Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged...
Story
The story of L.A. Noire takes place in the burgeoning Los Angeles of the post-WWII 1940s. You'll take on the role of Cole Phelps, a supposed war hero who works his way up the ranks of the LAPD. Los Angeles at this time is not only dangerous, giving Detective Phelps plenty of wrongs to right, but it is also irreparably corrupt. The corruption digs so far at the heart of the city that each case that Phelps takes has an overwhelming dread that the straight-laced cop is just a bit too honest for his health. Of course, this being a Rockstar game, the characters and their extremely human portrayal drive the story and, despite the occasional lull into repetition, it is truly the driving for of the game itself as Phelps takes on murderers, crooks, and swindlers. The full scope of the over-arching story isn't revealed until the game's closing hours, but if you're able to piece together the tapestry Rockstar has created here, L.A. Noire just might be the most well-constructed and satisfyingly pessimistic story effort in the developers long history.Content
Although part of a long lineage, where L.A. Noire really starts to deviate (and not for the better) from its open-world brethren is with content. Noire isn't a short game by any measure, but outside of the main line of cases Phelps undertakes, there just isn't much there. After an introductory "Patrol" set of missions, Phelps will take on the responsibility of four desks throughout his LAPD career. Each desk has around four cases to take on, and while some are lengthier than others, they tend to even out at a few hours per desk for a total of about 12 hours of gameplay.Of course there are side activities, but these are reserved to a series of 40 "Petty Crime" calls you can answer whilst driving 'round the city. There are also a bunch of hidden cars to unlock and city landmarks to spy, all of which give you more XP towards your overall detective rank, but hunting for these seems overly superficial and gamey. Yes, you're a detective with a job to do, so I wasn't expecting to be doing favors for anyone or to be able to amuse myself with wanton destruction, but is looking for random garages with non-standard police vehicles hidden inside of them REALLY a more convincing side activity? I don't think so. And I don't think it's fun.
Gameplay
Sadly, that feeling of shaky quality transcends onto the gameplay. At its heart, L.A. Noire is an adventure game in the vein of the Ace Attorney series with action sequences thrown in. Each case proceeds in a similar fashion; you'll receive a case and jet over to the crime scene to investigate. You'll usually question a witness, then head off to another location and repeat the process. If you fail to get accurate information either from your shoddy investigatory skills or your inability to read the witnesses' lies, the case will change dynamically, and this will often lead you as Phelps to pursue it at a different angle than had you done your job correctly. This all plays into your case rating once you've got your suspect behind bars.While this whole "M-rated" Phoenix Wright has amazing potential, and at times Noire's blending of interrogation, investigation, and shooter...gation(?) feels perfect, it all becomes a little bit too linear after a while. When you first step onto a crime scene, survey the grizzly evidence and cut through the deception to the truth, using your keen observation of the facts and the human face, there's nothing quite like it. However, once you're introduced to the Homicide desk, and the cases cease to contain any level of variety, you start seeing the limitedness of the systems. To put it bluntly, unless you PURPOSELY do so... it's nearly impossible to do poorly in the investigation portion of the game.
This is because, not only are most of the clues hardly, if ever, concealed, but the game actually cues you with music if there are still clues to find. Music still playing? Keep looking. This skews the value of the gameplay inexorably on your interrogation skills. And just like the Ace Attorney series it is so much like, this means lots of leaps in logic, lots of trial and error, and lots of frustration. The final third of this gameplay triangle, the shooting and action sequences, are serviceable. As I stated before, this Rockstar games aren't necessarily driven by their action mechanics, but when the redundancy sets in during your detective duties, you can take some solace in the fact these segments are at least solid. Too bad they can get just as repetitive as everything else.
Presentation
At least the majority of L.A Noire's presentation is stellar. If you've read thus far, you probably wanna know what I think of the face motion capture. In short: IT'S INSANE. The level of detail the game captures is one thing, but the intangible human quality that its characters's have is something that can't be described. This is, of course, also due to a stellar cast. Yes, this video game has a proper cast, with actors who deliver a performance with both their voice and their face. They're bolstered by an appropriately period-looking Los Angeles which sports a similar meticulousness in its design. Topping it all off is a soundtrack with licensed 40s music and fantastic original music included. In short, this is a good looking game.Final Verdict
In the end, L.A. Noire is a fine experience. It's got interesting takes on various game genres that are boosted up by a stellar story and presentation. However, similar to games like Metal Gear Solid prior to it, too often did I find more pleasure in watching exposition the game had set forth for me than in the actual act of playing it. That isn't to say its gameplay is devoid of fun, and if played in a more spread out/ less deliberate fashion, its repetition can be greatly lessened. The point remains that Rockstar has achieved a fantastic feat in electronic media. They just haven't created the funnest game.L.A. Noire gets 4 stars out of 5...
