L.A. Noire

Thanks to my friend Zac, who you can follow at iwasa16bitboy.blogspot.com, I started to play L.A. Noire. The commercials for the game made it out to be almost a movie, as it contains some new facial graphics that really brings the characters to life.

You play Phelps, a seemingly clean cut LA Police Officer who served in the Marines during the Second World War. You start out as a beat cop, but this is merely to introduce you to the intricacies of the game. Phelps is destined for more than mere beat work, and soon becomes the new hotshot detective.

The detective work has the feel of old school point and click games, such as Monkey Island and Full Throttle. You use these clues to piece together the evidence needed to bust the suspect when you interrogate them. Interrogation is mainly focused on the new facial graphics engine, which is superb. From the persons actions and expressions, you must determine whether to believe them, press for more information, or straight accuse them of lying, if you are able to back it up with evidence. The let down at this point is that despite how you do, you will still eventually come to the conclusion the game wants you to.

The open world environment is detailed, but seems almost pointless as you hardly spend time roaming. Unlike GTA, where mindless violence and driving are almost meaningful to the game, in L.A. Noire you are a clean cut cop, and clean cut cops do not run civilians down. Sorry to break it to you.

The gameplay feels repetitive, especially as you really can't go that wrong. The graphics are at the forefront of this game. I highly recommend playing it, however, as I believe this represents a new step for gaming. If they could develop this into a more open ended game, with your actions have repercussions on the outcome of the game, you could be looking at a new standard for console gaming.