Ever
watched shows like Sherlock Holmes and had that fuel and drive and motivation
to be an epic investigator within a game that breaks cases single-handedly
thanks to your logic and intuition alone? Well, there isn’t such a game.
But one
game that comes close to achieving this is L.A Noire.
L.A
Noire is a game set in the post-World War II era, and includes many vintage
cars as the vehicles within the game; the fashion sense of the people back then
is also replicated and captured well in this game, with the men wearing swanky
suits and fantastic fedoras, and the women wearing delicate dresses. The
historical feel the game setting gives off certainly is of a realistic vibe,
which definitely helps in making the gameplay feel all the more solid and
believable, as I’ll explain in detail further on.
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| Post World-War II feat. swanky car and pedestrian |
The
player takes the role of a character known as Cole Phelps, an eager patrolman
who takes his job seriously, maybe too seriously. As the player progresses
through the story, which is about 90% of the whole game, the player will work
several cases across different desks, such as the Homicide desk, where the
player looks into cases of murder, and the Traffic desk, where the player looks
into cases involving vehicle accidents and whatnot. These desks are played
according to the story, and thus, is in a fixed order.
The
gameplay involves the player investigating crime scenes and locations,
questioning witnesses, and interrogating suspects. This game also utilizes a
trusty notebook that keeps track of the people the player has met, the clues
the player has gathered, and the locations the player must go to in each case.
These elements are the core elements of this game and any other detective game
made before L.A Noire.
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| dis guy is lvl 1 noob |
However,
one thing that L.A Noire does that separates itself from other detective games
out there is the extremely realistic facial expressions. The lip and mouth
movement of spoken words in real life are replicated extremely well in this
game, and gives off a very realistic and serious atmosphere whenever the player
is questioning a witness or interrogating the suspect, watching for any facial
expression to determine whether what the suspect/witness said was the Truth,
which is usually when the suspect/witness displays minimal facial expression
change. The player can choose to Doubt their statements, which is usually when
the suspect/witness displays substantial amounts of facial expression change,
such as dodging eyes or twitches. The player has one final choice which is Lie,
which means the player has evidence to support that the suspect/witness is
lying, and must pick out this evidence among the pile to correctly implicate
the suspect/witness.
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| The face capture technology (amazing btw) |
The
difference between Doubt and Lie is that the former is when the player knows
the suspect/witness is trying to hide or lie about something, but the player
does not have sufficient evidence to prove this. The latter is when the player
knows the suspect/witness is trying to hide or lie about something AND has the
evidence to prove it. So for example, if you attempt to doubt a suspect despite
there being solid evidence he has done the deed; he can very easily shake it
off and say that you are threatening him without any solid proof.
This difference and the
choice the player makes in deciding between the three options can either make
or break the case.
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| Truth, Doubt or Lie? |
Another
gameplay aspect of this game are the shootouts seen throughout the game, some
found within the cases in the story, and the others found in the side missions
within the game, which involves the player handling street crimes. These
shootouts involve the player and their partner, which differs across all desks,
and the police force against enemies such as bank robbers, goons and criminals.
The guns on offer in the game are very limited, with only about 5 guns at most
available for the player to use. However, this does not mean the game suffers
from a lack of variety, as the focus of this game in the first place is to
investigate and think as a detective, and only in dire situations will a detective
choose to wield his weapon, and in this game, it’s usually when the bad guys
have weapons themselves… Yep, dire indeed.
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| Pewpew |
A
few good points
The
story of this is pretty well-written and ties into the whole “town is nice on
the surface, but beneath is a gruesome force at work” kind of feeling the cases
give off as the player progresses into the game, especially from the Homicide
desk onwards. And yes, that’s as spoiler-free as this review is going to get.
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| Anti-spoiler promotional art for you |
The
graphics and sound are extremely solid in this game, despite it being a 3 year
old game since this review. The sound, of course, deserves a commendation as
the voice acting and facial expression detail tie into one another so well that
it makes the game fun to play. The sounds of the guns are also gut-wrenchingly solid
and realistic, not to mention loud, all of this adding on to the realism aspect
of the game.
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| The graphics in-game |
A
few bad points
If there
had to be a bad thing about this game, it is the game’s linearity. Almost the
entire game is story-based and although it is an open-world map, only a few
areas are open to the player for exploration, and the fact that there is no
incentive within the game whatsoever that rewards exploration other than
several landmarks scattered around that reward a paltry amount of experience,
means this game gets hit in areas of replayability.
Another
(slightly) bad part about this game is its unforgiving nature in terms of
questioning suspects/witnesses. If you answer wrongly, you are wrong, straight
up, with no way of reverting your error other than reloading the save file and
possibly do a lot of investigative things and cut scenes before you even reach
the question again. This could potentially be off-putting to newcomers who want
to try their hand at detective games, and could possibly leave a bad impression.
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| A menu you'll see alot if you're a perfectionist |
TRIBAL
COUNCIL
Gameplay:
9.5/10, the amount of detail put into all the detective genre elements present
in the game is phenomenal.
Story:
9/10, the story of the game really manages to show the dark and underhanded
workings of the city of Los Angeles ranging from criminals and even the most
unexpected of people.
Graphics
& Sound: 9/10, for a game released 3 years ago, the graphics and sound of
the game is extremely well-made and implemented into the game, basically a hat
looks like a hat and a gun sounds like a gun.
Depth:
7.5/10, lack of weapon variety and investigative and interrogative methods
usually being the same throughout the game means this game lacks slightly in
terms of depth of content.
Learnability:
7/10, the learnability aspect really depends on the player’s logical and
deductive skills, and for the case of newcomers who may not expect such a tough
learning curve especially during their first playthrough may be caught
surprised and off-guard.
Replayability:
7/10, the game lacks replayability due to its linearity, as mentioned.
Overall:
8/10, a game balanced by its strengths and weaknesses which manages to pull of
their main focus while being pulled down by this main focus as well. A truly
solid game of 2011, and a worthy pick-up whenever there is an offer on Steam.
Summary
In all,
L.A Noire is an extremely solid game made 3 years ago, using the technology of
facial capture and combining it with detective gameplay, and the end result of
that is a near-perfect game which has managed to capture the essence of
investigative work and interrogational skill present in the detective game
genre, setting aside the linearity and unforgiving gameplay.
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| You're under arrest if you don't get this game, son. |
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