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L.A. Noire has you playing as no-nonsense, straight-laced war hero and rookie officer Cole Phelps as he rises through the ranks of 1947’s Los Angeles Police Department. The game is divided into a series of 20+ cases, with an open-world Los Angeles serving as the atmospheric backdrop for the game. You’ll drive authentic vehicles of the time period, listen to actual radio serials, investigate crime scenes, and interrogate witnesses.
As one might expect from a Rockstar game, the production values are set extremely high. The city has an exceptional level of detail, from shoe-shine stations and hot dog vendors to landmarks such as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Yet the biggest surprise is the facial motion-scanning done for the cast, which captures every nuance of a real-life actor’s performance –- at least from the neck up -- with uncanny results. The technology also serves a purpose – as players interview suspects, they can study their faces for non-verbal cues, which will help determine if a suspect is lying, telling the truth, or being intentionally misleading.
It works surprisingly well, although, to be fair, the non-verbal cues are perhaps a little too overt after you ask suspects a question. If eyes quickly look to the side, or lips suddenly curl downward, chances are the suspect isn’t exactly being forthcoming. Yet even though it’s not quite perfect, you can't help but be impressed by how real it looks. It also helps that a wide assortment of television and film actors recorded performances for the characters, so the quality is unusually high.
The gameplay follows a certain rhythm, which some may find repetitive. Each case, whether it’s arson or homicide or vice or traffic, follows the same basic procedure. You’ll hear about the case from your superior, drive to the crime scene (all driving sequences can be skipped, but you’ll miss out on some interesting banter between Phelps and his partner), and take a close look at the crime scene for clues.
If the case involves a murder victim, for example, you’ll be able to stoop over the body and point to areas for closer examination, allowing you a first-hand look at injuries, a wallet inside a jacket pocket, or other evidence that might prove useful in the investigation. There are a number of items that Cole can pick up to look at closely, but once you’ve experienced a few cases, you’ll know that beer bottles are never important, nor is anything in the kitchen sink. The ability to actually walk across an alley, through a room in an apartment or house, or explore outside is far more engaging than just looking at still screens, as is the case with so many other crime-themed adventure games. L.A. Noire does a great job at making you feel like you are part of the story.
After you’ve collected enough evidence, whether it’s a photograph, knife, matchbook, or a fragment of clothing, you’ll be able to interview potential suspects or witnesses. While you can ask them questions relating to general topics, you can’t choose specific dialogue strings or even the type of approach or tone to take with suspects. Even more disappointing is that after each answer from a suspect, you can only choose from three things: lie, truth, or doubt. Sometimes Cole will berate a suspect when you would have preferred a different approach –- you can’t control this aspect of the game, just play by its rather confining rules.
If you suspect a person is lying for instance, you have to select a piece of evidence to prove a statement is a lie, and this is where the game starts to become a question of "what are the developers thinking" rather than "what makes the most logical sense." If you select the wrong answer during a conversation, the witness may get angry, closing down topics of discussion that can prevent you from discovering certain leads. What it doesn’t do, however, is make you fail. There are no real consequences for failure in the game; you’ll just keep moving forward, advancing the plot, only you won’t receive a high "rating" at the end of the case.
In addition to the clue finding and interview phases, the game has some shootouts, fist fights, and chase sequences, which provide some action in an otherwise subdued style of play. The problem with these events is that they don’t always feel natural. Most sequences seem scripted, so when you attempt to follow a person trying to make a high-speed getaway, you can’t stop them until you reach a certain point in the environment.
L.A. Noire is filled with numerous flaws, but the quality of the presentation, the attention to detail, and the sprawling story are enough to keep players glued to their monitors for the roughly 20 hours it takes to complete the game. Replay value is limited, however, as once you've cracked a case, there's not much incentive for revisiting an investigation again. As an experiment in a different way to tell a story, L.A. Noire earns high marks. As a landmark game, L.A. Noire misses the mark due in large part to its repetitive nature and limited focus.
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