If you are a film buff, then you obviously have watched your fair share of the noire genre of films. If you do a quick search on the internet, or through your encyclopedia, you will see that noire is french for black and L.A. Noire is an adaptation of the type of crime drama films that came out of Hollywood from the 1940’s to late 1950’s. They basically were on the edge thriller and sexual tension flicks between a girl in distress or femme fatale and a detective or other hapless guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rockstar Games took this same idea and combined it with the gaming experience you could expect from them as game developers. “A dark and violent detective thriller”, you will take the role as Cole Phelps, a World War II veteran that has enough decorations on him to make you think he started the whole bling phrase.

        It is 1947 and as Cole Phelps, you are in the middle of the economic boom for Los Angeles and Hollywood is in an era that many consider to be its golden age. Cole fought in the Battle of Okinawa and has since been returned to the states for a little bit of recuperation as the war veteran he is. Deciding that sitting on his tail isn’t going to add anything to his life, you decide to join the LAPD as a patrolman. You will quickly move through the ranks and make your way into the world as a detective. This isn’t a time to grab a gun of choice and go Grand Theft Auto in the city of LA, instead you will need to act like a true detective. Besides, the game restricts you to using your weapon in only certain situations. Collect clues of each crime that you are assigned and attempt to solve them in as straight and law abiding manner as possible.

        For starters, the first thing you are going to notice about the game is the fantastic looking world around you. Team Bondi spent a huge amount of time to make sure they recreated a 1947 Los Angeles particularly because this was the time before freeways. As you drive along the streets, you will notice areas that are iconic to the world of Los Angeles. Ranging from notable spots like the “Hollywoodland” sign to the familiar tar pits of LA, all have been properly recreated to match everything as it was during the time you are cruising the streets trying to solve a crime. On top of this enormous 3 disc Xbox collection/entire Blu-Ray PS3 disc, you will notice almost simultaneously the incredible facial scans and movements of the people you will interact with while playing the game. Using a new technology entitled MotionScan, Team Bondi was able to capture every minute detail and nuance of the actual “actors’ facial performances and put them right into the game itself.” A significant part of the game depends on being able to successfully interrogate suspects and witnesses, thus this technology offers a unique experience in gameplay. Because you will be able to see the emotions and behaviors of people telling the truth or lying, you will get what Rockstar and Team Bondi wanted you to experience in this unique type of game. Have fun trying to find clues to who is lying on the over 400 actors that were scanned for this.

        As you work your way up through the LAPD, you will start as a Patrol Office and then, after helping solve one or two crimes, be promoted to the Traffic Desk. From there you will move to Homicide with cases that closely follow the infamous Black Dahlia murder in 1947. Since this is a mature game, expect to be seeing fairly graphic details of murder scenes as you have to closely investigate the bodies of those meeting an untimely demise. Your next move up the ranks will be into the Vice squad which is pretty much the high end glamor job because you will be dealing with the bad side of Hollywood. Prostitution, drugs, and gambling are the cases you will see on your desk and working with your partner who has been in Vice for sometime is going to make you wonder who is or isn’t on the take. The last area within the LAPD that you will get your hands on will be the Arson desk. Fires are not always accidents as someone probably has started it for a little insurance fraud or to hide something much more deeper than that.

        As mentioned earlier, you will have to interrogate witnesses and as the good cop that you are, you will have your notebook at your side. A great way to keep track of all of the clues you find within the game, this is going to be your invaluable helper in getting to the truth of the problem at hand. The great thing that Rockstar did with the notebook is that as you find items within the game like clues and people of interest, they will be automatically added.  Since your notebook is always at hand, even during your interrogation process, you can look up from your notebook as needed to see how your suspect/witness is acting.  While interrogating a suspect, you will ask questions already filled in for your from your notebook.  Once the question is asked, your suspect will respond allowing you to watch and hear their response. Since some people when they lie will not look at you directly, or shift nervously in their seat, you can determine one of three options: Truth, Doubt, or Lie. Choosing one of them will be the right answer or not and doing so will help you gleam more clues like a person, place, or thing. 

        If perhaps you heave learned about a new person, you can employ other tactics you will have at your disposal. For instance you can tail suspects to learn their actions within the city and if necessary perform chases on foot or by vehicle to take them down if they learn of your actions. In addition, when the time is right, you will have to engage in suspects and either wound them to the point they are no longer and issue, or fill them with enough lead to make them drop to the ground. As you gain experience in solving cases, your rank and intuition levels help you gain “insight” about the situation allowing you to help choose the right options during interrogation sequences. You can either choose to remove one of the wrong options or, in a pretty interesting choice, ask the community for help. If you have signed in to the Rockstar Social Club, you will get a percentage display next to each answer that the community has done. Thus, the one with the higher percentage is most likely the correct answer.

        Rockstar didn’t let the City of Angels just be a side show because as you drive around you have many other options to expand on.  You can find one of 95 different cars located throughout the city to give you the option to drive something besides the standard issue police vehicle. Or, as you drive around, dispatch will put out a radio call for assistance needed by another office for various crimes taking place that you can attend to if you would like. Thus giving you a seamless feeling that you are in fact a police officer and not just someone moving through the paces of the game.

        Rockstar Games and Team Bondi have made an incredible game using a unique combination of gameplay, environment, and storyline flow. It starts off slow and as with traditional noire style films from Hollywood, it increases the tension until the very end where the climax will have you asking yourself “did that happen?” With incredible facial scans for a true feeling of being in the game, especially when you switch on the black and white mode, to fantastic scenery of 1940’s LA, you will not be bored as you start off as a lowly cop working their way up to the top to find out the the corruption in the city isn’t exactly where you would expect it to be.

4.8 out of 5 Widows