Best Mystery Game Ever
Rockstar, who has become the most consistently amazing game developer out there, brought out the much-troubled L.A Noire at last. And, yet again, they make a game radically different than their usual fare. True, it is open world --- but this game has nothing in common with Grand Theft Auto. Doesn't have anything really in common with Bully. Obviously, drastically different than Table Tennis and Max Payne. That they have such a willingness to try something completely different than they have done in the past is a huge feather in their hat.
L.A Noire is an excellent murder mystery. It's CSI --- except good, engaging, and with outstanding production values. The production values are amazing. It is one of the few games where you can simply read lips and get the dialogue (I decided to test this and it worked perfectly). You play straight-laced detective Cole Phelps who is as good a person as has appeared in a Rockstar game and uses intellect and wits to solve crimes across a series of desks.
The game does the rare trick of having a lot of blood and more than a little bit of nudity with a total lack of gratuity involved. It handles the crimes very maturely and the blood and occasional nudity are key parts of the cases. It's the kind of game where you don't feel all that creepy about a slightly-underaged kid seeing simply because while bloody, it is not close to being gory.
Your rise to prominence occurs over multiple desks, with the layout of the desks seeming a little odd (homicide occurs before vice and arson --- though arson has the best cases, so it being last actually makes a lot of sense). And even though the cases are episodic, there tends to be overarching storylines. The cases ARE linked, but not so tightly that doing the cases out of order would actually cause you problems.
The controls are effective as you'd expect. The cars handle, well, like huge hunks of metal that cars in the late 40's and early 50's tended to be. Your character moves smoothly and animates really well. Aiming is really easy as well. The one stumbling block of Rockstar games tends to be the overall controls but it is nearly perfect here.
The big game mechanic, though, is determining honesty or lying. You do this by finding evidence and, more importantly, closely watching the behavior and facial expressions of your suspect. If you falsely accuse somebody of lying, you will have them refuse to answer more questions and your odds of solving the case drop like a rock. Incorrectly believe somebody's story and you won't pursue the necessary questions to determine the veracity of later suspects. It does give some clue about police procedures. True, it is unlikely cops feel a helpful rumble when near evidence, but otherwise, it makes you appreciate how challenging building a case can be. It is well-worth the time and effort to experience.
It's not to say the game is perfect. Environments can seem somewhat dull. A lot of the missions seem to be really similar in style. Also, the ending credits take such an incredibly long time to complete that one can prepare a meal before it ends. Also, a lot of the collectible things aren't relevant. The newspapers you collect don't really seem all that enlightening to the plot or character. You have collectibles just to collect things and it is not an engrossing reason to enough to pursue the work to find everything.
L.A Noire, while lacking replay value, is still the best game out this year thus far. The 20 or so hours of case work is a blast as well as numerous pieces of DLC that are all enjoyable (and brief). The solutions to the cases are all logical and you can actually determine honesty or lying by watching the behavior of the person being investigated. You cannot ask more out of a murder mystery than this and I do not see how another mystery game can really hope to inhabit the same space as this masterpiece.
