Another day, another crime in the city of angels. I’m walking up to the crime scene where another woman has been murdered, my partner is next to me grumbling something about dames and keeping them quiet. I greet the coroner and he gives me the usual run down of crime scene. I go over to the body and as I’m checking her for any evidence I think to myself “I really should be wearing gloves”. That’s about the only time I get pulled out of the immersive world of L.A. Noire. While this is Rockstar Games most ambitious game to date the question remains is it their best? I’ve worked the evidence and have come to a conclusion in my review below.
L.A. Noire is definitely Rockstar Games’ most “grown up” game to date. Grown up in the sense that there is barely any of the typical satirical humor seen in their previous titles. Even Read Dead Redemption, which was its most mature title in their repertoire, up until Noire, had a sense that it didn’t take itself too seriously. But LA Noire is devoid of any of that and is all business. This is also the first time you play a “good guy” as the war hero turned Police Officer Cole Phelps. You start off as a flatfoot patrol officer and work your way up in the ranks. Each promotion is identified as a ‘Desk’ and there are five desks all together (Patrol, Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson). While the Patrol desk acts as the game tutorial, getting you acquainted with controls, evidence gathering, and interviewing, the other desks have several cases within them. You receive a 1-5 star rating depending on how well you collect evidence, follow up on leads, interview witnesses & suspects and finally solve the case. Throughout the game you learn more about Cole’s past and how it intersects with an underlying story that leads into the final case. I won’t spoil anything but it is pretty satisfying.
Story is the biggest and best aspect of L.A. Noire. The amazing acting just brings the excellent writing to life. The game plays like an interactive pulp novel, each case kept me engrossed and when I finished a case I kept wanting to move on to the next one to find out what happens next. The graphics and music were great as well. There is also a ‘Black & White’ mode that makes everything black & white and it feels like you are really in a movie.
Noire is also the most “realistic” game in the sense that they have gone through the meticulous trouble of getting real cars and products from that era. There are actual Chevrolets and Fords driving around the city and you can even see an actual box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes on a store shelf. Even the cases have been inspired by real crimes including the infamous Black Dahlia murders. Another aspect of the realism used in the game is the new motion capture technolgy Rockstar developed to get every minute detail of the actors performances which not only helps with immersion but it is essential in the questioning process. And let’s not forget that the city of Los Angeles and it’s famous landmarks and buildings are fully recreated in the game. This painstaking attention to detail just kept me feeling like I had transported to 1940’s Los Angeles.
With all the great things that went right with L.A. Noire there were a few things that I took issue with. If you have played other Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption do not expect to play this game like those. The game is VERY linear, while the world is open there isn’t much going on so you end up wanting to just continue solving the cases. There are ‘Street Crimes’ that happen around the city (40 all together, 10 crimes per desk after Patrol) and are called in over the police radio in the car. You can answer the calls while you are in the middle of a case or you can do them in Free Roam mode, which is unlocked after all the cases on a desk are solved. Other than the Street Crimes there aren’t any other random occurrences that you come across like the ‘Stranger Missions’ or shootouts in Red Dead. This may or may not be something that is enjoyable to all players, as for myself it was ok but I felt FreeRoam Mode was just limited to finding vehicles & locations, collection film reels, and doing the street crimes which wore thin pretty fast. Also even after you complete a street crime if you happen to drive back into the area of the same street crime there is no option to skip it, you have to replay it. This was really annoying because I had to pay more attention while driving and go out of my way to avoid that location just so I didn’t have to replay the street crime. I don’t see why you can’t be given an option of replaying it after it’s been completed.
Speaking of the games collectibles, they really didn’t have any benefit other than to get an achievement/trophy. The golden film reels and vehicles are the biggest example of this as the vehicles offer you no special benefits other than scratching a car off the vehicle list. When locating a car all I did was get into a car, wait for the prompt to tell me I found a new car and then I got out and back into my police car. While a lot of the cars looked cool I had no desire to keep any of them because they don’t help gameplay in any way. The Golden Film Reels in the game kinda reminded me of feather collecting in Assassin’s Creed but unlike in AC where it’s pretty easy to spot the feathers, the film reels in Noire are nowhere as easy to find. Now I like a challenge in games but seriously these reels were in places that you do not come across at all in your travels and you will never find them without using a guide. I mean they are in places that make you go “why the hell would this be over here?”. The reels are never where you are investigating a case or a street crime nor are they in locations that are noticeable. For example, there was one reel that was in a random construction site that you never visit in the game and on an upper level that you would never see. And while the film reels have the names of actual famous films from the 40’s and 50’s it’s unfortunate that you aren’t given some info about the film (like what is given when a famous Location is found in the game) or even a clip from the movie. It’s like “Ok I found this, and what?” It’s a shame that the films that were an obvious influence for the game aren’t given some more recognition other than just naming them.
Gameplay as I said is very linear and very limited. Since this isn’t GTA and you are an officer of the law you can’t randomly draw your weapon. This is fine for the way the game is set up but when you do have to get into a firefight with criminals your choice of weapons is very limited. You are pretty much using your service gun when fighting criminals, there are opportunities to take weapons from fallen enemies or when you have to use a particular gun to shoot enemies far away but you can pretty much take out everybody with the handgun. When you get into your first real firefight at a bank you are informed that you can go to the trunk of the car and grab a shotgun but other than that you are not carrying an arsenal of guns nor can you go to a gun store and upgrade weapons. Also the gunplay I felt to be dumbed down from Rockstar’s previous titles. I mean it makes sense considering that you are only shooting during scripted sequences but it was a little disappointing after I got so used to the shooting mechanic in Red Dead. Another thing that bothered me was that ammo is not really unlimited, while I think the service weapon has unlimited ammo I unfortunately found out during a long firefighting sequence that I CAN run out of ammo when using the other weapons. I would have picked up other guns to replace my spent gun had I known how much ammo I had left but since there is no Heads Up Display in the game the only way I found out I was spent was because my character said out loud he was out of bullets. Meanwhile I had passed by a bunch of guns left behind by fallen enemies because I thought I had plenty of ammo so needless to say I had to backtrack which was annoying. I know why there’s no HUD, it takes away from the immersion of the game but when you have to shoot bad guys you have to have something that shows what ammo you have left.
Timewise the game can be completed fairly fast the first time through (overall I was done in about a days time). If you are concerned about getting five stars on all the cases you will be replaying cases. There is a leveling system in the game and you will earn Intuition Points as you level up (the highest level being 20) which is a handy feature that you can use either when looking for clues or during an interrogation. Figuring out if someone is lying or being truthful can be tricky with some people so using Intuition points is key in getting the right answers.
Navigation through the city is similar to GTA or Red Dead in that there is a little mini map in the lower corner of the screen that you use to get to your destination and there is the full map that is accessable in the pause menu. One thing that is not like GTA and RDR is that when you set a waypoint on the map there is no line on the mini map that directs you to your location. This was such a big fail in my opinion. This city is massive and without that lead line on the map I kept missing turns to get to my location or I kept having to pause and go into the big map constantly. During cases you can make your partner drive and just skip driving entirely but otherwise you are stuck searching for where want to go. It may not be a big deal for some but I hate driving around in games without a lead line. One last little gripe is that while I enjoyed where the story went I didn’t really care for the main character Cole Phelps. I wasn’t as emotionally invested in him as I have been with other Rockstar characters, especially John Marston from RDR. I also thought Cole was a little to self righteous which kind of got on my nerves but I did like that at some point in the game he get’s taken down off his high horse.
Overall I did enjoy playing L.A. Noire but I will say that this game is not one that everyone is going to dig. Look at it this way, I can totally see this game being a point and click game on a PC. If point and click games aren’t your thing then L.A.Noire might not be for you either. If you are expecting to just walk into a place and rough up some people with the butt of your gun while flashing your badge forget it because that’s not happening. Noire is very linear and sequential, you are going to be following a set path to reach the conclusion of a case and when you do you will move on right to the next case. The focus is all about the case solving and the story, it’s like playing a really good book. Most might like this refreshing way of playing but there are some out there that will just find it dull. I was completely engaged in everything that happened in L.A. Noire and think that it is one of Rockstar’s best made games but I hesitate to say that it is their best ever. Outside of DLC and getting trophies I don’t see myself replaying Noire for fun the way I do with Red Dead. That’s not to say this isn’t a game that should be experienced because I do think it’s not like anything that is out there right now. Some the the gameplay mechanics are annoying but they can be overlooked thanks to the excellent story and writing that turns pulp crime novels and films into an interactive digital world. If you think you have the skill and the smarts to capture the scum that inhabit Tinsel Town then go and grab your fedora and try out L.A. Noire.
