[Review] L.A Noire

[Warlock-]

 

When it first released in 2011, L.A. Noire was an anomaly; its facial capture tech was an innovative showcase of animation, and it's focus on slower-paced interrogation puzzles widely contrasted the big-budget shooters of the time. Six years later, the game has surprisingly managed to make its way onto Switch. While a few sacrifices were made in performance and graphical fidelity to get L.A. Noire running, the ambitious spirit of this stylistic 1940s-era detective adventure remains. THE. Noire's main 21 cases are all present, including all of its DLC cases. As budding LAPD detective Cole Phelps, you spend the bulk of your time gathering evidence, interrogating suspects, and making accusations. Phelps is a fascinating, yet morally flawed, character whose checkered past is compelling to see unfold as the story goes on. The cases you solve remain interesting and well-paced, balancing slower, more meticulous investigative moments with brief shootouts and vehicular / on-foot chases. On Switch, the game controls as well as on previous generation consoles, especially when playing docked with a Pro Controller. It also offers motion and touch controls, which are welcome additions that make L.A. Noire feel more involved Motion controls allow you to use the right Joy-con to control the camera and physically mani[CENSORED]te objects you pick up, while touch controls command Phelps where to go and what to investigate by simply tapping the screen. However, both control schemes do not feel as functional as playing with a traditional gamepad setup.

 

 

While L.A. Noire's story and varied pacing are some of its most exceptional aspects, where it is truly shines is in its interrogation sequences. Armed with your intellect and the wealth of evidence you collect during your investigations, questioning suspects and seeing through their facial ticks to expose their secrets lead to many of the game's most tense and captivating moments. The facial animations hold up well, displaying a level of realism that's still impressive. And with top-notch performances from its facial capture actors, interrogations are just as absorbing and believable. In a subtle change from the original, interrogation options have been changed from "Truth," "Doubt," and "Lie" to "Good Cop," "Bad Cop," and "Accuse." The new naming scheme helps to give you a better understanding of Cole's behavior towards suspect's testimony, which was difficult to gauge in the original. The renewed context is particularly useful when suspect is playing coy, where it makes sense that using the more forceful "Bad Cop" approach would root out more information. However, the new terminology is not perfect. There are situations where it is not specific enough; this is apparent when responding with "Good Cop", where the option seems to lean more towards believing the suspect rather than following proper police protocol. Despite this occasional issue, interrogations are consistently rewarding, often requiring critical thinking and sharp judgment to complete perfectly.

 

THE. Noire's finer qualities are maintained, but its remarkable shortcomings also persist. Movement is a bit clunky during shootouts, and there is plenty of useless filler objects to sift through during crime scene investigations. But the most glaring issue lies in the game's recreation of 1940s-era Los Angeles, which is authentic but does not offer much to do outside of main missions and random street crime activities. New hidden collectables in the form of books and records have been added to the Switch version to encourage exploration, but it's not made clear that these items exist These issues do not take much to detract from the experience at large, especially considering how well the game runs and how good it looks. Visuals are reminiscent of the original version, only sporting new jagged edges, fluctuating textures, and noticeably weaker draw distances and dynamic lighting effects in some instances. However, these issues are less apparent when playing the undocked game, where it runs and looks the best.

 

On the other hand, frame rate maintains a steady 30 frames per second, only drastically dipping when surrounded by multiple NPCs or vehicles while on foot. Though, it's not a deal breaker, seeing as the game consistently performs well during the moments where it matters, like during investigations, interrogations, and car chases. Even considering L.A. Noire's age, it's a wonder that the game can be played on Switch. While nowhere near as technically striking as seeing Doom run on the console, there's still something special playing about what was once such an ambitious game on last-generation consoles in the palm of your hand. And the game lends itself well to the platform; the bite-sized length of missions makes it a great fit for playing on the go. If sharper visuals and higher frame rate are huge factors in your enjoyment, then you're better off playing L.A. Noire on PS4 and Xbox One, which sport added bells and whistles that elevate the game's performance. But if you're charmed by the idea of experiencing it portably, then L.A. Noire on Switch comes recommended. It may not be the best under pressure, but it's well worth replaying or experiencing for the first time on Nintendo's convertible console.

L.A Noire is different. It's not like most video games developed by Rockstar. You do not play the outlaw running wild, free to kill, steal, and cause destruction. You're a cop. A good cop at that, determined to restore order to the violent streets of 1940s Los Angeles. L.A Noire's not like most games. Sure, there are car chases, gunfights, and a point-tally to judge the quality of your police justice, but it's a slow-paced, meditative experience. The focus is not on how good you are at scoring headshots with a pistol but instead your ability to read a suspect's face and determine if he or she is telling the truth, holding something back, or flat out lying.

Using a brand new technology called MotionScan, L.A. Noire delivers pure performances from a talented group of actors. Every wrinkle, twitch, downward glance, grimace, and hard swallow is from an actor playing a part, not an animator mani[CENSORED]ting things from behind the scenes. It's a striking, sometimes unnerving effect certain to help push video games closer to true cinematic experiences. It's easy to fall into old video game habits like checking your phone while listening to a line of dialogue, but you're setting yourself up for failure. The actors' tells are in their faces, their posture, their eyes are rarely revealed in what they say. This is where L.A. Noire shines The interrogations are like lengthy dialogue scenes you'd see in an RPG - but they're captivating. This is the core of L.A. Noire and that core is very good. You're a detective, so you're going to scour crime scenes searching for clues. And when you question witnesses, you have to think less like a gamer and more like a sleuth. It's not easy. In fact, it's often a real challenge to judge the trustworthiness of a witness' statement. The line between "doubt" and "lie" is very narrow. Though L.A. Noire's hero, Cole Phelps, is regarded as one of the best case men ever, I still managed to falsely accuse dozens of suspects, who were actually forthcoming, and used the wrong clue to try and catch killers in lies.

 

After every question, selected from Phelps' trusty notebook, you get a response from the suspect. Then you must choose to believe, doubt, or accuse them of lying. Get it right and you can open them up and get more clues. Get it wrong, and they offer less. The better you do over the course of a case, the more you will understand the suspect's motivations. The worse you do, the tougher it is to get at the truth, but there's no possibility of failure in any conversation. THE. Noire will not abruptly end if you fail to catch a killer's lie or miss an important clue. The bad guy only gets away if it's pre-determined in the story. The only game over screen comes from dying or allowing to fleeing suspect to escape. This makes you less of a real detective and more of a page turner, destined to always reach the next chapter so long as you make a choice - any choice. THE. Noire is not all about badgering people, though. This is still an open-world game. You're free to deviate from a case, explore faithfully recreated 1947 Los Angeles, and tackle more action-oriented missions. No, you can not run wild like in Grand Theft Auto (you're a cop, accept it), but there are some other things to do. Forty "unassigned cases" come in as calls on the radio. These are not random; they're single-scene missions where you'll stop at bank robbery, chase down to bat-wielding lunatic, or shadow to crook to your hideout.

A few other distractions can be had - finding all of the famous L.A. locations and discovering more than a dozen hidden cars - which earn you points towards leveling up your rank. New ranks mean new clothes, hidden car locations, and intuition points (which can be spent to reveal clues and narrow choices when interrogating suspect). This is the "game" portion of L.A. Noire, the part built for those who are not ready to release their old needs as gamers. And maybe Rockstar is struggling to release that same hold. I like going about town, but L.A. Noire would have been stronger with greater focus on the experience and less concern for including traditional game elements. Each time I start getting immersed in the world, I'm reminded "you're playing a game" with unnecessary text popping up on the screen or a score tallying my lie-detecting ability. There are moments when L.A. Noire comes together brilliantly, when the threads from multiple cases lead to a darker ringleader. But more often, things are perhaps too true to real police work repetitive, redundant, and unsurprising. Despite having 21 cases, some of which can take more than an hour to complete, L.A. Noire drags at times because it recycles the same drama.

Ten cases in, I knew what to expect. I come to a crime scene and search for some clues that then open one or two new locations in L.A. to investigate. From there, I know I'll end up chasing someone on foot through the back-alleys of the city or through the streets in my car. All this leads to a final interview with a suspect in the police station interview room, where even screwing up completely still leads to an arrest. I might think the guy's innocent, but except on rare occasions, I'm just going through the motions and have no control over the end result. When L.A. Noire breaks free from the formula, it can be stunning. A great example comes at the end of Phelps' time on the Homicide desk, when you are freed from the usual case work and instead have to solve riddles that leads you to landmarks across Los Angeles. The end of the homicide desk is refreshing, startling, different, and necessary to hold interest in what is a series of the same song and dance.

 

Even with its redundancies, L.A. Noire is still entertaining. Normally, I'd say a game like this, "great voice acting," but with its amazing new technology, L.A. Noire has great performances. It's more than just the voice, it's the wayisms, the way someone's mouth, after telling a lie, the unease of a wrongdoer being grilled in the box. There have been games with graphics far superior to L.A. Noire's, with a level of fidelity that makes the world seem more real than what's outside your door. But I've never seen Adam's apples move when people talk or throat muscles tense when someone almost says too much. It's fascinating to watch a sort of hybrid between an action game and an episode of Law & Order. With that gift of having detailed, human faces, Rockstar and developer Team Bondi have the vehicle to deliver an incredibly emotional and engaging story. THE. Noire falls short, though. Despite great performances, some killer dialogue, and one of my favorite game soundtracks in years, L.A. Noire left me cold. Cole Phelps begins as a paragon of the LAPD, but his true past is revealed. If hero or pariah, I just never liked him that much because his story is told at times haphazardly. There is an omniscient narrator in the early missions of L.A. Noire who disappears halfway through and never returns. Cole has a wife he almost never talks about until the plot needs a complication to Phelps' pristine image. There's a confounding "twist" with three cases left that changes the focus of the story and left me scratching my head.

L.A Noire has issues, but it's also a bold and unique take on games as entertainment. The core gameplay mechanics work - no issues with driving, chasing perps across town, taking cover, shooting people, figuring out what to do next, or understanding how to interrogate suspect. The various elements never come together at the same time to create something spectacular, but there are a lot of good things going on. Some will love L.A. Noire for being different and others are going to find the slower pace to deal-breaker. Crime is Always Black & White Click here for more of IGN's L.A. Noire coverage.

 

The Verdict

I struggle with L.A. Noire, because at times I love it, yet it has some remarkable flaws. As a noir fan, I find moments that really get me grinning. There are certain cases that draw me in and side characters who eat up the scene. But it never adds up - amazing pieces that do not remove amount to an incredible game. At the same time, no one's ever played a game like this before. And unless there's a sequel, I doubt anyone will again for some time. Credit Rockstar for taking a huge risk, for succeeding in many areas, and for offering something fresh and different. THE. Noire may not reach the emotional heights of a game like Heavy Rain, but it's something everyone must try out. It reaches high and almost succeeds as a brilliant new type of video game narrative.

 

 

 

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