"City of Angels, City of Death"
Honestly, I think that mystery games have fallen out of fashion within the recent millennia. It seems that a lot of people don't have the patience for these sorts of games and require something a bit fast-paced. Luckily, there's a mystery-themed game out there that I think can suit to these sort of needs, which is quite possibly one of the best games released under the Rockstar Games belt.
Let's take a look at Team Bondi's first and only game ever released, L.A. Noire for the Xbox 360.
L.A. Noire Review (Xbox 360)
Synopsis
The plot of L.A. Noire takes place in the late 1940s and centers around WWII veteran and police detective Cole Phelps, who is assigned to solving a multitude of cases ranging from murder, to cases involving the drugs trade, and then arson cases. As you progress further into the game, you slowly begin to realize that the cases are interlinked with the city's shady underworld dealings.
Setting
L.A. Noire takes place in a period-accurate Los Angeles, and offers a sizeable map for you to explore. To my understanding, the developers of Team Bondi took a lot of time and resources into making the map of Los Angeles as authentic as possible, and it shows. It's unfortunate however that the map isn't heavily used in the open-world.
Gameplay
L.A. Noire is a third-person, action-adventure game which also takes elements from adventure / mystery games. At a glance, L.A Noire is similar to open world games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, but doesn't offer the same sort of post-game content to keep you playing.
The majority of the L.A. Noire's gameplay entails finding clues, solving puzzles and questioning eye-witnesses or potential criminals. During questioning, you will be given three choices in order to deduct whether someone is telling the truth or lying (with or without evidence). The game requires you to use your initiative to solve cases, and observe certain facial movements to deduce whether someone is hiding information from you. To keep track on all the clues you've tracked down, suspects involved in a case and locations you've visited, you have a notepad that can be accessed at anytime during gameplay. You can also view a transcript of dialogue if you need to recall statements that haven't been tracked down on the notepad. Throughout L.A. Noire, you will be accompanied by a partner who can offer you some advice and can even drive you to different locations. You can also use a police phone box when prompted for advice and information. After a successful interrogation, you will gain some experience points that can unlock intuition points as well as different outfits. Intuition points can be used to remove one of three choices during a questioning, find out which of the three choices has been selected by other players, or track down any clues that you haven't found already. As you complete a case, you will be awarded a ranking up to 5 stars depending on your overall performance and investigation skills.
Although L.A. Noire is slow-paced, the game offers some action set-pieces such as on-foot / car chases, brawls and gunfights. These are few and far between, and can even be skipped as they don't affect your case ranking. Many of the chases in-game feel scripted and typically don't last for long. The hand-to-hand combat in this game is nothing special, but could've been improved upon. Same goes for the occasional gunfights you will have with various crooks and gangsters, as L.A Noire doesn't offer too many weapons for you to use and these weapons cannot be used in the open world - presumably because it wouldn't make much sense for a police detective to going out on a shooting spree against civilians. As a matter of fact, the game will penalize you for harming civilians due to reckless driving.
Despite being quite linear, L.A. Noire does offer an open world segment in which you can participate in various street crimes - most of which are typically copy / paste gunfights or chases. You can also collect unique vehicles, golden film reels, and view the landmarks of the city. There's not a lot that the game offers to you upfront in this mode, but it may be interesting to explore this lovingly-crafted depiction of Los Angeles.
Graphics
If anyone is familiar at all with L.A. Noire, you will know that one of the high selling points of the game was the detailed facial animations which utilized an expensive motion capture technology that was tailor-made for the gameplay experience. While L.A. Noire had some very impressive motion capture at the time, it has admittedly shown its age over the years.
In general, the graphics of L.A. Noire look well-detailed and definitely push the limits of the Xbox 360 - so much that the game actually comes on three discs. Even with that aside, the game looks great and performs well across the board.
One minor feature that I wanted to note for this review was the inclusion of a black & white mode, which presents L.A. Noire in a similar fashion to the source media it was inspired by. I personally think that this game looks fitting in black & white, but I understand that some people may not be interested playing with this filter on.
Audio
L.A. Noire features an in-game soundtrack that is mostly made up of jazz-style music evoking the cinematic themes of the time period. The soundtrack provides a good atmosphere and is quite memorable to listen to all these years later.
The licensed music of L.A. Noire consists of popular music from the mid-to-late 1940s which can be heard occasionally when driving a vehicle. As far as I'm aware, unlike games such as Mafia II or The Saboteur, none of the music is anachronistic to the time period and completely fits with the tone that the game is going for. Outside of licensed music you can hear in a vehicle, you will also hear several radio announcements and even radio shows that were actually broadcast in the year that L.A. Noire takes place in. It was a pleasure to hear this sort of stuff as very few games go the extra mile of making the world that believable.
The voice work in L.A. Noire is extensive, but has very few noteworthy names. Aaron Staton, who is also known for being in the TV series Mad Men, portrays leading protagonist Cole Phelps. Other names of interest include Peter Blomquist, John Noble and Adam J. Harrington - all of which have appeared in other noteworthy games. I'm unsure whether the voice talent were trying to sound like characters in old-school film noir or like how people spoke in that time period. Regardless, the dialogue in the game feels punchy, and to-the-point - and is accompanied well with the motion capture.
Conclusion
In brief summary, L.A. Noire is a game for the thinker that requires a lot of patience, intuition and insight to be fully enjoyed. That is why I give this game a 4/5 stars for its strong gameplay, ambitious graphics and details that make it a faithful homage to film noir.
L.A. Noire was a clear-cut definition of a "sleeper hit" that only has just recently become popular. Maybe with that spark of interest, Rockstar Games could decide to make a sequel to this classic mystery thriller.