Adi's Reviews: L.A Noire

Rockstar you devilish company you. From the company that brought us the fiery mayhem of the Grand Theft Auto series and the horse riding gun toting western of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar now brings something a little bit different to the gaming table. Taking seven years to make in conjunction with Team Bondi and with over 20 hours of voice acting, as well as using Motion Scan technology on the facial features of the characters, Rockstar rode in on its shining white horse while the heavens bestowed a glorious golden light as they placed L.A Noire onto the Gaming table. This was to be something special and in all fairness I believe it is.

After watching an eleven minute game play session on Kotaku I became so enthralled I immediately rushed to Amazon to pre order this bad boy. Just watching someone else play through was enough to get me trapped in the Noire spider web. To be truthful it was a long week waiting for L.A Noire to show up on my significant other's step, but that glorious day came as I rushed down to pick it up almost falling down half the stairs. For the next few weeks it was all about the Noire. Being the sweet girl I am I allowed him to play it first and again as just a spectator L.A Noire didn't disappoint story wise. But the real thrill definitely comes with playing such a game with an in depth plot. When I finally managed to get my hands on Noire and try the actual game play for myself I was actually a tad shocked on how easy the controls were compare to some third person shooter games. Don't get me wrong L.A Noire does have a flaw or two. When chasing down a hardened criminal I sometimes found myself running into walls because Cole seemed to take a corner too sharply, which would around 80% of the time cause me to lose track of prey and fail the case or mission. The gun controls for me were quite simple and easy on the fingers and pulling off 90% headshots makes you feel like an epic shooter god. Driving. Oh sweet love of MMOs was this just not a fun part and the cars themselves are beautifully drawn and implemented. Some of the hidden vehicles could make a car enthusiast weep with delight. Like the gun controls, the driving controls were simple and easy. The only problem that crops up is the suicidal citizens of L.A that seem to drive or walk out in front of your oncoming 80mph car. I mean seriously people look both ways before crossing a road, who knows how fast I am going to be driving down the street.

This game is perfect for those that enjoy a mix of shooter and driving games not to mention all you would be detectives out there, I say that as I tip my hat and walk away with a swagger in my step. When you aren't driving like a crazy bat of hell to knock people over or shooting those evil criminals, you are using your detective skills on them. The basic concept is you investigate a crime scene by looking over different pieces of evidence some of which may just be junk and then interview persons of interest. They tell you their side of things and you have a choice of truth, doubt or lie. If you guess correct you will hear a nice little chime but if you pick a wrong choice you will hear an almost distorted chime. More often than not if I picked a wrong choice, I felt quite bad as your main character Cole Phelps would raise his voice in anger at them and then your person of interest would berate you. Or if it is a small girl she would start to whimper. If you have no conscious or heart you won't feel bad. BUT YOU SHOULD. You can use intuition points throughout an interview which can remove a choice or show what the online community picked, you gain intuition points by levelling up your rank which is done be completing side quests like street crimes or finding hidden vehicles/film reels. Be warned some of these side missions like the film reels can take a while to do, and if you have no patience or motivation to find them then don't bother.

Now onto the storyline - Oh I enjoyed going through this right from the start even the flashbacks kept me interested. The year is 1947 just after WWII and the setting is Los Angeles. You are Cole Phelps and you start off as a patrol cop and then after so many cases you are promoted to another division, and so on until you reach the last division in the game which is Arson. You have a partner in each division and my favourite by far is either everyone's favourite pole in Traffic or Mr Drunk in Homicide. They both rank high on my humour scale and each have quite the funny lines when you go around crashing into different objects in L.A. I won't include any spoilers but the homicide cases were the ones to keep my playing L.A late into the night, and then start a few street crimes afterwards. As the story goes on I found myself thinking Cole was a pretty decent guy who had it rough during the war and yeah ok as a bit of an ego complex but hey he is doing a bang up job. Fast forward up to a certain division and partner and oh my bloody hell did I not cry out when something happened. It came as a shock to me and for weeks even to this present day at times I will call out Cole's name in anguish. The other half I am sure is getting pretty darn sick of me calling out another man's name. I have never until that point realised I had become attached to Cole. For a detective /shooter/driving game I didn't put too much stock into the story becoming so deep that you would start to form a connection to the character/s. Maybe no other gamer did and maybe it is because something similar happened in my recent past that made it all the more real to me. Either way, the storyline and characters get top marks from this gal.

In closing, L.A Noire is definitely a game to be bought by fans of any genre. The trophies/achievements are still enough to keep me going back to complete it 100% along with the downloadable content. I played one DLC case and found myself getting so frustrated at the game I actually put the controller down to take a swig from my beer can. Of course I went straight back to it. Noire is an enjoyable game and one to start any new gamer off with I would say. It isn't dumbed down to make us feel like we couldn't solve a mystery without the Scooby Gang holding our hands, nor is it too difficult that we slam our heads in frustration through the screen. Give Noire a try at the very least and for those of us who have completed the game, we have a possible sequel to keep us aching for more.

Til next time folks, keep on gaming.