The deepest black
There's a lot to be said for a strong single player narrative. As a person that will rarely ever delve into a game's multi player component, I can appreciate when the time and effort has been put into a game in order to create an engrossing solo experience.
Such is the case with LA Noire. Although prominently displaying the Rockstar name on the box, this is not your typical havoc wreaking, rags-to-riches/retribution story. Instead we are treated to a strong period piece that is far more content with conveying mood and creating an atmosphere that you can become quickly lost in. Much like Red Dead Redemption before it, we are given a great setting full of compelling and disgusting characters.
I have never been a fan of the "starting shit" style of open world play. Thankfully, LA Noire does not even provide you an option for this. You can never draw a gun unless the game's scenario dictates that a gun is required. What is provided instead is a slow, painfully methodical game about solving crimes that has more in common with point and click adventure games than it does with open world crime. Will this turn people off? Probably. As someone who has been playing games for the better part of 3 decades its refreshing to come across something that is so focused on a compelling package rather than just slapping a copyrightable name onto a new game mechanic and calling it a day. It's also refreshing to find an M rated game where the mature rating is not used ironically.
Is this crime thriller perfect? Far from it. While the game is certainly rife with great story and scenery, the action moments are terrible. Very little of the main story cases involve action sequences. Largely you are investigating crime scenes for clues, driving to locations and interviewing suspects. However, when these action sequences occur you are usually chasing someone on foot, or chasing them in a car. And typically these are dull. The action sequences are so heavily scripted that they almost always have a predetermined outcome which is entirely independent of how well you can drive or run after the suspect. The upside to this is that it prevents spontaneous mission failure due to the typical random open world unpredictability factor. The downside is that if you do have to repeat a chase, you see every near miss and close call crash happen in the exact same spots.
Ultimately I'm torn on what to think of this game. I was sucked into marathon play sessions that ate up huge chunks of my day just trying to find all the clues and finish the case. On the other hand, there is an expectation of playability within a video game. While I have nothing but praise for the casework sections of this game, I expect to have more compelling reasons to drive after people or, when the game allows, shooting at people. The action sequences feel so contrived that it becomes all to obvious where the developers interests were. While they have done amazing things with their new facial animation technologies, I feel that they have let the players down on the mindless fun part of gaming. As an adventure game, something magnificent has been created here. As a fun escape you can just pick up and play, they have failed. Not that that is what they wanted anyway. LA Noire is a bleak, terrible world full monsters, and sadly, that makes it the most realistic game I've played in years.
