Review: LA Noire

There will always be a Call of Duty game, a Madden game, or a Need For Speed game, but there will only be one L.A. Noire. There is not a game that exists now that comes close to offering the wonderfully woven tapestry of exposition and tension that L.A. Noire offers, and I am confident that it will remain that way for some time.

You do not simply play L.A. Noire, you become invested in the narrative as it unfolds across multiple cases, and you are enveloped in the grimy underworld and slimy politics of crime-busting in Los Angeles during the late 1940s. Other games about might have atmospheric settings, but L.A. Noire does not simply just have great atmosphere, it drowns you in it.

Much like any great crime story, the narrative of L.A. Noir is driven by a stable of strong characters, and even the seemingly flawless main character Cole Phelps has surprising secrets that fit the tone and setting of the story. Thanks to the groundbreaking motion-capture technology created by the developers Team Bondi, the various characters come to life as you stare at the unbelievably life-like faces for signs that indicate things are not quite right, intensifying interrogations as you watch for twitching lips or shifty eyes that indicate possible lies.

Interrogations and character interactions are L.A. Noire’s greatest strength, but the rest of the game lacks the same energy and quality that Team Bondi put into those elements. The game lets you drive around on the stunningly recreated streets of late 1940’s Los Angeles, but it is a telling sign that it is entirely possible to not drive at all outside of the occasional car chase. Even the shoot-outs and pursuits can be skipped as well if the player fails enough times at those individual sequences.

 
The general gameplay outside of the interrogation sequences are not as intense or as riveting, but all of the basic shooting and driving mechanics feel solid, and LA Noire does a great job at spreading all the action sequences amongst all of the detective work to keep things fresh. Scouring crime scenes for evidence can get a bit frustrating at times, but musical cues and the vibrating controller are great at helping you out without too much hand holding.

At the end of the day, all of the nagging concerns about gameplay simply fall by the wayside. Like other Rockstar products, you will not necessarily play LA Noire for the gameplay, you will come for the great narrative and truly unique ideas that makes this game stand out from the others. Calling LA Noire a great ‘movie’ is selling it short of its accomplishments, and calling it the perfect game is being willfully ignorant of its gameplay flaws. Instead I am confident that you will find LA Noire a great experience. If you are making a list of games to play this year, LA Noire definitely needs be at the top of that list.