Perhaps the greatest police detective game ever made, L.A. Noire, a 1947-based Neo-noir detective action Open-World game, burst onto the scene in 2011 with groundbreaking facial animation technology and a quality of cutscenes and voice acting that would make a movie studio blush. Keen to keep relevant the $50 million game that took 7 years to make, Rockstar remastered it in 2017 with VR capability following shortly after.
You control WW2 hero and strait-laced recruit Cole Phelps, who works his way up the police ranks in his crusade to bring justice to the streets of L.A. Phelps's WW2 and L.A. experiences reflect the game's theme of corruption with few immune to temptation and wavering of values when in such extreme circumstances.
Initially starting on the 'Patrol' desk, you move up to 'Homicide' solving real-life inspired cases and uncovering corruption at the highest levels. With each new 'desk' comes a new partner who provides well-timed dark humoured quips and back up while at the same time showing Phelps complete and utter disdain for his quick career ascent.
The characters that fill out this world are distinctive and tremendously voiced, often by well-known actors, and is just one of the many aspects that make this world feel real. The hard-ass sadistic Irish police captain of homicide, for example, is positively terrifying as he tries to have you force confessions out of the suspects.
As you'd expect, investigations begin by surveying the scene and piecing together clues from the scene's artifacts, but it's the picking apart of the eyewitnesses' and suspects stories through interrogation, where the real fun is had. After the suspect has responded to your initial questioning, you are given 3 options ('Good Cop', 'Bad Cop' and 'Accuse') to extract further information, with their facial tells guiding your decision.
These tells are made possible through the game's groundbreaking facial animation which used a revolutionary motion capture system called 'MotionSense', allowing for even the slightest of facial movements from the voice/ body actors to be captured during development.
When suspects lie or withhold information they divert their gaze or look around the room nervously, providing you an opportunity to uncover their lies with evidence. The beauty of this mechanic is that incorrect choices can't be undone which could ultimately lead to a lack of evidence and the charging of an innocent person.
The tension in the atmosphere, when you have to lay down a murder charge to one of two suspects on flimsy evidence, is palpable and the consequences of which make you completely invested. At the end of each case, you are judged on your performance, finding out if you charged the right person and, in my case, how bad of a detective I am.
The map itself is 90% accurate to the actual 1947 L.A. and is a delight for the player to experience with classic cars playing music and radio shows from that era. There are so many small details that add to the realism like having to use a police phone to communicate with relevant departments for information and the NPCs making comments on Phelps' most recent actions reported in the newspaper. Fedoras, clearly an important part of the 40s, also have a role with you able to retrieve it from the floor after having it unceremoniously removed from your head with a near-miss in a shootout. Unfortunately, the world is not as interactive as more modern Open-Worlds, think GTA5 minus the activities, but its realism and uniqueness still creates a degree of immersion.
Note to all you hat fiends - it could have easily have been a porkpie, a hamburg or a straw panama, please forgive my ignorance.
A breath of fresh air for an Open-World game, L.A. Noire tries to point you on the straight and narrow without the use of senseless violence, with your character only able to use his weapon when required and also penalizing the hitting of pedestrians in your car by lowering your case rating. The story will also automatically shift your attacking mode from weapons to your fists, when your opponent is unarmed, in a fun boxing-esque fight. While the breadth and usage of weaponry isn't too expansive (you can only pick up other weapons during the shootouts and can't keep them, while ammo levels aren't recorded) and the fist fights quite basic, they are enjoyable and to keep the story moving without feeling out of place.
While the story is deep enough to consistently discover new details over multiple playthroughs, it is occasionally weighed down by its self-contained cases which remove the need for inventories or any earned items. On one hand this makes the game more focused, but on the other limits what an Open-World can offer. The addition of extra activities or interaction could have boosted character development and variety in a world fascinating enough to be home to numerous distractions and is perhaps the only real gameplay omission. The remaster has brought with it some adjustments in the colour, resolution and frames per second, but like most remasters of something revolutionary, it leaves you wanting. This is especially true in the animation department, with the PS4 capable of far greater things than its predecessor, which would have been the perfect opportunity to bring the characters relatively stiff body animation in-line with their facial animation which still impressive to this day. Verdict - 8/10 + Cinematic story worthy of a blockbuster crime drama movie + The incredible voice acting and facial animation + The interrogation gameplay mechanic + Replayability of the cases and unlockables + Realistic 1947 L.A. visuals - The Open-World's limited interaction - Disappointingly bog-standard remaster with visuals barely touched L.A. Noire is as brilliant now as it was in 2011, offering great production value and a balance of gameplay and story that always makes the player feel in control despite its highly cinematic nature, setting a standard that all story-focused games should aim for. It's unfortunate that the remaster does little to improve the original, but if its able to its able to will a sequel into existence it'll be worth its weight in gold-rimmed fedoras.
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