Lance Uppercut
Guest
Even before you've seen it in action, L.A Noire gives you the impression that under the beam of one of those fancy, forensic 'reveal all' police lights, it'd have game of the year written all over it.
Perhaps that's a bit premature, but think about it: A rockstar game that moves away from the wild world of gta guns and gangsters to a thinking man's scenario of murder and investigation in 1940s l.a. One that keeps the familiar and popular rockstar hallmarks when it comes to combat and driving, but introduces a whole new investigation mechanic as the central pull. And, finally, on that uses that amazing motionscan facial animation technology that catches and renders every blink, twitch and grimace.
L.a noire's back of the box blurb is compelling enough and we haven't even picked up a pad yet.
It's the 'thinking man's' bit that rockstar is keen to emphasise before we're even allowed to get pad picking. This isn't gta in 1947. Yes, the first thing you'll notice is that rockstar radar and yes there will be shooting, punching and driving in cars that handle in a very gta way, but all of that is secondary to taking your time, looking around, asking questions and getting on with some good old fashioned detective work.
It's an ethos that's immediately contagious. After receiving a briefing in a downtown diner from the hard-faced, shout-first police captain donnelly, we get into our period-ready car with burly, and slightly surly, partner rusty galloway to investigate the alleyway murder of a young hispanic girl.
Triangle to get behind the wheel, r2 to accelerate, l2 to brake, the car itself handles like something a certain niko bellic would drive - so far, so gta. But there is something different; we're crawling behind traffic, staying in lane, stopping at red lights for heaven's sake!
It's the sharp suits and fedora hats, it's protagonist cole phelp's meticulous appearance and his place in a perfectly recreated time that has become synonymous with charm. It's the fact we're playing the part of a classic crime-busting detective rather than a gangland goon that makes us want to obey the law, that makes us take a sharp inhalation of breath as we accidentally clip a wing-mirror. L.a noire's sucked us in already.
At the crime-scene we're faced with a completely naked, mutilated woman lying in the grass - a stark reminder that l.a noire has realism at its core no matter how grisly it turns out.
After being briefed by the coroner, the scene is ours to investigate, with slow, smoky jazz music that feels like it should have a humphrey bogart voiceover attached lingering in the background.
It's actually just as much a game mechanic as it is an accomplice to the atmosphere. The rule is if there's still jazz in the air, there are still clues to be found and as we make our way over to objects lying around in the grass a short, subtle tinkle on the higher keys of a piano lets us know when we're near something of potential interest.
With a press of x cole kneels down to have a closer look at which point the left analogue stick leads the analysis. Rotating the stick, rotates cole's wrist so that you can give whatever it is - a handbag, a lipstick, a book of matches, blood splatter - a good looking over. Further points of interest on the object itself are then indicated by a rumble or the camera zooming right in. Another press of x will trigger cole's analysis.
Play the game on detective level difficulty (one of two options, the other being officer) and there will be plenty of red herring's scattered around the place and the piano will tinkle at things that are just potentially interesting. We spent a lot of time picking up and giving what was essentially litter a good hard look over.
Moving over to the body, another press of the x button sees cole crouch. With slash wounds on various parts of her body and a lipstick message written across her torso, there's a lot of evidence to look at here. In this case cole's hand will hover over the evidence and you can use the analogue stick to move from one to the next before pressing x again to go in for closer inspection as before.
After noting every wound and that lipstick message that reads: "kiss the blood bd" we get back on our feet and the jazz music fades to tell us that we've got everything worth getting here.
And it's then that we start to feel a bit let down. See, we don't want to be absolutely sure that we've turned every stone, we want there to be doubt in our mind, we want to be able to miss things and get things wrong.
With so many prompts and indicators; the music to tell us to keep looking, more music to tell us to look closer, a rumble to pin-point evidence, a camera zoom to shove it in our faces, it felt like rockstar was handholding us through the investigation.
Considering this is supposed to be a thinking man's game, we didn't actually do much thinking. We wandered round until the music stopped and let cole do all the analysis.
Of course, we can't demand a game that expects its audience to have enough investigative initiative to unravel a murder unaided (and this particular case is built to resemble the real-life black dahlia case from 1947), that'd be too much. But if we're comparing this to classic point-and-click puzzle adventures like monkey island, broken sword, discworld or the more obscure but perhaps closer to the mark blade runner game of 1997, we can't help but think l.a noire may have missed a trick here.
In those games, part of the fun was obliviously missing key clues in one area and coming to a dead end in the other. That's when the real head-scratching began, when you had to retrace your steps, wondering who might have the vital info you need or what you might have left behind. Then came the revelation of stumbling across something you'd overlooked and watching your once blocked path all of a sudden open up with ease.
Still, we've been playing for twenty minutes, so who's to say how complicated the case will become and just how easy it will actually turn out to be. We've come away from the crime scene with a library card giving us the name of the victim (antonia maldonado) and her address. So that's where we're heading next.
It's at the address that we get our first taste of interrogation with the victim's landlady, mrs. Lapenti. As you'll no doubt have guessed, it's during the interrogations that the brilliant motionscan technology becomes a key game mechanic rather than just an aesthetic masterstroke.
It's pretty simple; once the interrogation begins cole gets out his notebook. In a way it's his greatest weapon and the place where all of the key evidence, locations, suspects, victims and witnesses are logged for later use.
The questions you can ask are also laid out there and once you get your answer you'll be given the choice of calling truth, doubt or lie. If you think mrs. Lapenti is telling the truth, it's on to the next question (and you'll get a cross or tick next to your original question and another musical prompt to say whether you got it right or wrong).
If you doubt lapenti cole will challenge her, which will either force her to give you the truth or just be met with a defensive and probably angry comment. Call lapenti a flat out liar and you're taken to your notebook to pick out the piece of evidence to prove it at which point the truth will begin to flow once more.
The motionscan tech comes into play when you don't have evidence but the interviewee is looking decidedly shifty and you want to doubt them. It definitely works, every telling sign the face can give is picked up and displayed in an uncanny way. The tech itself is absolutely brilliant.
Maybe a bit too brilliant though. When we say you can see signs of nerves and deceit on suspects faces, they are a bit too blatant. After every question all you need to do is pause to get the answer, the interviewee will either keep a fixed look (which indicates truth) or they will very obviously look down and to the side. Again, you'll come away with four out of five questions answered correctly if not all of them.
We also didn't come across any branching questions or multiple routes that could have lead us down one line of enquiry, perhaps sacrificing another. It's just a few straight questions and you ask them all. It's only if you get your response wrong that you miss out on vital information.
We won't go into every nook and cranny of the investigation because you'll want to come to the game relatively oblivious if you're going to get the most enjoyment out of it. What we will say, however, is that we ended up catching our killer with another search for evidence.
Again, we knew there was something to find on his premises thanks to the music and when we did come across what the game was pointing us to, well, they only way this chap could have been more red handed is if he'd dipped his hands in paint.
Did he come quietly though? No, he bolted and, as a shot of fast-paced music jolted us into action we knew the chase was on. As he fled in his truck we jumped behind the wheel of our own car in pursuit. Again it was a completely different type of chase to what you'd find in gta and all our own doing, but somehow not, at the same time.
Where we would have ploughed down pedestrians that got in our way in grand theft auto, we actually made a number of pin-point manoeuvres to avoid passers by caught in the fray, our heart leaping into our throats every time we nearly hit someone.
We've never wanted to avoid inflicting harm on generic ai so much in any other game and the amount of satisfaction we got when our quick reactions saved a cluster of pixels crossing the road was like no other. It makes you realise that video game car chases have been missing something all these years. Chasing a car and throwing up everything in your path along the way is fair enough, but speeding along in hot pursuit and having to avoid collateral damage at the same time? That's what makes for a really challenging and exhilarating chase.
And that's all thanks to the character of l.a noire, the atmosphere and the authenticity. Did we feel challenged by the case we cracked? No, not at all and we hope the game will become more of a challenge as events unfold. We played just a small section of a plot with the potential to get incredibly twisty.
But it was that character and the human touch that runs throughout l.a noire that made the world such an enjoying one to be in and the plot so compelling. Just like red dead made you feel like a cowboy, l.a noire will make you feel like a detective. We just wish it would let go of our hand every now and then.
Preview: L.A Noire: Game of the year, or victim of the hype? Gameplay Preview - ComputerAndVideoGames.com
