Developer Rockstar is no stranger to controversy, but with their latest release, they have the world paying attention for a whole different reason. Although they have already explored themes of crime in previous games, LA Noire is a game in a genre of its own.
The title, developed by Australia’s Team Bondi, takes the player on a journey of crime, murder and suspicion as they step into the shoes of young policeman Cole Phelps. Phelps, who joined the police force as a beat cop straight after WWII, is still struggling with the aftermath of conflict, and it shows in the title.
Starting off as an uniformed policeman, players will need to solve a variety of crimes, and although the game has no tutorial, the opening crime will also serve as a learning curve while all the aspects of the game is explained.
Once the player is close to a clue, the controller will rumble, prompting further investigation. But not everything is relevant to the case, and players can waste a lot of time just by looking at junk. But that is also part of the excitement. The title really transports the player into the mind-set of a detective, causing pause at almost anything that looks remotely suspicious.
Once all the clues have been gathered, a lengthy and rather complicated interrogation sequence will come into play. Gamers will need to read the accused’s facial expressions (which will be explored a bit later on) and general body language to determine if they are telling the truth, making a doubtful statement, or lying through their teeth.
After solving a crime, players’ progress will be evaluated, and if the case was handled with accuracy and professionalism, Phelps will be promoted to one of the other crimes desk, like Homicide, Arson, Traffic and Ad Vice.
The graphics, in terms of today’s standards, is pretty mediocre. But, it’s not a bad thing at all. Players of Grand Theft Auto will immediately feel at home with the style and control layout, while it’s still easy enough for new players.
But the real star of the show is the facial expressions of all the character. In order to developed the prefect-looking lip-synching, Team Bondi employed 32 different cameras to track real actors’ facial movements and lips.
During gameplay, there isn’t one word that is out of synch with the moving lips, and it has definitely set a new industry standard as far as facial acting is concerned. It’s almost impossible to accurately describe how fantastic the technology works.
But it does become a bit tricky at times, and as the game progress it seems as though the suspects learned how to mask their emotions. In the beginning its fairly easy to spot a lie, but further down the line, a dead-pan face will give nothing away. At this point, it’s will be up to the player to use the instinct, intuition and evidence to finger the culprit.
But lip-synching and facial expressions aside, LA Noire is a brilliant game. It’s full of drama and passion, and, naturally a whole bunch of crime. Luckily the crime is varied, depending on which desk players are working, but there is a good balance between actually solving crimes and driving around in the perfectly recreated streets of LA.
Speaking of which, while players are driving to their next crime scene or investigation location, gamers can opt to partake in clamping down on street crimes. There are about 40 different street crimes in the game, and ranges from apprehending bank robbers to helping down a suicidal man from a tower.
These side-missions don’t have to be completed in order to complete the main game, but it serves as a distraction between cases – which can become a bit monotonous at times.
The game also references true crimes, like the unsolved Black Dahlia murder of 1947, putting a more believable spin on the whole title – which is a nice touch.
When all is said and done, LA Noire might not be a game for everyone, but the majority of players who find crime and investigation interesting will definitely spend many hours digging away at the truth. With brilliant facial expressions, easy controls and familiar graphics, it’s really worth a look.
Distributed through Megarom, LA Noire is available on Xbox360 and PlayStation 3.
By Charlie Fripp – Consumer editor
