WR: L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)

June 12th, 2011 by

Developer: Team Bondi
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Console: PS3, Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 22
Progress: Completed the main story

When it was rumored that Rockstar games was working on a new open world game people naturally took notice. Even though the concept was a bit unclear, the prospect of being immersed in another detailed open world period piece was enough to get mouths salivating. Enter L.A. Noire, a story-driven, investigative, adventure game set in 1940’s Los Angeles. Developed by Team Bondi, a new studio helmed by Brian McNamera, former Director of Development at SCE’s Team Soho Studio, London, it tells the tale of detective Cole Phelps, who is to be the poster boy of the LAPD and restore confidence in the city’s law enforcement amidst times of corruption and apathy.  So a combination of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Heavy Rain sounds pretty good right? Read on to find out if it actually is…

Story has been a big factor in recent Rockstar games however it takes especial precedence in L.A. Noire. As explained in the “gameplay” section of this review, although the player will find himself in an expensive replica of 1940s Los Angeles, the tasks that will have to be performed are very focussed in approach They hinge strongly on overarching cases and the role Cole Phelps is to play in the LAPD, making this the most story-driven Rockstar game to date.

You will learn a lot about the life of the young protagonist, Cole Phelps, throughout the course of the game, seeing him go from street cop to detective in various departments of the LAPD. The developer has infused the story of L.A. Noire with elements of corruption, scandal, cover-ups and subterfuge, revealing a gritty version of 1940s Los Angeles, including the normally sparkly Hollywood (still named “Hollywoodland” at that time). Phelps arrives in Los Angeles after having fought the Japanese during the second Wold War as an officer in the Marine Corps, flashbacks of Phelps’ time in war appear in between the game’s chapters. Standing out as a competent street cop, department brass decides that this man, who had such a distinguished performance during the war, would serve the department extremely well as the new face of the LAPD, a hero for the public to look up to and who would regain the public’s trust in the city’s police department.

The game is roughly divided into four parts, distinguishable by the different departments within the LAPD Phelps is assigned to as a detective. Every time you work for a new department you are also assigned a new partner, each of which represents different “deficiencies” within the police force. One partner may represent these by his extreme indifference to the case at hand, preferring getting to liquor store more than tracking down the actual culprit. Another will show the darker side of the department through signs of corruption and participating in activities normally frowned upon by law enforcement, like fixed gambling. With so many games giving the player the opportunity to be either good or evil it is very refreshing to be the last vestige of decency and virtue in an environment that has obviously lost those qualities.

The writing in L.A. Noire is excellent, the dialog can occasionally be cheesy but it is always in line with the film noire theme that inspired it. Aside from the different cases the story is further expanded on through flashbacks, which focus on Phelps’ time with the Marines, as well as newspapers, scattered through the environments, which mainly provide more background information on how certain drug problems in LA arose. One major issue in the story department however is the pacing, the second assignment the player will find himself in is homicide, the focus during this part of the game is to find a notorious serial killer who has been praying on women. The suspense and buildup during this part of the game is so large that it eclipses the third section, which is moves far slower in comparison, the final section tries to bring all earlier story elements together but takes so much longer to do so then previous chapters. The writers also make some strange decisions with the playable character towards the end and ask us to change our perspective on our protagonist long after the gamer has made up his mind. Having said that there is far more depth and intrigue in L.A. Noire‘s story than the vast majority of video games out there, making for a gripping experience.

L.A. Noire is a great looking game, but let’s delve right into its most impressive asset: the new MotionScan technology, it is what brings the unbelievably realistic facial animations to life. Not only does L.A. Noire have amazing voice acting, the actors that have lent their talents to the voice overs, also had their faces scanned and animated in such a realistic fashion, you can literally see every facial muscle and nuance in accordance with the actors emotional state. Mass Effect 2 may have some of the best facial textures in gaming, however L.A. Noire has the best facial animations seen to date. This was not just done for show of course, but rather as an integral gameplay component, reading a suspect’s face is an important part of the interrogation process.

Another very impressive aspect of the game’s visual presentation is the game world itself. The portion of Los Angeles, including Hollywood, that Team Bondi made playable is absolutely massive. You thought Grand Theft Auto 4‘s Liberty City was big? Wait till you have to drive from one end of LA to the other, you had better pack a lunch because you’ll be a while! Size is one thing, but it is the detail of this classical iteration of the city of angels that packs the knock out punch. Instead of using flat layers of textures to drape the many buildings in LA, the developer has taken great care in crafting everything with the appropriate level of detail for increased realism. Window- and door frames, store awnings, pillars and drainpipes are all faithfully represented in 3D polygon models instead of being “stickered” on, while inside locations are brimming with small details that make them look like they were pulled right out of real life. All this detail does wear on the engine and as a result the game does suffer from frequent pop in, which is our biggest gripe with the game’s visuals.

The game employs bright, ambient lighting and vibrant colors for a great look. As will be discussed in our gameplay section however, although the game world may be large and detailed, it feels empty at the same time because of the extreme lack of interactivity. Having said that, Rockstar keeps pushing the boundaries of what open world games look like and the characters that populate them. Never before have we seen a game where the characters and their facial prompts are so instantly recognizable. For those of you who own both a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it is worth nothing that L.A. Noire was developed on the PS3 hardware and ported over to the 360, that it only comprises one disc on the PS3 versus three on the 360, that it looks slightly better on the PS3 and that you get an extra mission exclusive to the PS3.

The music in L.A. Noire is appropriately melancholy and moody for its crime noire theme, it is nothing too inspiring but settles into the background nicely. Sound effects are fairly detailed but there are certainly inconsistencies with the sound bites. Voice clips by random citizens in the game world are repeatedly much too frequently and at inappropriate times. I walked into a random diner for instance, and a voice clip ran of a patron hitting on a waitress, problem being, there wasn’t a single waitress in the diner, just a bartender. Occurrences like these were frequent and seemed to cheapen the experience slightly.

Along with the phenomenal facial animation comes high class voice acting courtesy of a stellar cast of actors. Rockstar is really blurring the lines here between video games and high quality (think HBO) TV shows with dialog and voice acting that truly surpasses what we normally associate with video games. Mad Men star, Aaron Staton brings the game’s protagonist, Cole Phelps, to life in brilliant fashion, the delivery of his lines is intense and heartfelt and Staton’s face is modeled faithfully in the persona of Detective Cole Phelps.

The controls in L.A. Noire are functional, usually you will be on foot where dual analog controls apply for movement. They adjust for gameplay-specific sequences like driving, interrogation or fighting however. Responsiveness can sometimes leave a bit to be desired, apparent from Phelps’ sluggish movement when starting or stopping a run for instance. There is a cover mechanic, which definitely comes in handy during firefights, your character can employ cover simply by standing next to it and pressing the right trigger button. Phelps will auto aim if you press the aim button (left trigger) as someone pops out of cover, if you time this properly fire fights become way too easy as all you have to do is tap the aim button and squeeze right trigger button to take down enemies without any effort.

PlayStation 3 gamers should know that playing with a DualShock 2 controller is essentially pointless in L.A. Noire as rumble is used every time you are near a clue. Sometimes clues are so obscure, or require further investigation, that if it wasn’t for the rumble feedback, the player would miss out on a lot of essential gameplay material.

Being a detective, your main objective in the game is obviously to solve cases. Depending on what stage of the game the player will find himself in this will be in one of four different crime departments. Cases are solved by investigating the crime scene for usable clues, indicated by your controller’s rumble function. Clues will lead to new locations and potential suspects, which are all tracked in your notepad, accessible through the select button. You can drive in the massive, open world that is 1940’s Los Angeles by jumping into any vehicle available or explore on foot in 3rd person.

People can be interviewed on location or in the interrogation room at the precinct, the latter of which usually means the conclusion of a case. Most of the game boils down to these confrontations between detective and suspect and this is where L.A. Noire‘s most impressive aspect comes in: the facial animations. Once you are face to face with your person of interest, the camera will focus in on him or her and as Phelps is asking questions, the suspect’s facial reactions will aid you in determining whether the answer is the truth, doubtful, or a lie. Exposing a lie is the most potent way to force a confession however when you call a lie you have to back this up with evidence. A list of uncovered evidence shows up after choosing “lie” as a reaction to a suspect’s statement, choosing the right evidence will usually result in the suspect releasing more information while choosing the wrong evidence will cause people to become much less cooperative. Reading facial cues is not difficult due to the stellar detail new MotionScan technology, which Team Bondi implemented for L.A. Noire, however it is still up to the player to determine whether or not he or she has the correct evidence to call a lie instead of doubting an answer.

This leads me directly into my main gripe with L.A. Noire‘s gameplay, namely the arbitrary nature of it. At times I felt perfectly justified in calling a lie and providing what I thought to be, perfectly sound evidence, however the game typically only has one answer in mind, regardless of how reasonable your desired response may seem. Unfortunately this sense of being pigeonholed into doing one specific thing carries over to much of the game. For example, there are 40 street crimes in L.A. Noire, which are side quests of sorts that appear randomly throughout the city. These street crimes usually result in either a shootout, foot chase or char chase. The game however, is very specific in what you can and cannot do during these street crimes, during one altercation you may be permitted to take out your gun to stop a suspect while in the next you are forced to settle things by way of a fist fight. There is no rhyme or reason to this, the game decides when your gun is usable and when it isn’t, making the experience feel completely arbitrary. A further example comes from the car chases, of which there are many, the game makes you think like you have the power to stop the car chase whenever you want, by ramming the suspect off the road or by having your partner blow out the tires with their gun. The reality is that the game has an exact location in mind where the chase will come to a conclusion, making most of your attempts to stop the chase futile as rubber-binding is used with impunity to create distance between your vehicle and that of the suspect. Instead all you are required to do is to keep up with the target vehicle until the computer-controlled car has crashed in its predetermined location.

All these examples point towards one major flaw in L.A. Noire, unlike typical Rockstar games it is not a wide open, do what you want, when you want- game. This would have been fine if the gameworld was presented in a more focused scope, like Heavy Rain, but instead Team Bondi gives us a huge, open world and populates it with….nothing. No NPCs to interact with, aside from some cars- no hidden goodies to collect, some buildings can be entered but there is no interaction within…it all feels so very pointless. To have this beautiful, never before seen world, with nothing to do outside of the very linear main story missions, seems like such a waste.

Although a decent-sized game, L.A. Noire won’t take as long to complete as past Rockstar games you may have played. I finished the game at just over 20 hours, that’s with most vehicles found and the majority of street crimes completed, gamers going through it at a faster pace should have no problem getting to the end of the story in 15 hours. Once the game is over there is no point to replaying it again though. Once the mysteries and story twists have been revealed there is nothing left to come back to, as mentioned in the gameplay section of this review, there is no satisfaction in free roaming, so when the story ends its time to close the book and put it back on the shelf, sadly forever.

For those who expect an open world, exploration extravaganza like Grand Theft Auto 4 or Read Dead Redemption look elsewhere. Although L.A. Noire feigns freedom through a massive 1940s version of Los Angeles, the gameplay is arbitrary beyond measure and not about freedom of choice at all. Rockstar games confuses gamers by reminding them of past sandbox-style games with L.A. Noire but instead offering a far more focussed, character-driven tale. This game is recommended to anyone who appreciates a mature, story-driven experience, if however, you have a 2 minute attention span and a trigger finger, this is most definitely not the game for you.

Story:

+ Dialog is well written

– Story is not well paced

Graphics:

+ Huge open world with lots of detail

– Prevalent pop in

Sound:

+ Phenomenal voice acting

+ Nicely detailed sound effects

– Although decent, music is recycled too much

Gameplay:

+ Reading suspects’ facial cues is a fun gameplay gimmick

– The same routine is required for every case

– The arbitrary nature of the gameplay gets tiresome

Usagi Factor:

+ Lots of cases to sink your teeth into

– Very little replay value

 

Rated 7.9