1947. It’s the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California. In a post-war, up-and-coming metropolis bustling with fancy cars, soothing Jazz music, conservatively dressed dames, and the glamour of Hollywood, nothing is what it seems. Underneath the city’s elegance and progress lies a string of lies, deceit, corruption, an ever expanding power of a criminal underworld, and violent crime constantly plaguing the city and its inhabitants. In this city, someone has to set things right. For Cole Phelps, it’s just another day at the office.
Note: You can click on the section titles below if you prefer to jump ahead to a particular section of the review.
I. Story
II. Gameplay
III. Graphics
IV. Sound
V. Overall
Story – 4.25 / 5.00
L.A. Noire is a violent crime thriller set in a post-war 1947 Los Angeles, California, where a seemingly glamorous city is plagued by a series of murders, drug racketeering, corruption, and shady criminal underworld activities. The game itself is a nod to classic Hollywood film noir, featuring a story fueled by crime and violence and the tone of pessimism of the genre, and L.A. Noire doesn’t fail to bring such tones to life in its own world and fiction.
Meet our main character Cole Phelps, a returning World War II US Marine Corps soldier and hero, a family man, and someone who strives to set things right in a city where nothing is what it seems. The story begins with Cole Phelps, a patrol man for the LAPD receiving a police call requesting assistance on a shooting incident. After finding a particular piece of evidence, Phelps shows a strong sense of initiative by conducting his own detective work, and eventually finding the culprit. Despite being a patrolman, and the convincing of his partner to settle for a commendation, he continued conducting his own detective work in the next few cases, which eventually gained him the attention of the higher ups, and a promotion as a detective for the LAPD Traffic Desk.
The game’s story progresses as you make your way through the various desks of the LAPD, with each desk featuring a series of cases that need to be solved. Phelps will make his way through the ranks of the LAPD first as a patrolman, then as a detective for Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson desks, wherein each case you encounter has a story of its own. Think of it as episodes in your favorite crime-thriller TV series. But remember, nothing is what it seems in this city, so expect the same treatment in the cases. Some of the cases may be isolated in nature, especially in your days as Patrolman and in the Traffic desk, but as you work your way through Homicide, Vice and Arson, you’ll soon uncover a dark conspiracy that binds together the cases.
Cole Phelps is much like a reflection of the city itself where underneath the noble facade and goodness in his heart lies a dark past and secrets that are eventually unearthed later on through flashbacks. This flaw makes him unlikable for some, but a very memorable character nonetheless. Other characters also bring life to L.A. Noire. For example, Rusty Galloway’s ignorance eventually helped him see the sense in Phelps’s intuition, and Captain Donnelley’s poetic way of speaking, gives a literal embodiment for the term “poetic justice”. In L.A. Noire, you’ll meet various characters that you’ll soon hate and love.
Although this game features decision making as one of the major gameplay factors that make this game really engaging to play, the decisions you make doesn’t really affect the outcome of the overall story, or even the story of the succeeding cases. This makes the transition between cases unsmooth and disconnected. For example, you might earn the sermons of your Captain after botching a case, but upon starting your next assignment, his tone has significantly changed to a congratulatory one. It even feels as if some of the dialogue intentionally evades referencing to your actions in the previous case, making it unrealistic and unnatural. It’s a game that relies heavily on decision making, but it still rides on a heavily established storyline.
Gameplay - 4.50 / 5.00
L.A. Noire as a crime-thriller game featuring a unique blend of gameplay elements making it a compelling detective and action game. It has a very familiar open world navigation, meticulous detective work, impressive interrogation and investigation gameplay, and familiar action and gunplay. You will need to solve cases to progress through the game, and through the use of your deductive reasoning, intuition, instincts and keen observation, you’ll be on your way to having your hand on an engaging detective work, and uncovering the dirty secrets of L.A.
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| Thorough investigation is key to solving the cases in L.A. Noire |
Crimes can occur anywhere in the city, so in L.A. Noire, you must navigate through a beautifully recreated 8 sq. mile 1940’s Los Angeles. You’ll be navigating through the city either on foot as Cole Phelps in third person perspective or you can use any of the 90 vehicles in the game to reach your destination. If you don’t feel like driving, you can always have your partner drive the car for you, in which case the game will skip to your target destination.
Bulk of the gameplay will focus on detective work. If you’re familiar with adventure games such as Monkey Island, or crime thriller games like CSI, you’ll immediately feel at home in L.A. Noire. In order to solve the cases of L.A. Noire, you will need to gather and examine clues from a crime scene or a specific location to help aid your investigation. Evidence and clues are often scattered in a particular crime scene, so watch out for subtle cues like a glint, controller vibration or the camera zooming in to a particular point of a clue. Clues will be added to your notebook for reference later on, and clues that you’ve found can significantly affect the outcome of the case and the dialogue options in interrogation sequences. Items lying around the crime scene can be irrelevant to the case so watch out. Once you’ve found all relevant clues, a cue in the music will tell you that you’re done. It’s tedious and repetitive work, and may sometimes feel like your just scanning the area waiting for your controller to shake, and the investigation music to end. If you’re itching for a bit of a challenge you can turn all of these features off. Feeling stumped on a particular case? You’re partner can sometimes provide valuable insight for your next steps.
The most compelling gameplay aspect of L.A. Noire is the interrogation / interview sequences. To help your investigation, you will interview witnesses, suspects and other persons of interest to find further clues that will bring insight to the case. Each person of interest will be asked a particular set of questions related to the case, and it’s up to you to decide whether to believe his / her statement, cast doubt on the statement, or accuse the person of lying. Thanks to the amazing Motion Scan technology powering the facial animations of L.A. Noire, you can almost tell if the person is telling the truth, hiding something, or is lying. If you believe the witness or suspect, press circle for “Truth” to dig further into the statement. If you feel that the person is hiding something, press square for doubt, to press the witness or suspect further to spill the information you need. And if you believe that a person is lying on a particular question, you can accuse him of lying by pressing triangle, in which case, you’ll need to back it up with a particular piece of evidence or clue. Don’t worry, as you can always back out of an accusation. Failure to make the right choices in your interrogation can jeopardize the case and leave you with little insight to solve a particular case. This is especially crucial for cases that require you to charge one of two suspects. Thankfully, the game has implemented a help system called “Intuition” wherein Intuition Points, earned by ranking up or finding landmarks, which can be spent to mark all clues in a particular crime scene in the minimap during your investigation sequences, or in your interview sequence which will help you by either removing an answer or showing what other L.A. Noire players have chosen in the particular question a la lifelines in Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It will also cross out clues that can’t be used to back up a lie accusation. In these sequences, always trust your instinct and observation. If you smell something fishy, definitely there is.
Action sequences are often centered on chasing or gunning down suspects. Chase sequences often involve chasing subjects on foot or on a car, and disabling them by issuing a warning shot and tackling if on foot; and having your partner shoot down the tires of your suspect’s car, or having the suspect crash into a building or trolley for car chases. Fleeing suspects can challenge you to a brawl, so be prepared for some hand-to-hand combat.
But there are times that you have to pull out your gun during your cases. Fleeing suspects can sometimes fight back. Gunplay is familiar and most will find it easy: a particular shoulder button will be held to aim, and another shoulder button to shoot. A cover system is in place as well, and health regenerates for a while when not being shot (this seems to be the standard nowadays). Enemies will find cover too, so watch out. I find it unrealistic through since Phelps can take a lot of damage, while enemies shot in the foot sometimes immediately die.
As you navigate through the city, police calls will sometimes request for assistance in Street Crimes, wherein you have to chase a particular culprit, gun down armed robbers, keep a suicidal individual from jumping off a building, and all those other potentially dangerous crimes. It’s a nice break from the tedious detective work, so if you’re itching for some action, feel free to mix street crimes in your schedule.
Got a three star rating on your case? If you feel the need to revisit your cases, you can always do so from the main menu. This will help you in finishing a case with a higher rating or bagging those achievements that are hidden throughout the cases. Speaking of achievements, there are lots of achievements and collectibles in the game, so if you’re a completionist, you’ll definitely find this worthy.
Graphics – 4.50 / 5.00
In L.A. Noire, textures and graphics are crisp and detailed, but the focus of this game is on the stunning recreation of 1947 Los Angeles, and the Motion Scan technology behind the amazingly life-like facial animations. L.A. Noire will make you feel as if you’re actually in Los Angeles, having landmarks, and other buildings of that era in their proper places. I haven’t been to Los Angeles, but I can definitely feel I’m in a historical tour of the city as I play. And the community in the form of pedestrians and the cars bustling around the city makes this rendition of Los Angeles a living, breathing and believable city.
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| Check for subtle gestures. Everybody is hiding something in L.A. Noire. |
The key to solving your crimes lie in the amazing facial animation of L.A. Noire. It’s so life-like, you can almost tell if the people are lying or not. During your first few cases, facial gestures of your suspects may often feel deliberate and exaggerated, often giving away the answer, but as you make your way through the higher ranks, it gets tougher and tougher, and you have to rely on observing the subtle changes on your subject’s faces and body language.
Sadly, some of the effects in L.A. Noire are unsatisfying and dated. Water effects that were crucial in the end of the game, did not look like water, and explosions and flames don’t really look bright and scary. Thankfully, thanks to crisp graphics, character and car models, shadow effects, textures and reflection effects, and amazing facial animation, earlier mentioned flaws are forgivable. Plus, for those wanting a traditional film noir experience, there’s an option to play the game in classic black and white.
Sound – 4.75 / 5.00
Soothing Jazz sounds, rising Rock and Roll, the melodramatic songs and piano tunes, and rich sounds of the era permeate the world of L.A. Noire, making it very believable and immersive. And the music keeps the sequences lively and nothing out of place. The music aids you too in investigation sequences. L.A. Noire definitely makes it feel like the 1940’s thanks to amazing music and sound.
Overall – 4.50 / 5.00
Overall, L.A. Noire has a good story, with several interesting points, with some referencing real life cases, filled with rich and unique characters, but could have utilized the decision making gameplay aspect further to bring out more unexpected twists and turns that we can expect from a film noir inspired game. Expect the unexpected. It’s a nod to film noir after all.
L.A. Noire is entirely a single player affair so don’t expect all that gung ho action and cops and robbers chases online or offline, but the impressive, though tedious, detective work and unique gameplay is definitely engaging to keep you on your seat for hours. It takes about 18 - 20 hours to complete, depending on how many street crimes you play in between cases, and the case rating system makes it compelling to revisit the cases. There are lots of collectibles, and free DLC’s and future DLC support will certainly keep the game fresh for months to come.
L.A. Noire is a unique experience in its own right, and a very memorable one too thanks to a living, breathing, stunning recreation of 1940’s L.A., amazing facial animation and unique gameplay. Whether or not you like investigation, crime-thrillers, and playing detective, I definitely recommend L.A. Noire for its fresh take on investigation gameplay. It currently retails for Php 2,300 in the Philippines in Data Blitz outlets, and Php 2,000 from second hand sellers so go ahead and grab your copy now, and enjoy the fresh new experience that Team Bondi and Rockstar Games have put together in this fantastic game.
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