L.A. Noire

It's been a while since I played something that made me think further than "which target should I shoot first" or "is there a more interesting way to complete this goal". L.A. Noire is a game that doesn't really have a genre, though if I had to put it in one, I'd say adventure sandbox. Adventure, in reference to the old point and click adventure games, where puzzle solving was a big part of the game, but not so prevalent as to let the game be known as a puzzle game.

Anywho, L.A. Noire is a departure from Rockstar's usual sandbox, where you get to cause as much insane destruction as you feel you need to. L.A. Noire is right on the other end of the spectrum; you aren't allowed to go on killing sprees, and for a sandbox game, it's fairly linear. Time to share my thoughts on the first AAA title to be made mainly in Australia (GO TEAM BONDI).

STORY
L.A. Noire follows the story of Cole Phelps, a hero returning from WWII, who works his way up the ranks of the LAPD, moving from desk to desk with each promotion. As a detective, Phelps bears witness to the dark underbelly of 1940's Los Angeles, as well as the rampant corruption of the system that you work within.

The narrative features many film noir characteristics; particularly the sometimes convoluted and twisting storylines, filled with lies and half truths. Cole's story only really focuses about halfway through, with the first half being about his rise through the ranks, and the second half dealing with the heroes flaws and it really fleshes the character out. While I felt very little towards Phelps in the first few desks, eventually I grew to like him as he became more human in my eyes.

PRESENTATION
L.A. Noire features a distinctly film noir inspired visual and sound style, as the name suggests. The colour scheme is surprisingly varied during the daytime sequences, while the night settings give a greater focus on light and dark, with light fog adding that little extra something to the atmosphere.

The cars, clothes and random items are all from the period in which L.A. Noire is set, and the authenticity of these things adds another layer to the already immersive interactive experience.

The soundtrack of L.A. Noire features a lot of licensed songs from the time, which are all rather catchy when heard over and over again, as well as cool jazz and orchestral scores for investigations and cinematics respectively.

Here, I'd normally talk about the voice acting of the game, and I will in just a moment. But for this title, it would only be telling half the story. Using new facial capture technology, Team Bondi and Rockstar have effectively given full on performances from actors to bring each character to life.
Every forehead crease, every facial twitch, every nervous tell is delivered perfectly with each characters lines; and it's a huge part of the games appeal. The actors give magnificent performances, both vocal and facial.


GAMEPLAY
Gameplay in L.A. Noire consists of about 4 things... The first two are pretty straight forward. Gun-play and vehicle driving, if you've played a Rockstar game, you know exactly how this works. The guns and vehicles are all from around that point in history, which is really cool.

As by the numbers as this sounds, there are a couple of restraints on these gameplay aspects. You aren't able to pull your gun from your holster unless you are faced with a criminal and the game deems it necessary, and you wont kick people in the head and take thier cars (although you can take vehicles with a flash of your badge and a kind word).

At first, this seems kind of stranges for a Rockstar game, but they want to tell the story of a police detective. Not only that, but a really good, by the books detective. Yes, he has character flaws, but he knows right from wrong. And as such, the GTA freedom we've come to expect seems rightfully absent here. It didn't worry me too much. If you'd rather be mowing down pedestrians and going to town with an AK47, your game has been made before. 6 or so times before, in fact.

Now, the other two aspects of L.A. Noire revolve around your detective work; consisting of investigation of crime scenes, and interrogations. Working your way around a crime scene is a somewhat slow process, however the crime scenes are amazingly detailed and the key to succeeding in the interrogations is to be prepared with all the clues you can find.

The soft jazz music plays as you wander the scene, and when you near a piece of evidence, a chime plays and your controller vibrates. This is a helpful feature, but can be turned off if you feel it helps too much. Rotating a piece of evidence in hand is more interesting than it should be, and the situational clues are fun little puzzles to break up the sometimes monotonous investigations.

After you gather your clues, it's time to do some questioning. This is where the new facial capture technology really shines, as you must study the interrogatee's facial ticks to determine whether they're being straight with you, holding information back, or flat out lying. While this works on the most part, I did notice a few problems with the system.

When it comes to lying, you need to prove your accusation with evidence. Occasionally, the accusation following the line of questioning will go out on some random tangent, basically giving you an extra hint, or throwing you off completely from where you thought the accusation was going. Still, this is a somewhat minor complaint, and it didn't get in the way of my enjoyment.

I have some other small problems with the rest of the gameplay, but it revolves mainly around minor bugs, such as sliding cars and clipping issues. But these are miniscule problems, and the actual gameplay is fairly solid. It's nice to play a game where the more common gameplay features are just a frame for the real meat of the game. Something new? I'm on board!

REPLAYABILITY
As with many Rockstar gamnes, the open world of L.A. Noire features many collectibles and quite a few side missions to take part in. Aside from that, you always have the option to go back and play cases for a higher star rating. Hell, for me, just racing around in the authentic 1940s vehicles is damn satisfying, as it lets me soak in the detailed, immersive atmosphere.

OVERVIEW
I don't want to jump the gun (especially with so many amazing titles set to release this year), but L.A. Noire is already high on my list of best games of 2011. While I ran into a few small bugs and glitches, they rarely interfered with my enjoyment. L.A Noire is an interesting story, set in a beautifully detailed environment with very human characters and intriguing situations.
While some parts of the story seem like strange design choices (like the use of a narrator for the tutorial desk) and the main characters development doesn't start for quite some time; when it does kick in, the characters become more like real people and I found myself emotionally invested in the fate of these characters.


So yea, next week I'm doing Marvel VS Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Yep... Another fighting game. Odd. I suppose it's ok though, because I did something so different in between. See you next time!