Video Game Review | LA Noire

THE Sega Mega-CD was the first games console to claim its software could place a player in a virtual world that was indistinguishable from a film.

Unfortunately, as everyone who bought into the hype knows, the Mega-CD’s ambition rather outreached its abilities. In fact, it has taken 20 years for the boasts to become a reality.

LA Noire uses several new technologies – including real-time global illumination and MotionScan capture, where actors are recorded by 32 cameras – to create an immersive experience unlike any that has gone before. The game has been in development for five years.

As the title suggests, LA Noire takes its thematic inspiration from the film noir genre and the hard-boiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane and James Ellroy.

It also owes a debt to the Grand Theft Auto games, coincidentally also developed by Rockstar Games, in its use of violence, sexual ambiguity and morally corrupt characters.

Set in post-war America, you assume the role of LAPD police officer Cole Phelps and follow his progress from rookie cop to casehardened detective. Along the way he catches rapists, arsonists, killers and crime bosses.

Phelps even manages to solve the mystery of the (real life) Black Dahlia murders, although political expediency decrees that the case should remain unsolved.

LA Noir seamlessly blends investigative aspects of the story with fast-moving car chases, brutal fist fights and gun battles in a way that’s as innovative as it is enjoyable.

Yes, there are a lot of extended cut scenes and when they play you can do nothing more than sit back and watch. But the cut scenes are integral to the plot, and the stunning quality of the motion capture, in particular the facial technology, makes it very easy on the eye. Occasionally, however, I did feel rather more like an interested spectator than an active participant.

If you’re a fan of GTA or gritty black-and-white Hollywood thrillers (and if you are, there’s an option to play the game in black-and-white) then LA Noire is a must-buy title.

It may lack the instant thrills of a shoot ’em up, but LA Noire is a slow burner that points to an exciting new future direction for video games. An instant classic.