L.A. Noire is an adventure game developed by Team Bondi. Though published by Rockstar, L.A. Noire is a far cry from Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead, instead being a successor to the point and click adventure games of old. While it is a semi sandbox world with a lot of player interaction, this is not a free roaming game by any means. There is a linear story path to be taken, there is basically no side content to participate in and the game has a tight leash on what the player can do at any time. Despite this, L.A. Noire is a well polished game with some meaningful innovations for gaming, though I think that players looking for an experience to rival last years Red Dead Redemption will be disappointed.
The story of L.A. Noire begins simply enough, but escalates to encompass themes like the construction and boom in post war California, corruption, crime, influx of immigrants and life in a mid century American city. All these themes wrap around the protagonist, Cole Phelps, who is a beat cop not long home from the war in the Pacific. Though you start the early chapters as a beat cop, you become a detective and work your way through several sections of the police, from traffic to homicide, vice and arson. There are some gripping and grim cases that you are faced with in the game, and Cole is a brilliantly contrasted character with his differing partners, as his small chat with them reveals a lot about the character of Cole himself. The game has flashback scenes that Cole experiences of his time in the war, and these are also a well implemented device to expand his character and add plot elements to the game.
The first half of L.A. Noire is a well told and compact experience, as you pursue murder cases which motivate you to solve them. However, the game peaks at the end of this section, but plods on for several more hours after, telling an unrelated story to what you have been playing up until that point. The pace of the story feels really disjointed as a result of this, and I found it to be very off putting for what had been a story with great momentum behind it. In particular, I found the vice cases to be badly mismanaged in terms of their content and role in the story. The game does have a strong final chapter, but the game is ridiculously long and meandering by the final stages. The ending sequences are also absurd considering the subtle tone of the core experience, and I feel completely out of place in what was a noir focused detective game. However, good script and characters go a long way towards making up for these story faults, and overall the narrative is decent despite its poor pacing.
Visually L.A. Noire is a mixed game. The game uses a tech called MotionScan to create the best looking faces in terms of realism that I have ever seen in a game. It captures the actors facial features perfectly, to the point where you can recognise them. This even links to the gameplay as you can watch characters faces to see if you think they might be lying or not. The amazing facial capture technology is a meaningful and brilliant gaming innovation, much more so than motion controls are in my opinion. However, characters bodies are not as well done as the faces and this creates an eerie look at times. The city of L.A. is pristinely rendered along its actual historical layout at the time the game is set in, but draw distances suffer sudden sharp pop in and the city is noticeably bare and empty. There is no activity on the streets. You will see some pedestrians but no one is actually doing anything. Animations are stiff at times and there are numerous textures and backgrounds that are lacking in realism or detail, such as the sky and water. Its a good looking game, but these aspects let it down. It does succeed in capturing the noir style that it is going for, with great clothing on characters and atmosphere, but its not a great looking game.
The sound track is the star of the game. The game has an orchestral score that helps to set the scene and mood that the game portrays. Music is also integral to the actual investigation of crime scenes that makes up the meat of the gameplay. Single piano notes are used to signify a clue, sustained strings to create tension during interrogations and lovely period music during cutscenes. Voice acting is phenomenal, with each character perfectly suiting their role and successfully presenting characters of numerous backgrounds. The game has a subtle tone throughout its core, and this is driven by its soft period music, capturing the feel and culture of the time.
The bulk of actual gameplay in L.A. Noire consists of investigating crime scenes for clues, questioning suspects and witnesses based upon these clues, and the odd action sequence thrown in to break up this pattern. The game does have some shooting parts, but only when the game wants, and you can actually skip these action sequences if you want. The looking for clues will bring you close up to the grim side of the game, as you witness racism, rape, murder, misogyny, pedophilia and other nasty stuff. However, its hardly difficult as you never really have to figure anything out, Cole comes to his own conclusions based on the clues you find and then the game dictates options to you and you choose from them. Its a good illusion of freedom, but in fact is a linear experience.
The crime scenes are intelligently laid out, and the interrogations implement the facial capture technology brilliantly, but they also have issues. You can choose to believe a person, doubt them or accuse them of telling a lie. The exact reaction that Cole will have based on what you choose is not consistent, causing frustration when Cole charges into something you did not want to say.
The driving controls are a bit clunky, and the cover based shooting exemplifies why the game allows you to skip these sequences, they are not very good. There are 21 cases in total, and L.A. Noire took me around 18 hours to complete. However, too much of this time is spent on redundant repetitive and unsurprising cases that repeat the same patterns for plot points, and have nothing to do with the main story line. The game can be played in black and white, and has stylistic choices like its writing font and language that really improve its presentation, but it also has issues like awkward silences and characters looking in the wrong direction while they speak to one another.
L.A. Noire is a game with some ground breaking technology and some thrilling parts, but its also a game that is too long for its own good, loses its pacing and while it has good storytelling, it does not have a particularly good story. While it can be compared to Heavy Rain in a lot of ways, its not nearly as gripping or focused as that game was, and it suffers for it. It lacks engaging cinematic moments and rarely did it involve me to a level where I was driven to know what would happen next. There are moments of brilliance here, but its too unfocused and inconsistent to recommend at full price as it has little to no replay value.
Pros:
- Fantastic sound track
- Well chosen voice actors and great script
- Best facial animations in any game I have ever seen
- Genuine noir feel to the game
- Does not shy away from mature themes
- Working your way through the crime desks really feels like you are advancing
- Well written characters and good use of flash backs
Cons:
- Action sequences feel a bit flat
- The city is lifeless and dull
- The story is not very good
- The game makes huge pacing mistakes
- The first half of the game has almost no links to the second half in terms of the story line
- Too long
- Investigations involve very little actual sleuthing or figuring things out
- Not nearly as engaging or dramatic as it should have been
Wtf:
- "He just gets on top of me and groans for a while"...
Score:
- 7/10