Review - L.A. Noire

YEARS of broken promises, false starts and almost no solid facts about what L.A. Noire actually was gave the impression that this was a title doomed to fall into the pits of development hell. Thankfully Australian developer Team Bondi pulled it together, despite what appears to have been a nightmarish workplace, and created one of the best games I’ve played all year.

Set in 1940s Los Angeles, you take on the role of Cole Phelps, a war hero struggling to come to terms with the things he saw and did while fighting the Japanese in Okinawa, but has since become a reliable cop in a city filled with corruption. The overall story progresses slowly, but what you're really here for is the cases - and thankfully this is where L.A. Noire excels. But before I get into that I point out that despite looking like a Grand Theft Auto-style game, thanks in no small part to its open-world design and large amounts of car chases and shoot-outs, L.A. Noire is not an action game. This is a serious police procedural game - right down to questioning reluctant suspects and investigating crime scenes from clues. In fact you can only draw your weapon when the story calls for it and that you can skip all action sections if you so choose, but that’s because the focus is on gathering evidence and solving cases. On top of that there's a healthy dose of melodrama to ensure you actually care about the characters in L.A. Noire and want to solve each crime with the best possible outcome.

But by the same token don't be think of L.A. Noire as a police simulation game - it's more like a police drama simulation. The beginning of each case starts by showing you the victim being murdered, much like any television police drama, so you don't go in completely blind like a real investigator would. And often times cases devolve into shoot-outs where you kill a gang of bad guys, with practically no consequences, or car chases that smash through construction sites and damage civilian vehicles. Surely you'd have to do a little extra paperwork for that, right? I didn't expect the game to go that realistic of course and in the battle between realism and fun in a video game fun should win most of the time, but just go in knowing this is a drama and not a simulation.

Still, LA Noire may let you get away with a lot in certain areas, but when it comes to the investigating crimes you'd better pay attention because you can really screw the pooch if you don't. The first step to most investigations is arriving at the scene of the crime and determining what happened by walking around and grabbing whatever you find and checking it for clues. On paper that may sound like a chore but searching a crime scene is easy, thanks to subtle audio and controller rumbling cues that let you know when you’re near something of interest. Most of the time your character will think out loud, summarising what you are looking at and why it's important. But the clues will still be useless if you don’t pay attention and end up following the wrong leads, misinterpreting evidence and ultimately putting away the wrong person. But when you get it right it feels incredibly rewarding to back some low-life into a corner with solid evidence before slapping the cuffs on them.

The game is made up of 'desks' - patrol (which barely counts as it's more of a tutorial than anything), traffic, homicide, vice and arson. Each of these desks comes with its own set of challenges and overall story arc, such as the Black Dahlia murders on the homicide desk, as well as a new partner for you to work with. One of the game's greatest strengths is the relationship you build with your partner - whether it's the slippery vice detective or the hard-nosed arson investigator, these characters feel well fleshed out and realised. There's no long drawn out scenes of exposition, just a couple of guys working a case and occasionally letting parts of their personality seep into their work.

L.A. Noire's most obvious big draw card is its graphics, and thankfully they are put to good use. The city environment is simply incredible, and even though this slice of 1940s Los Angeles does suffer from that open-world problem of under-population, it's hard to not be impressed by how massive the city is and how great it all looks. The buildings, the vehicles and the various landmarks all look and feel real which makes the whole world believable. Of course the other impressive graphical feature is the facial animations. Motion-captured from actors you'll no doubt recognise L.A. Noire's characters come to life with animated facial movements which can help you determine who you can and can't trust during an interview. They still have a certain video gameness to them, but considering how much footage must have been used it's quite a technical achievement and it's put to good use.

In short, L.A. Noire is unlike any other game out there and that alone makes it worth checking out. It has its faults and glitches, and last half of the final case is fairly abysmal, but for around 20 to 30 hours L.A. Noire had be completely hooked and wanting more. And really, what else could you ask for from a game?

GRADE: A

LA Noire is out now on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and soon on Windows PC. Review written after the entire story was complete. The review reflects my experience on an Xbox 360. Review guidelines