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| Xbox 360 Box Art |
Hey, guys, remember that long silence that came from this
blog after Skyrim came out? Neither
do I, but I do remember actually playing games in the time leading up to that
game and not actually reviewing them due to being held ransom by space monkeys,
so here’s LA Noire.
When I picked up this game, I found myself to be completely
blown away by the most unlikely of developers, namely Rockstar. Though trust me, besides my driving skills,
there are no real similarities to the popular Grand Theft Auto series.
The story puts you in the role of Cole Phelps, a policeman
hoping to become a detective for the LAPD.
As he progresses, Phelps does achieve his goal of becoming a detective
and ends up diving into the corruption that has twisted itself throughout every
level of the authority in the City of Fallen Angels. And then, in truth “Sword of Justice”
fashion, Cole begins poking and prodding around to bring down said corruption,
bringing him into a tangled web of…you see where I’m going with this.
I just have to gush and say that I really, really enjoyed playing this game. Everything from the overall feel of the game
to how the interrogations flow to even the sometimes tedious task of searching
through crime scenes with Phelps only being interesting in looking at certain
objects that seem to be lying around and waving them around looking for the
clue on them like he’s a young wizard unsure of how to hold his wand (don’t
read too much into that metaphor).
And unlike Grand Theft
Auto, vehicular homicide seems to be your only choice for out any type of
violence outside of missions. Phelps will
only draw his gun during shootouts you can find in random missions throughout
the city or during the quest line itself.
And throughout the course of the story, we see the rise and fall of Cole
Phelps as he attempts to bring down the corruption in the city.
Then the real main character shows up.
Enter Jack Kelso - former Marine in Phelps’s company during
the war, Claims Investigator for California Life & Fire, and Certified BAMF
– who comes in for the last few parts of the game to, what else, be a complete
badass. I won’t spoil it, but trust me, anyone who plays this game will
completely know what I’m talking about.
Phelps, and later Kelso, will investigate crime scenes by
wandering through it. As I said before,
the detective in question will find only certain items within the crime scenes
of interest and not all of them all actual clues. Phelps or Kelso will pick up said item when
you press the correct button following the controller vibrating to indicate the
presence of the item. Then, as stated
before, some items they will wave around looking for the part of the item that
gives the clue, such as a serial number stamped on the side of a gun or the
address of a nightclub printed on the inside of a matchbook.
Another major feature of the game is the interrogations,
wherein Phelps or Kelso – what else? – interrogate suspects and decide where
they’re telling the truth, that you doubt their story, or that they’re outright
lying. The best parts in interrogations,
in my opinion, are pointing out the liar and then presenting a piece of
evidence found earlier to nail them. Of
course, to call them out on a lie you require the correct piece of evidence to prove that they’re lying, but it is
definitely a gratifying feeling when you manage to pull this off.
All in all, this game definitely rates high for me. I’m not
much for giving numbers, but it definitely gets an eight out of ten easily.
LA Noire is now available from Rockstar Games and Team Bondi for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
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