L.A. Noire is an astounding achievement from Rockstar, and the best crime/detective game ever released on a console.
WARNING: Due to the nature of the game L.A. Noire, there are some spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk.
Rockstar Games has always been known for very engrossing and critically-acclaimed titles, most notably the Grand Theft Auto series. We have seen Rockstar expand to other "time periods", while still retaining the open world feel. In L.A. Noire, you play as Cole Phelps, a war hero of World War II, and now police officer in the LAPD. Your job is to protect and serve the peace and enforce justice across the city. This game has had so much speculation since it was first announced some time ago, but does it live up to the hype?
As LAPD Officer Cole Phelps, you will go right after the city's worst criminals, ranging from the petty bank robber, to the sadistic psycho perverts who leave women mutilated and naked at romantic peaks throughout town. You will have opportunities to advance in rank, or even get demoted depending on who you convict during investigations. You will have partners to assist you in your endeavors, and boy do they assist you. I have never seen A.I. like this when it comes to partners/squad mates in games before. It is truly remarkable.
The game overall lasts anywhere from 15-25 hours, depending on how quickly you solve each case, and for Xbox 360 players, you have three discs to complete in total! L.A. Noire truly feels unique because of how you go about each investigation. You will go to several places and locations, questioning suspects, and many others to figure out "who-done-it". You have a notepad that stores all your clues, people (suspects), and locations that are specific to each case, and it makes it very easy to understand how the game works. Driving feels especially realistic in this game, because as we all know; cars in the 1940s were not what they are today.
Now when it comes to investigations specifically, you can indeed convict the wrong person. I myself had this happen a couple of times, and I was surprised, but very pleased that this game actually goes the distance when it comes to your decisions. When going about solving these crimes, you must be able to listen closely at how each person acts when you push them a certain way, and what his or her facial expressions may tell you as they give their statements. After each of their answers, you have the option of believing them, doubting them, or believing that they are lying altogether. Get the right hunch each time to gain experience points to add to your rank as an officer, and later on, a detective. If you have access to Xbox Live, you can take an alternate approach to be sure you are doing the right thing through "The Social Club." Through this feature you can see what the rest of the Live community selected via percentage points, and most of the time, it will net you the right belief when questioning your suspects.
The fascinating thing about the cases themselves is how much variety you will start to see from case-to-case. Some players may originally be turned off early in the game by the first two or three because each of them feel the exact same. Although, as you progress through the game's story, the cases become more complex, more difficult, and even better than you could imagine. You will have all sorts of locations to explore, and all of them feature the same kind of detail that you see throughout the game, whether in conversations, movie sequences, or even just out around the city.
This game also has a couple reasons to really explore the city through the "free roam" option in the form of newspapers, landmarks, and hidden film reels. Newspapers help tell some of the back story of the game, and you will mostly find new ones from case-to-case, where there are thirteen altogether. There are thirty unique landmarks that you can discover just by driving around Los Angeles, and then you have fifty film reels also scattered around town. It allows you to see the entire city, and while you're at it, you can try to drive every vehicle in the game, all ninety-five of them.
Being in Hollywood in the 1940s, you have to not only play the part right, but you must also look the part to succeed. Graphically, I don't believe L.A. Noire has a match on consoles, especially when talking about open-world games. Los Angeles looks incredible, and is the most realistic city I have seen in a video game in quite some time. Every character in this game looks incredible, even random NPCs that you see walking on sidewalks or driving cars. And don't forget the cars, which are all exact models from real life at the time, i.e. Chevy, Ford, etc. Faces on characters have not had this sort of realism in my honest opinion, and the closest competitor would be Heavy Rain on the Playstation 3. The lighting and shading effects are outstanding, and feel very natural in the virtual world. Rockstar, please use this engine for Grand Theft Auto V, whenever we see it released in the future.
L.A. Noire has the glitz, the glamor, and all the other pieces needed to craft a terrific game. You may be asking yourself right now if there are any flaws in this game whatsoever, and I am telling you the ones that you may notice here-and-there are hardly enough to deduct any points from this title. Those who follow my reviews know I hardly give perfect ratings for games, but L.A. Noire, and Rockstar Games has earned their place amongst the best of the best. Rockstar Games hits every piece correctly in this game, and has set a new standard on what open-world crime dramas should be like in today's video game market.
(Overall Score) 10/10