Readin Faces, Solvin Cases
L.A. Noire is the latest game in what appears to be a yearly tradition of releasing spin offs of GTA style games published by Rockstar. Unlike Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire is actually developed by Team Bondi. When you play this game, It's clear there was obvious support and help from Rockstar. Does L.A. Noire live up to the hype, will it be a game of the year contender like the past 2 games published by Rockstar?
In L.A. Noire you play as Cole Phelps. Cole is a war veteran, serving as an LAPD detective after coming back from the war. The game presents you with flashbacks from the war as it progresses. Playing as Phelps, you will work your way up in the ranks of the LAPD, working a variety of different crimes. Many of the cases you work don't even relate to the overall story of the game, and i found that it wasn't until near the end that the main story finally actually picked up. I scratched my head near the end a few times, as there was quite a bit going on, and a lot of different people. I was also confused at the rather extremely random plot twist. I'm not going to say to much more about the story, as it is best to let you discover it on your own.
The gameplay in this game is truly different. I'm always into a game offering a unique experience, and L.A. Noire did just that. As a detective, you will investigate different crimes, from drug deals, to homocides. There is a total of 21 cases to be completed in the main story line. Each case will generally have you drive to the crime scene, investigate the area and find clues, and drive away to interrogate someone or ask question. Asking questions and determining if someone is telling the truth or lying is a major part of this game. To help with this, Rockstar has put in actors facial expressions using a new type of face scan technology. When you first experience it, it's really, really cool. Based on a persons facial expressions or tone of voice, it is up to you to tell if someone is lying or being honest. The game gives you three options to respond to what people tell you: truth, doubt, and lying. If you pick truth, you believe they are telling the truth. If you pick doubt, you think they are lying, but you have no evidence. If you pick lying, you have evidence to prove that they are lying. Even if you screw up, you will still progress through the game. You should expect to mess up a lot, it's rather difficult to tell who is telling the truth and who isn't. At the end of each case, you are given a ranking between one and five stars. The more clues you find, and the better you detect lies will increase your ranking.
The interrogating and investigating a crime scene is very unique, and i've never really seen it in a video game. Some may compare it to Heavy Rain, but it's really nothing like it. I believe Team Bondi and Rockstar took a gamble with this, and for the most part it payed off, but not all the way. Although each case was different, by the end of the game i was getting tired of the whole gameplay system. It just seemed like i kept doing the same thing over and over, but in different settings and different crimes. For me, a game that is truly amazing, you will not want it to end. This wasn't the case in L.A. Noire, i was ready for it to finally end after the 20 hours i spent playing it.
There is a total of 21 main story cases, and 40 side missions. The side missions generally include robberies, or shootings, that leave you chasing and shooting the suspect. There is some shooting involved in the main missions as well, but i do wish it was used more frequently in them, as i found myself enjoying these parts the most. Other missions will leave you chasing a suspect when driving your car, and you will have to stop them by having your partner shoot out their tire, or effectively spinning them out with your car.
The graphics of LA Noire are interesting. The facial animations and expressions are something that have never been in a video game before. The overall scale and appearance of Los Angelas is great, and it's a pretty big city to explore. With that being said, the overall textures of characters, especially including hair, are not that great. It felt really wierd at times because the facial animations didn't match up with the bad textures of the characters. I'm going to say this may be because the facial animations took up a bunch of disc space. The game is about 20GB worth of space, spread out upon 3 discs. There is the ability to make the game black and white as well, which could help better set the feeling and tone of the game, if that's something you're into. I kept the game on the default graphical settings throughout.
L.A. is a big city to explore, but in all reality, there isn't that much to do in it. There are your 40 side missions, you will get a call over your police radio while driving, and then be able to respond and do a side mission. Other than that, there are landmarks you can look at, and hidden vehicles you can find. If you think you're going to be a bad cop and go run over people, think again, because you will be penalized for this. I really wish that there was more to do in the city, because i really the main use of this huge city was to be able to drive (or have your partner auto drive for you) from location to location, solving case after case. Sure, it help set the setting of the game, but overall i was disappointed with how "empty" it really was.
With any free roam style game, there's going to be glitches, and L.A. Noire is no exception. Most of the glitches in this game actually had to do with the driving. At one point, as i was about to enter my car, i opened my notebook to set my location first, closed the notebook to find a nice L.A. civilian ran me over, and i went back to my previous auto save. Sometimes when i turn the horn on, i found the traffic to be downright stupid. Sometimes they will get out of your way, but other times it seems like they purposely run out in front of you with their vehicle. Although not that big of a deal, on one of the cars i was driving, i broke off both of the doors on it, and whenever i got in and out of it, the characters still did the animation like they were opening and closing the door. Also on ALL of the hidden vehicles i found, if i got out of it for a few minutes (or seconds), and walked around, it would magically disappear. I was happy that none of the glitches were game breaking.
After completing the game, i had invested about 20 hours into it. I had completed 25 of the 40 side missions, driven 42 different vehicles, and had a total gamerscore of 540 / 1200. Although some time i may pop the game back in and try to get achievements, there's not much replay value. I'm sure they will be releasing DLC cases in the future which could also add longevity to the game. At the end of the day, for me, L.A. Noire is a mixed bag. The ideas are "AAA", however some of the execution of these ideas aren't. The empty city of Los Angelas as well as repetetive cases and somewhat confusing story elements kept this game from being an AAA title for me.
