top class. The city itself is an outstanding recreation of 1940's L.A, and the attention to detail is astounding. Apparently they designed the city using aerial photographs, and it shows.
The cars, too, look fantastic. All the models are distinguishable and have their unique look, although they all have the sort of classy feel that cars of the era had.
However the best part of the visuals is the stunning facial capturing that has been used for the interrogations. As the picture to the right shows, the characters look incredibly close to their actors. The most subtle details of facial expressions are correct and present in the game.
The games soundtrack is good quality. There is a lot of jazz, and it's all period relevant. A lot of the soundtrack has been specially recorded just for the game, although there is some licensed music used, too, including a track by Billy Holiday.
The voice acting for the game is also top class. Their are a lot of characters in the game, and none of them have a weak voice actor. The Irish police chief is one of the stand out performers, and Cole Phelps is very good too.
Final Thoughts
This is a truly amazing game. I loved the story, and I enjoyed the investigation aspect of the game. I know the game isn't perfect, but to me it is one of the best game's I've ever played. Not everyone will like this game, mind. If you want it just as a third person action game, look elsewhere, because the shooting aspect of the game probably doesn't stand up that well on it's own. If you're a fan of the noire genre, though, this is probably the right game for you.