L.A. Noire is the newest entry from Rockstar Games, the glamour game studio responsible for blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. It’s a crime thriller set in the 1940s with heavy noir elements, from murder-mystery to hard-boiled cynicism.
In just a few hours spent playing, the austere detective narrative engages through powerful storytelling and reiterates the potential of the gaming industry as a whole.
The buzz around L.A. Noire had been mounting for months, and for good reason. Rumors milled around its corrupt narrative since its confirmation in 2007, and since then, the Tribeca Film Festival has spotlighted it in its official selections.
L.A. Noire pays obvious homage to film landmarks such as L.A. Confidential and Chinatown, while managing to pave its own way in a genre that is burdened with hack jobs and imitators. By utilizing small authentic touches like using a rotary phone to dial your dispatch, the player is immersed into a world that is antique yet realistic.
Even songs from artists such as Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Thelonius Monk permeate the world, while Detective Cole Phelps works the crime beat of a long-forgotten L.A.
L.A. Noire’s new facial recognition software is at the heart of the game, using new 3D technology to imitate realistic speech. It is not perfect — mouths can seem pixilated — but for the most part, virtual lips are identical to human speech. The software is a leap in technology and signifies that films and game are converging into one strange hodgepodge of visual storytelling.
Even title screens, displaying distinct shadows and sultry ambient saxophone, assure you that if you’re looking for Noire, you’ve come to the right place. And up until five years ago, that genre was relegated to film and TV only.
L.A. Noire is strongest when you’re knee-deep in a case. The game does an excellent job of weaving player intuition and thoughtful interrogation into the main storyline. Accusation choices can mean the difference between a witnesses’ cooperation, often yielding eyewitness accounts, or a complete freeze, resulting in suspects omitting essential evidence to your case. It is a clever new game mechanic and results in player suspense throughout the game.
But despite having high production values, the game still suffers from some basic gameplay flaws. For instance, finding clues often devolves into picking up random items until discovering the ‘clue’ needed to complete an objective. The result is that by the time you find the unspecified ‘clue,’ you’ve already
spent 10 minutes inspecting empty beer bottles.
After a while, I felt like a hobo flipping cans for nickels. And the initial pacing of the story is sluggish, often forcing the character to wait for larger cases to explore the open world or join in a gunfight. But overall, the slight imperfections are surpassed by L.A. Noire’s epic presentation, and when you’re on the case, the minor gripes seem trivial.
L.A. Noire demonstrates the overwhelming potential of games and their implications toward a cohesive, yet interactive, visual storytelling media. It is an exciting time when you can participate in a crime drama instead of just watching one.
And if that gameplay sounds enticing, L.A. Noire won’t let you down.
—Ryan Carpe is a graduate student studying journalism. If you get confused about whether you’re watching a movie or playing a video game, send him an email at rc336801@ohiou.edu
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