My L.A. Noire Review:

Released in 2011, L.A. Noire was a collaboration between Sydney based Team Bondi, and Rockstar Games, and both companies brought very noticable features to this game. From Rockstar there are influences from GTA IV, of course, free-roaming around a virtual world is a hall mark of their games not just GTA, but going way back to their days as DMV when they made Body Harvest for the Nintendo 64. There is also the option to drive or act as passenger, as well as a cover and gunfighting system which uses all but the same controls from GTA IV.

The now defunct Team Bondi chipped in with help from a sister company, Depth Analysis, with their MotionScan techonlogy which captured in vivid detail the facial expressions of the hundreds of characters present in the game, not just the main character, but even the random pedestrians of 1947 Los Angeles got this treatment, and it was quite astounding to play through this game and recognise actors not just by their voice, but their appearances which had been faithfully rendered. This technology I hope, wont be consigned to history. Coming off the back of playing GTA IV (which to date I'm still playing through considering after I got L.A. Noire, GTA IV got put on hold), it was refreshing to see the detail going into facial animations compared to the characters of GTA IV, and I hope it's used for more games like this where sacrifices have to be made for the scope of the game, but not to the point where you can't faithfully re-engineer someone's likeness.

Story:

The story opens in 1946 and you take on the role of Cole Phelps, a former Army Marine from the Pacific Theatre in WW2. Working as a beat officer you get the chance to play through 4 tutorials introducing you to the 4 aspects of this game, clue-hunting, interrogation, brawling and driving. As you progress you'll move on to gun fights and car chases but for any sandbox player those aspects have become second nature.

After obtaining a succesful confession for murder, Phelps is promoted to Detective, and as him you'll be working through 5 departments of the Los Angeles Police, investigating a number of cases per department. The departments being the introductory Patrol, Traffic, Homocide, Vice and Arson. The key to all cases lay in clue-finding and interrogation, which is probably the most enjoyable part of this game. After searching through a crime scene, the clues will lead you to witnesses, suspects and locations to investigate. By case end you'll be interrogating one or multiple suspects in a case, and if you have hard evidence on your man, you're able to charge them with the crime in question. Without evidence though, the case will get thrown out, and instead of being treated to a cutscene of your superior officer patting you on the back, they'll get the *beep* instead and yell at you, threatening to put you on desk duty. This wont affect the progress through your game though, and you're able at anytime to replay cases to obtain better ratings.

In between cases they'll either be cutscenes furthering the ongoing story about Phelps' progression through the ranks, or of his personal life. Or of flashbacks to the war in the Pacific of Phelps' unit against the Japanese. Both do well to add further characterisation to the main character.

The story advances through the course of Phelp's career and either through promotion of demotion you'll be working as him through the various arms of the law in L.A. investigating traffic crimes, murders in the vein of the Black Dahlia case so much so the killer is referred to as the Dahlia and a fictitious account is given as to why the Black Dahlia Avenger was never caught. Vice crimes involving a stolen shipment of Army grade Morphine, and investigating a spate of house-burnings in the Arson squad, leading to a conspiracy involving top people in L.A.

However you have no real control in the outcome of the story. Whilst cases can be solved or fall apart and you can continue regardless, you're limited to the pre-determined and to be honest, unsatisying conclusion the game reaches as [spoilers]After switching from Phelps (who is warned off the conspiracy trail) to D.A. Investigator and fellow Marine Jack Kelso, Cole Phelps dies at the end of the story, yet you're still able to free-roam as him after the conclusion of the game. Whilst this is fine for films, having him die yet able to play as him again either through previous cases or the free-roaming robs the ending of any real emotional impact.[/spoilers]

Voice Acting:

And as for the characterisation the acting/voice acting (considering the detail of the actors you may as well judge their performances as you would a film or show) is really quite good. Aaron Stanton plays the title character and gives a great performance (admittedly, I haven't seen much of him though), and the same goes for the supporting 'cast', which includes so many familiar faces but not so familiar names.

To go through and give synopsis of all the actors would be incredibly redundant but suffice to say it is one of the largest casts I've seen assembled for a video game, owing to the fact that you'll be talking to about half a dozen people per case (and that may not include fellow cops) from each of the cases of 5 of the departments of the police to play through, and then there's the other citizens in Los Angeles as well. While the more central characters are well rounded and are given a healthy amount of dialogue, some of the lines uttered by random pedestrians is bizarre, from random jokes like '3 guys walk into a bar, you'd think one of them would have seen it', or a cop in a police station suggesting (to no one really) that 'we should break down the door and find that evidence'.

But as said, the main characters are the 'stars' and the game does play out like a film, with a diverse cast of crooked and jaded cops, shady mob types, desperate for cash ex-soldiers, and all the suspects and witnesses from cases to talk with. The MotionScan technology does wonders for this interaction, as watching facial expressions is key to successful interrogations to determine if a witness or suspect is lying or not.

Gameplay:

And most of what you'll be doing in L.A. Noire is interrogating, and clue hunting, and lots of it, with about 300 clues scattered through the cases to work almost all are essential to making or breaking a case, nothing really should be overlooked but the odd red-herring will be found every now and then, such as a hairbrush, or wooden spoon or iron to throw you off (especially if you play without the musical chimes and controller vibrations that signal a clue is nearby). But you'll also need to use your wits and pay attention, as some clues may not be useful at one location, but at another instead, or you'll need to decipher codes and ciphers, or use the knowledge of the city to track down other leads.

Coming from the mayhem of GTA where pretty much every mission is solved through the use of brute force, having the be meticulous and thoughtful about the clues you have gathered was a welcome change of pace.

And once you have the evidence you'll need to interrogate suspects, questioning them on the events of the case, and citing evidence you've gathered to prove if they have told a lie, or coaxing the answer from them if you don't have the necessary evidence but suspect the person is holding something back, or prodding them if you believe the truth has been told. Certain buttons on your controller/keyboard will indicate which option to use.

Car chases, on-foot pursuits and shoot-outs make up the remainder of the gameplay. Foot chases probably the more exciting given you'll often need to be clambering over rooftops, up waterpipes and ladders in pursuit of a suspect or otherwise scaling a tall structure. When chasing a suspect you'll normally get a jazzy musical score, which gives it a nostaglic feel. Car chases can be a pain, given the era in which the game is set car controls are very jerky and only a few scattered throughout the city handle well and can attain a decent top speed, and you'll need good handling considering the amount of times suspects in cars will drive effortlessly through alleyways or construction sites while you have to dodge debris, civilians (injuries to civilians impact upon case rankings), walls, 'indestructible' chicken-wire fencing and idiots in trucks and cars who just 'happen' to come to a screeching halt right in front of you while you're in pursuit.

Mercifully though if a chase drags on too long, the suspect will often trash their own car by running into a wall or other obstacle, or another car will crash into it.

And shoot-out's are routine, you have the option to select from a limited number of weapons, handguns, shotguns, rifles and machine guns. Unfortunately, and this is one of the biggest sticking points of this game despite evidence to the contrary (ie. reality), in that cops can't just un-holster their guns in public and unleash a spray of bullets upon anything anywhere at any given time. You're only allowed your firearm in instances that demand it in cases, or participating in some of the 40 'street crimes' that occur throughout the city where there has been a bank robbery or other armed robbery, or if you're chasing an armed suspect.

And the selection of weapons can only occur either at a marked police car, or if you pick one from the corpse of an enemy.

Enemies are pretty intelligent not just the ones trying to lie their way out of an interrogation, but those shooting at you will find cover and blind-fire round corners to stay in cover, and it normally takes a few shots to put them down, of course though, a headshot will kill instantly.

The health system borrows from another older game The Getaway (a game which writer/directer of L.A. Noire Brendan McNamara also had a hand in), where you have no health meter on the HUD (in fact, the map is the only thing on the HUD), but damage inflicted becomes apparent in blood on your clothing, and colour fading from the screen when you're close to death, how this works with the option to play the game in black & white I'm honestly unsure of.

Setting:

The setting in L.A. Noire is almost too massive. The attention to detail is pretty astounding and you're able to drive the majority of the city though roadblocks and invisible walls in certain areas will halt your progress. Several landmarks can be discovered, some still standing like Pershing Square and Grauman's Chinese Theatre and some which I'm sure aren't around anymore, and as you discover each of the 30 landmarks a brief history on one such place will be displayed.

But there comes a problem when making a game of this size with limited interactivity. While this hasn't been a problem for Rockstar Gaming with the GTA franchise, it is here. In GTA you at least are able to visit safehouses, gun shops, car-customisation shops, food outlets you can eat at, strip joints and in the latter extension of the series, cabaret clubs, bars. You can go on dates, go to clothes shops and really customise your appearance, and taking it to the extreme, fly in planes, or helicopters and pilot boats.

There's none of that freedom here. You can change Phelps' suits and he does look incredibly pimping in them, but that is really all you can do in this city beyond street-crime cases, finding landmarks and the apparent gold-film reels (and maybe police badges also) that are scattered somewhere throughout the city. I thought Rockstar would have learnt from GTA: San Andreas that you CAN have too much of a good thing, in that game the world was huge for it's time and there were many hours spent searching for graffiti tags, oysters, and images to be photographed for no real reward.

Apparently, finding all the film canisters too gives you a reward, but only another trophy to add to your PS3 account addition.

And even if you're not searching for the afformentioned items in 1947 Los Angeles, you're painstakingly hijacking vehicles (in the name of the law this time) to unlock all the 95 cars created for this game, and given how the ones that aren't hidden away in marked garages all over the city, all look so similar, it's a maddening task. I've unlocked about 40 of the 95 vehicles and already have given up on that endeavour. The reward for doing so is to view them individually in a gallery with differing colours. But while the cars are incredibly detailed and quite beautiful, this is hardly reward for such a time consuming task. Maybe for people on the Games for Windows Live or the Playstation network having these achievements in your account means something, but it really doesn't for me but for a passing interest. Maybe I'll track down such items, but if there's no serious reward, like at least a few more suits(!) I'll pass.

And even more hair-pulling is the inclusion of an airfield which does house multiple planes, but can you fly them? Of course not (you're a cop after all, not a pilot), but to include the models but with no option to fly is a slight annoyance. Having the map landlocked though would have presented a major challenge for anyone flying in this game to be prevented from venturing outside the map, so I can sort of understand why you cannot fly. But not being able to does bring grievance to certain inaccessible areas in the game, with high walls that can't be scaled and those ever present wire-gates which can't be mowed down by the biggest of trucks give the impression of either missing content or downloadable content to come, which I find a problem either way. The emergence of downloadable content is an argument for another day, but I don't find it fair to pay for a product which is either unfinished, or is finished but I need to shell out more money in order to get somewhere already created in the game, not happy in either case.

So whilst the setting is faithful to the time, well detailed and impressive in it's size, it is ultimately hollow and lifeless.

In conclusion it's technically a good game, the technology used for the facial animations is a big step forward for gaming which I hope to see further used in future. The Interrogations were enjoyable and you get a good feeling when you know you have the evidence to contradict a liar, and clue hunting, whilst tedious, is a necessary evil.

The acting was also a standout, considering this is a video game it's probably one of the most cinematic around and the performances are a highlight. Clearly there are homages to the Film Noir genre and the music does a fantastic job of highlighting this, from the haunting score of the main menu to the prevalent music through the game, including the music, advertisements and radio 'shows' you can listen to while in a civilian vehicle, the game really does capture the essence of the genre and accurately portrays the era in which the game takes place.

But the game doesn't make good enough use of the massive world it has created. L.A. in this game is boring and there's not much to keep you coming back to the free roam mode but to solve the street crimes. I've completed 39 out of the 40 but that final mission still isn't loading up which is quite frustrating. Going over cases again to get a better rank is a great idea and it's good that you're not penalised for failing a case. There's nice continuity as well between cases as Detectives will talk about the case they have just been on, or you will find certain characters pop up from one case to another, or in an unrelated street crime.

But unless you're a classic car enthusiast and want to appreciate the detail put into the creation of the vehicle models in the gallery, or if you have the time on your hands to hunt down those film reels and badges in a map the 8 square mile large map, there's no reason to head into free-roam.

To be honest this really is only worth renting out because if (like me) you have the time you can knock this game over in less than a week without worrying about the hidden vehicles and other items that don't give a real reward. While it does have some standout features, once you're finished the cases, there's not enough to keep you coming back which is a real shame.

I give it 6.5 out of 10 obscurely hidden film-reels


TFM
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