LA Noire Review

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 11:51 pm Post subject: LA Noire Review

Ten years ago, while playing Grand Theft Auto 3 for the first time, I saw the potential for a game with a large world to be explored. I dreamed of the day when a game might come along where you're free to explore a thriving metropolis, searching for clues to crimes and left to your devices to solve them without the game holding you by the hand. Oddly enough, that's exactly what LA Noire is. I pretty much got to sit down and play my dream game, so I'm going to try like hell to be objective. After about only 90 minutes of real gameplay, though, I can give you guys a first impression.

Visuals

Obviously, the most striking thing people have seen about the game is the art design and the technology used to make it happen. The animated textures on the faces present a level of detail that even the most beautiful normal map can't produce. The trick to the digitized images, though, is that they move so bloody realistically, but somehow look goofy by themselves. It's like the evolution of the simple scanned texture job to Max Payne back in 2001. The closest analogy I can come up with would be the singing marble busts in the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World (for those lucky enough to know what I'm talking about).

Those effects are created by projecting images of faces onto marble busts with virtually no features. You get the same sense of weirdness from the characters in LAN. The bottom line, I guess, is that the animation is mind-blowing and unique, but the overall presentation is nothing beyond what we've seen in games like Left 4 Dead 2. It's a very pretty game, though, so don't get me wrong, just don't think that you'll sit in awe of the visuals for longer than a few minutes.

Sound

What can I say other than that this game gives you top notch sound quality. The music fits the genre like a glove. The sexy sound of cool 1940s blues on a tenor sax plays while you roll down the hot asphalt streets at night. The voice acting is outstanding, of course, and accompanies the amazing facial animations quite nicely. The presentation is so well done that you'll actually interrogate witnesses to crimes and need to determine whether or not they're lying by their testimonies and behavior. We've come a long way since the original Resident Evil.

Controls

This is where the game gets docked points. There's a hell of alot to be done in this game, pretty much all of it with a special control scheme. Fist fights, gun battles, car chases, evidence inspection and simply maneuvering the cityscape on foot all have their own respective control schemes, most of which are unlike anything I've ever used before and that's not a compliment. After the first gunfight I got into in this game and the feeling of despair regarding my ability to ever master its cover system, I found myself longing for the days of Mass Effect 2's cover system where I honestly thought the simplicity was problematic. I haven't seen that many button and joystick diagrams on how to play a game since I cracked open the instruction manual for Super Street Fighter II.

That moment pretty much summed up my feelings for the hands-on-a-gamepad element of the game.

Gameplay

This game is all about presentation and immersion, so gameplay is really the overall judgment for the game. It may sound like I've been shooting this game to pieces in terms of my criticisms so far, but I still think it's a great experiment on the part of Team Bondi. I'm pointing out the little issues because, so far, those are the only real issues with the game. There really is no trouble with glitching, bad voice acting, poor writing or a bad interface. If my little gripes above are the worst things about this game, that's a good thing. I'm a bit more harsh on the graphics because, while very impressive as a technical achievement, it's one of the main selling points of the game and I found them to be underwhelming. We've seen very realistic facial animation software in many games and it seems like another expensive way to reach the same end. I'll point out again that, regardless, it's pretty darn cool. I felt it was my duty to point out the complex controls issue, seeing as how you won't be able to just sit down and play the game outright. I know some people are seeing this as an interesting take on the Grand Theft Auto framework, but the similarities end at its large urban environments. From what I've seen, the gameplay is focused and constricted in spite of the seeming open-endedness. You won't be able to whip out your shotgun in an intersection and become public enemy number one for kicks like we all did in GTA. You won't even have the option to shoot a weapon until a you're nearing the end of the tutorial level-esque opening. That's not a bad thing, bear in mind. The utter immersion that you feel with this game is its real highlight. If you were so inclined, you could shut off all of its little HUD helper objects to make you rely on your wits alone. You can use an actual street map and listen to the driving instructions from your partner riding shotgun rather than use beacons on the minimap to get the sense that you're actually driving around a real city with real traffic that obeys street lights, gives right of way to pedestrians and gets angry at people who blow through red lights, which is pretty badass. You can adjust your investment into this game, which is nice. I'm going for full-on detective for my gameplay experience and I encourage anyone else with a noir fantasy to do the same. This all works beautifully. The real test of this game will be to see how much raw gameplay is left after I finally master the controls and all of the other elements that are a bit awkward at the moment.

So what do I think? As I pointed out, I tried to be objective in spite of the fact that I've got a thing for film noir and this is something of a dream realized. The first question that popped into your head upon seeing the trailer was probably this: do I want to play a game where I wander Los Angeles in 1947 as a cop out to solve a series of crimes? While I may have complicated matters above, that simple question really is the essence of the game. Do you want to get your hands dirty and your shoes wet stomping around alleys looking for clues? Would you get a kick out of game that doesn't force feed you hints to puzzles to speed you on your way toward the next chapter? Would you like to be freed from annoying NPCs and be left to work at your own relaxed pace if you'd like? I don't know about you guys, but I'd answer in the affirmative to all of the above. This is like a point and click adventure game where you shoot people. How can that not be a winning formula? I just hope that this game sells well to the Call of Duty junkies out there to show them what real original game design looks like. 3 1/2 stars out of 4. If you have any doubts, wait until the game drops in price about ten bucks and then check it out if it sounds remotely interesting. I guarantee you'll find it a unique experience.

Last edited by Vlad Piranha on Thu May 19, 2011 8:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Brutus · Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 12:29 am Post subject:

holy cow!

ill try it.
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Nugget · Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:22 pm Post subject:

Was going to pre-order it, but was short on funds. I will definitely get it in a few weeks.
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Tawxic · Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 10:03 pm Post subject:

I want this game, the time period is something you don't see alot of in games and I don't know if any game has done it right. The thing it bothers me is the facial animations, they are walking the line on uncanny valley territory. Also have any of you guys played Heavy Rain, If so how does L.A noire compare to it.