Noirest For The Wicked – L.A. Noire Review

Video games have debatably always been the quintessential interactive entertainment medium.  As a result of decades of shaping and fine-tuning, video games have become what they are today.  Unfortunately, what they’ve become is somewhat stale.  To clarify, the games haven’t become stale; the ideas at the core of the games have become stale.  It’s a trend that tends to float by unnoticed until a title as different as L.A. Noire comes along.  On the rare occasion that a game as distinctive as Team Bondi’s magnum opus surfaces, it serves as a grand reminder of the several directions that the video game industry has the possibility to evolve toward, and an immediate glance at what very well may be considered “commonplace” in the near future.

That being said, L.A. Noire manages to simultaneously be incredibly polished, genuinely thought-provoking, and truly unique, leaving us with one of the most compelling games in recent memory and more than willing to forgive its few hiccups along the way.

Up-and-coming law enforcer Cole Phelps is the man on the streets of 1940s Los Angeles.  In a city riddled by crime, corruption, and debauchery, Phelps often seems like he’s the only player on Team Good Guy.  However, he more than makes up for any lacking in spirited comrades with unbridled ambition and a moral compass that appears to point straight as an arrow.  It’s this ambition that ensures that Phelps doesn’t stay a Gumshoe for very long, as he quickly rises through the ranks of the LAPD’s Detective Unit and eagerly takes on some of the most perplexing and disturbing cases The City of Angels has to offer.

Like any detective worth his salt, Phelps does all the leg work by himself.  While each case often starts with not much more than a stiff body on the ground and a few personal effects scattered about, it doesn’t take long for the plot to thicken as a flurry of seemingly disconnected clues come together to form something substantial.  It’s a bit underwhelming how you’ll come to discover these clues, though, as it will usually require you to walk over every square inch of a household or crime scene waiting for your controller to rumble and the music to jingle.  While it can become tedious, these clues will play a pivotal role in the most engaging part of L.A. Noire, the interrogations.

If L.A. Noire strives to teach us one thing, it’s that a detective can only get so far on logic and deduction.  When interrogating a suspect or other person of interest, unless you have hard proof that they’re lying, you’ll often have to rely on your gut about whether to trust or doubt them.  It’s a facet of the game that would never work without the assistance of the new MotionScan technology.  MotionScan allowed Team Bondi to motion capture real actors’ performances and put it directly into the game.  It’s the most subtle of nuances that will guide your instinct about a character’s true intent, and you’re likely to need every minute tell to successfully crack the interviewee.

Interrogations are truly the heart and soul of L.A. Noire.  A friend once told me that after playing through Fallout 3, he felt like he could honestly pick any lock in the world.  That’s how interrogations are; when you’re able to correctly branch an interview in all directions, you feel like switching career paths because you know you’d be the best damn detective this world ever saw.  Conversely, a botched interrogation will bring you crashing back to Earth with your tail between your legs hopeful that the Chief will let you stay on the case.  It brings with it an emotional and intellectual investment that seems unintended but increases the experience exponentially.

While the methodical pacing of L.A. Noire surely won’t appeal to everyone, Team Bondi has thrown in a handful of action sequences to lighten the mood.  Every now and then, a suspect will take off as they see you, resulting in either a car chase or foot race that proves to be surprisingly entertaining.  Less frequently, you’ll be thrust square into a firefight whereupon old-fashioned lead becomes the primary plot-advancing device to ensure that evil succumbs to good.  Additionally, if you so choose, you can also send Phelps & Co. on a temporary detour to ‘unassigned cases”, which are nothing more than responding to an incoming call from dispatch.  However, these never really evolve from much more than “show up, shoot someone in the head, go on your merry way”.  The action features of L.A. Noire aren’t anything more than serviceable, but given that it’s so apparent that these sequences were definitely meant to take the backseat to deduction and overall narrative, it’s legitimately forgivable and does a great job of injecting the occasional adrenaline shot into the game.

Upon closer inspection, it’s evident that protagonist Cole Phelps is a meta metaphor of sorts for L.A. Noire.  Both share many of the same character traits such as being incredibly ambitious, seemingly good-natured, and, at times, a bit on the dry side.  Nevertheless, it’s this dryness that allows the bright spots to really shine, and the memorable moments to truly stick, and that’s exactly what L.A. Noire will do – it will stick.  It will stick because it strives so longingly to be different than the rest that, despite it’s imperfections, it manages to still be one of the most polished and unique titles in recent memory.