L.A. Noire

I think I have discovered something about myself. I am a fan of the 50’s era. After playing Bioshock, which blew my mind with atmosphere and environment, I had an idea. Now that I have played L.A. Noire, I know this to be true. L.A. Noire defines the era with such great accuracy (presumably) that I just couldn’t get enough of it. There was a time a while ago, probably around the time Modern Warfare hit it big, that I thought the era of the single player experience had come to an end. Assassin’s Creed might have been the last big hurrah. But with L.A. Noire coming out in 2011, I can see as plain as day that the single player experience is still alive and well, and that warms my non-multiplayer heart immensely.

As far as first impressions go, L.A. Noire might not be the most spectacular that you’ve seen, but there is no denying it has presence. The obvious thing to notice, and I am sure you have heard this before, is the facial rendering. By far the most realistic you have seen in a game much less an open world game. And I am not just talking about the main character interactions, I am talking about every person walking down the street. They all have incredibly detailed facial rendering. It truly is amazing and you will not tire of noticing it. Luckily, those faces do more then just look nice, there is a fair amount of dialogue through this tale and even though the delivery of lines seems a bit choppy it comes across as very well done. There is a lot of top notch performances by people you will most likely recognize.

By far the best performances are earned from the partners and to a lesser extent, the captains that you pick up along the way. You will start with your typical good buddy cop, followed by a less then eager homicide detective who likes the easy way out. After that you will earn a Vice partner who’s about as crooked as they come. That leads to your last stereotypical partner, the close to retirement “too old for this shit” cop. Cole has vast amounts of dialogue between these partners and the majority takes place while driving to destinations. I will get into the driving later, but it is one of the few good reasons to drive yourself just to hear these great conversations. On the flip side, you won’t hear a lot out of your captains except for the beginning and end of each case and occasionally in the middle. There is only one captain that really stands out to be mentioned though and that is the homicide captain you will enjoy him of that I am sure.

An open world game is only as good as, well, its world. And the early 50’s Los Angeles that the team has crafted is very engaging. I am not saying it is the best that you can find but it has certainly has a lot of big ticket moments in it. I guess it mostly comes down to how exciting you find the setting. That game lives and dies by the fact that it is essentially a set piece. You play through four different departments each having around five cases. Few cases directly lead into the next, however there is a whole bunch of threads running between everything that takes place during the course of this adventure. Through a series of flashbacks and newspaper headlines, you are able to watch as events unfold culminating in a satisfying though still a bit hollowed conclusion.

From a gameplay perspective, L.A. Noire is just about as competent as any other open world game. You get points on a map to go to. You have some shallow weapon handling with an aim assist. The driving is as well done as it has ever been in open world games though a lot of the side missions have you driving great distances across the map. This is problematic in that you are always working on a case. During the course of a case the game keeps track of all of the damage you cause to vehicles property and pedestrians. So driving across the map will most likely net you a bunch of vehicle and perhaps even property damage that will cost you a good score at the end of the case. The work around is you can have your partner drive you to your objective. This will ensure you don’t get any dings on the case. The aforementioned side missions are just random acts of criminal behavior such as a shoot out or a car chase. They are about as fun as any other open world side mission though I will admit it is nice that some of the people you see through the main cases reappear in the side missions. Throw in some clue finding mechanics, a very tiny bit of puzzle solving, and some dialogue trees and you pretty much have it. Oh, and you can play the entire game in black and white, that’s pretty cool too though it is optional.

Add up all of the above and you have one hell of a detective novel. The setting is so focused and well done that I can’t think of a better example. This is your noir game, bottom line. The few cracks in the armor of gaming perfection comes in the form of some bad pop-in texturing squirrely pedestrian reactions and some unfortunate clipping and rag-doll craziness. This is a hallmark of open world games and by now you have heard of it as open world jank. But that is pretty much it. You will however need to know this is your type of game because I can’t recommend it to everyone. If you are in to detective stories and the early 50’s setting, then you will find a lot of millage for your money in L.A. Noire. Look for some sort of sequel to this one.