"I don't know the names of the women I've killed but I've killed many of them."
Last year Rockstar Games amazed me with 'Red Dead Redemption', a cousin to their trademark 'Grand Theft Auto' series set in the American West at the turn of the 20th century. Even more so than Rockstar North did for 'Grand Theft Auto 4', in 'Red Dead Redemption' developer Rockstar San Diego crafted a gigantic, living world in which they told a story that wasn't just violent – it was about violence. The characters, themes and narrative worked in harmony to create one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Also – I got the chance to role-play as a cowboy, a childhood fantasy I'm certain I share with many. This year they've released 'L.A. Noire', developed by Team Bondi in Sydney, and finally another gaming aspiration of mine is complete – I got to be a Homicide detective in a 1940's American city. As you might imagine I was looking forward to this game more than any other in 2011, assured that Rockstar were able to meet my lofty expectations.
Sadly, they haven't quite done it. I don't mean to be mostly negative about the game, but I feel I'm about to be, so let me say upfront I recommend it and don't regret buying it on release. I've spent many hours playing it and will certainly be playing many more. In the game you assume the role of Cole Phelps, played magnificently by Aaron Staton (Mad Men, 2007), a rookie cop and veteran of World War 2. His sharp insights and commitment to justice fuel his quick rise through the ranks of the LAPD and very soon he becomes a detective. Phelps is a family man with a wife and kids, but works to keep his personal and professional lives separate. This separation keeps not only Cole's colleagues at a distance but the player as well, who is never given the background to truly invest of role-play the character as they could with 'Red Dead''s John Marsdon.
In this case I think the distance is intentional, as it works to take away from the pleasures of “being” a detective. When you start your career, the work is fascinating and enjoyable, I even found myself questioning my own career choices that lead to my not being a real life investigator. However soon you move on to darker territory and the vivid feeling of apathy comes over you – the first murders are exciting but soon you've seen it all before. I don't mean to say the game becomes boring, rather the cases and evidence all become trivial, you can't stop the murders - you just follow the clues and pick up the pieces. This state of powerlessness is much as I imagine a real homicide detective might feel after a few months on the job, and it's well captured here.
When investigating a crime scene you can choose how far you want the game to lead you. Personally I turned the rumble prompts off, to continue the atmosphere of reality rather than one of a vibrating Easter egg hunt. I did however leave the musical scene completion prompt on, ensuring I didn't waste time looking for clues where none were hidden. I found this worked well for me, and I appreciate that Team Bondi leaves the option with the player to decide on their own immersion in what is already a very immersive game.
The production design is as lavish and vivid as I've ever seen, both on the streets of L.A. and inside its many open buildings. The crime scenes in particular are well designed and enjoyable just to be in - the objects, furniture and costumes are top notch and work together to really build the period setting. You can see how the game could take 7 years to develop, and unlike other long-in-development games such as 'Duke Nukem Forever' released this summer, 'L.A. Noire' takes every advantage of the graphical capabilities of this hardware generation. From lighting to textures the game looks great, only occasionally suffering from a drop in frame-rate, but this could be fairly expected given the scale and detail of the world. The musical score by Andrew Hale is also excellent and is a big part of the overall dense noir atmosphere.
Aside from driving around the city and collecting clues, the main focus of the game is it's interrogation system, built around new technology that motion-captures real actors for all the speaking roles. When I say Aaron Staton gives a great performance, I really mean it. He isn't just voice acting, he is fully acting and succeeds in playing an entirely new kind of part. The supporting cast, almost all taken from the American TV world, is uniformly great as well. Their faces and appearances are recreated so expertly that you're bound to recognise a few of the actors. After playing 'L.A. Noire' I have to say I've found it very hard to go back to watching animated cut scenes in my human-centric games, and as much as I love the art form of animation I feel motion-scanning is the future for mature, serious in-game performance.
During an interrogation you'll ask questions and hear answers, then decide if the response you've been given is the Truth, a Lie or if you Doubt it. Conversations don't branch, rather there is simply a correct response and two wrong ones. A musical cue will inform you instantly if you've made a mistake and only by responding correctly will all questions and further evidence become available to you. The word choice for your conversation prompts are misleading and often cause you to make bad decisions you never intended. Rather than Truth, Doubt and Lie your options should be described as a choice between Trust, Question and Accuse. This would communicate more elegantly the relationship between the Lie action and the need for evidence, as well as encourage players to seek out the evidence before questioning a suspect. Once you understand the system it doesn't matter, but in the early goings it can be confusing.
The conversation system is flawed in a number of other ways, but most unforgivable are the non-optional musical cues. These notes, which might as well be game show buzzers given how quickly they chime in to inform you of your mistake, interrupt the drama and render all the hard work of getting human performances and interaction into the game moot. You must never forget - this is a video game, not a real conversation. There is only one right path to take and that wasn't it. I appreciate that there naturally are right and wrong responses to a statement, but being told during the conversation that you're getting it all wrong is frustrating and distracts from the feeling of a natural investigation. I don't want to know I was wrong – I thought I was right! If I were a real detective I'd think I was right and only realise much later, not then and there though some omniscient alarm in my head. Your questioning should only be assessed at the end of the case, leaving the interrogations themselves to develop their own tension and mystery – or at least like with the crime scene prompts there should be the option to turn it off.
The interrogations are part of a wider problem though – the game is explicitly linear, yet persists under the pretence that it is an open-world sandbox in the style of Rockstar's previously mentioned 'Grand Theft Auto 4' or 'Red Dead Redemption'. Knowing now about the game's troubled development, it's not hard to deduce why the game feels like a jumble of ideas without a coherent authorial vision. Unlike 'GTA' or 'Red Dead', in 'L.A. Noire' missions start automatically right after the last one, meaning there is never any down time to go exploring or answering calls on your police radio. If you do decide to do these things you're getting away from a case you're in the middle of – hurting the pace and flow of your investigation. If you commit to the well-told story, you won't want to distract yourself from it with the usual sandbox busy work. 'L.A. Noire' is a game that truly struggles with it's dual nature. Is it a role-playing, linear detective adventure game – or an action-driven free-roaming third-person cop shooter? It manages both well, but neither spectacularly, each aspect hindered by the other.
There are lock-ups dotted around the city featuring unique vehicles which are wonderful to look at – but since they're all on your map anyway, finding them is just a chore or fortunate happen-stance while doing something else. Worst of all you have no garage of your own, meaning if you like one of the cars especially you have to get into your game-given car and go back to it any time you want to drive it. This takes away from the joy of finding something since you know you'll probably never bother with it again. Sure, as a collectable they're better than the film-reels or some other boring item and you can look at them again from the start screen, but I'd have liked an option to choose my car ala 'The Simpsons: Hit & Run' via the convenient phone boxes.
In fact, those phone boxes really could have been put to more use, as could the entire open world. Beyond cars, film-reels and street crimes there is nothing to do in the free roaming portion. Even the things that could have easily been added are left oddly absent. You unlock new suits, but rather than a GTA4 style suit shop you just change this on the pause screen. Why couldn't cars be the same? I'm not after loads of mini-games, but being able to buy a drink or a coffee to go over my case notes would be a real boost to the atmosphere. One thing that is right is the ability to sit pretty much anywhere, something I always want to do in open-world games. Sadly once sat, Cole just stares forwards with a bored look on his face, but it's a move in the right direction.
Speaking of the case notes, I should take time to praise the game's elegant system that keeps everything you need to know available to you. Not only is there a growing list of relevant People, Evidence and Locations pertaining to each case accessible at almost any moment, but also a log of all dialogue meaning if you miss something you can always go back to it – handy both in a heavy interrogation or just for when the cat jumps on you mid-play. The one issue with the presentation is the map, a mostly useless screen that only informs you of cars, police stations and discovered landmarks. The world is pretty empty anyway, but there are a huge number of places you can enter should you wish to, and unfortunately only if you can find them yourself. As such I never really learned my way around the city and would be completely lost without my GPS telling me where to go, which in one particular case is quite bothersome.
Ultimately all these little issues take much away from what could have been an amazing game. Instead what Team Bondi have made is simply a very good game, certainly a unique and memorable one for console gaming. The story is well-told, even if badly paced, while the visuals, music and performances are amongst the best you'll find in gaming today. Sadly it's the game-play that lets the finished product down, a compromise between classic point-and-click style adventure games and the violent free-roaming Rockstar are known for best. If you enjoy Film Noir, or simply the idea of putting your crime-solving hat on for a few hours you won't find many better ways to spend a few evenings. We certainly won't be seeing another game like this for many years to come, so if you're interested in the evolution of the art-form I absolutely recommend you give this game some of your time.
****1/2
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