Game Review: L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games seems to be making the kinds of video games I like to play, no matter what they turn out.  Though I was never a huge fan of the GTA series, it was still fun to play.  Bully was one of my favorite games of all time.  And the latest one I discovered, a detective-type game from 2011, is L.A. Noire.  This one, however, doesn’t contain the over-the-top silliness that is present in a lot of Rockstar’s other products.  L.A. Noire, in fact, can be quite disturbing at times.

In L.A. Noire, you start out as Cole Phelps, a detective with the L.A.P.D.  You’ve come out of World War II and the year is 1947.  When you start, you’re just a low-ranking guy, but as you solve crimes you’ll move up and become one of the department's heroes.  Along the way, you have to deal with a variety of partners and enemies and try to make sure you get the right bad guy.  The crimes that you’ll solve range from small time to full-scale serial killings.  Often, you’ll be confronted with some harsh facts during the cases, so L.A. Noire is not for the faint of heart.  It’s a gritty and serious cop game for those that like the genre.

One of the more interesting parts of playing this game is having to interview potential suspects and leads.  Rockstar spent a lot of time and effort in developing the facial graphic technology for L.A. Noire and you actually have to read each person’s body language to figure out whether they’re telling the truth or not.  You can find clues lying about to support or dispute a person’s story, but sometimes you have to rely on your wits (or the wild-card “instinct” option).

I’ve only been playing this one for a week or so, but the game has me fully engaged.  I have a few problems with the combat system (which is almost non-existant) and the fact that you have to chase half the people you meet down alleys and across rooftops (everyone seems to be a parkour expert in this game), but the storyline itself is amazing.  The dialogue is also a complete win and the banter that Phelps has with his partners or when interogating suspects is natural and believable.  They really put a lot of time and effort into making the characters and the world of 1940s L.A. as realistic as possible and it shows.

If you can stand dealing with brutal and sometimes graphic crime scenes, you should check L.A. Noire out.  It may not be the most action-packed of Rockstar’s games, but it’s certainly one of their best stories.

Photo Credits -           

L.A. Noire still courtesy of gameinformer.com