LA Noire

 

 

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Very well done. Its Grand Theft Auto meets CSI. Characters really have a depth to them, voice acting is also great.

In L.A. Noire you play the role of a L.A. cop investigating murders in the 1940's.
The object of the game is to find clues and suspects, question them and determine if they're telling the truth by their reactions. Once you gathered enough evidence you'll have to arrest the suspects. Arrests will sometime lead to car chases and/or gun fights, but not always.
The quality and detail level of the city and the game in general are simply amazing, you'll have no choice but to sink in the story and the era. The facial animations, recorded from real actors, are incredibly accurate and will force you to read faces "Lie to Me" style like a cop would do in real life.
Even if action is part of the game, L.A. Noire is addressed to a mature audience and focusses more on the puzzle elements rather than the action sequences. Action fans may be disappointed.

If you like searching, questionning and solving crime puzzle, cutted by some action elements, than you will like this game. I personaly loved it and so did all of my friends who tried it.
I highly recommend it.

Released by Studio Bondi amidst huge controversies between its founder and his employees, L.A. NOIRE is a video game that got stuck during seven years of 'development hell' (2004-2011). Set in 1946-1947, it is the story of a young police officer (Cole Phelps) who quickly becomes a popular detective in the LAPD, but also uncovers a Los Angeles filled with corruption. Drugs, rapes, thieves, arson, there's in this story enough dirty laundry - based on true incidents from that time period - to please all fans of David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks) and of Mad Men. Speaking of Mad Men, many actors from that show got to perform roles in L.A. NOIRE, most notably Aaron Staton (Cole Phelps), either by voice acting or by motion capture of their faces reactions as the story goes on.

So far the animation is very credible to the player's eyes, as much as the design of this virtual portion of Los Angeles which has been apparently well-replicated based on what L.A.'s streets looked like at this time period. The props, buildings and outdoor effects are a treat to look at, though the only criticism (small one mind you) is that some of those textures will take a longer time to completely load during cutscenes or the gameplay, even when you have installed the whole game on your Xbox Drive. As for the soundtrack, players get to listen both to real radio shows that were broadcast in the forties and to an official soundtrack made by various artists (Andrew and Simon Hale, Fly, Claudia Brucken). What a treat for fans of the forties; who can also, in the game's options, play the game either in color or in 'black and white', as if they were watching an old movie.

The gameplay mixes both the main storyline and secondary situations that Cole and his partner (depending on the department) have to deal with. Players can do those secondary situations either during an investigation or during a free play where they can roam around the city and solve cases that they may have missed. So far there are no achievements that seem to me impossible to complete, but there are others which you will maybe have to retry again and again to succeed, (example: using every weapon in the game, finding all the movie reels, all the police badges, shooting a certain prop during a fight, etc.).

The X Box Live marketplace offers a few investigations not included in the official game, but have to be bought on its online service (either manually or with a special ticket available on the X Box Marketplace/Copy bought at a store). You don't necessarily need those investigations to complete the game, but those stories add more details to a game that was supposed to offer more levels in the beginning (six departments), but didn't get to as the Studio Bondi's management problems took a toll on the game's quality.

So why the five stars even though the game has been done under a cruel and traumatizing work atmosphere, during which certain employees never got the credits they deserved, or came out swearing to never work again in the video game industry? Because it is a rare chance to play a game that forces players to be action efficient and to be also very observant during the investigations and interrogations as everyone's reactions (voice, winks, smiles, eye contacts) may reveal if the person interrogated tells the truth or is in fact lying; if he is, it is then that showing the right proofs can confirm his involvement in the case.

Then again, I do hope that the Behind-the-scenes events that happened during L.A. Noire's making - and which have been further detailed in many articles and websites - will force the video game industry to reevaluate its working methods and offer decent working conditions. But I also hope that it will encourage all video game employees to unite together and to better defend their working conditions; making sure that they won't tolerate any rubbish from their employers, and that they won't be leaving the game development industry traumatized and with a sour taste in their soul.

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5.0 out of 5 stars best 1940's detective flick (could be a film if you watch someone play and they're good at it!)
This must be one of the most fun and boring game I've played, but boring in the sense that its SLOW, and while I would have written slow from the beginning, it CAN get boring with... Read more

Published 6 months ago by George

5.0 out of 5 stars Super bon
Un jeu un peu long (plus de 20 enquête), les déplacements en voiture sont parfois long et difficile,
sinon, tout est absolument parfait.

Published 11 months ago by Pascal Tremblay

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