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May 11A reluctantly positive LA Noire review.
Note: very mild spoilers. Fair warning.
I started out not liking LA Noire, Rockstar’s newest gaming epic. I didn’t dislike the game, exactly, but the game wasn’t exactly grabbing me. You take on the role of Cole Phelps, a decorated Marine returning from World War II who’s joined the police force, and start a journey into Los Angeles’s criminal underworld. However, that journey takes a while, and there are some bumps along the way.
There’s a distinct artificiality to the gameplay, which makes you feel like you’re being led around by the nose. While investigating a crime scene, your controller vibrates whenever you approach an important clue, and there’s a triumphant stab of brass when you find all the clues in the area (though you can turn these off). Additionally, some written clues won’t let you add them to your evidence unless you click around to find the secret trigger area, even if you’ve already read the whole thing. Most chase sequences, whether on foot or in a vehicle, require you to follow the suspect through some orchestrated set piece before you can take him down, and in the rare sequence when you’re being chased, your pursuers’ vehicles become impossibly fast if you lose them before you’re supposed to. In addition, in one story arc you’re introduced to a potential suspect very early, and, frustratingly, the game won’t let you interrogate him, despite mounting circumstantial evidence as you move through the arc.
The interviews/interrogations can be the most frustrating part of the game, which is too bad, since Rockstar spent a lot of money on them (more later). You have three options: “truth,” “doubt,” and “lie,” which really should be called “good cop,” “bad cop,” and “disprove.” It’s pretty easy to tell if the person you’re interviewing/interrogating is fudging their statement–shifty eyes and nervous fidgeting rule the day. Unfortunately, deciding whether evidence you’ve collected proves they’re lying is pretty squishy in a few cases, and if you screw up an interrogation, you can’t try again–except it doesn’t matter. Most of the time, they’ll give you evidence even if you blow a few questions. A lot of the time, it doesn’t even matter if you charge the wrong guy, thanks to behind-the-scenes machinations (the overarching plot’s backstory is related to you via newspaper stories, but unknown to your character). The story chugs on, leading to some discontinuous cutscenes.
HOWEVER.
The game is, in a break from the Grand Theft Auto series, absolutely gorgeous. Shiny, period-correct cars (down to wood grain detail on the dashboards!) drive around an accurately-mapped-and-rendered 1940s Los Angeles, and even the filler buildings are impressive. Admittedly, shadows and water aren’t as perfect, but I have yet to see a game that does both well. Faces, although still distinctly CGI, are convincingly emotive and recognizable, and the dialogue and voice work is top-notch. Rockstar hired hundreds of actors to model the game’s characters, and it shows–Mad Men‘s Aaron Staton (Ken) plays the lead, and some other Mad Men actors show up (Peggy Olson! Kinsey! Jimmy Barrett! Harry Crane! Pete Campbell, apparently!), along with Generation Kill‘s Captain America.
More importantly, the game’s various story threads, which initially seem entirely unconnected, end up being drawn together (although one arc is self-contained) into an appropriately noirish web of conspiracies and betrayals. And, even on their own, the stories are great. Early on, you investigate a Jewish jeweler who freely admits murdering a competitor–because his competitor was an anti-Semitic scumbag spreading lies about him. The game’s main story revolves around the soldiers under your (somewhat shaky) command during World War II trying to adapt to civilian life, and many of the crimes you investigate involve a former soldier in some way or another. Although the game does take its sweet time tying things together, after staying up way too late on a work night to finish the game’s final chapter, I have to say that the narrative is probably one of the best, most relevant video game stories out there, and worth dealing with the game’s minor irritations. However, replay value is limited, and there aren’t a lot of GTA-style side quests (they’re mostly just gunfights to satisfy gamers who wish they could start plugging passersby)–you might want to rent it, borrow a friend’s copy, or wait for the price to fall a bit.
Tagged: culture, games, nerdiness