LA Noire Frequently Gets Lost in the Filler

Let me start by saying that the core mechanics of LA Noire, the crime scene investigation and the interviewing/interrogating of witnesses, are as great as advertised. The face mapping technology is fantastic, even if I occasionally think Cole Phelps looks less like Aaron Staton and more like Ryan Gosling. It's eerie in a good way, somehow managing to largely avoid uncanny valley territory. While big, obvious tells make deciding whether to trust or doubt people is fairly straight-forward in the early going (and knowing your evidence is enough to let you know when to make accusations of lying), it gets more nuanced later in the game as the crimes get more serious. Does your PoI look nervous because she's holding out on you or just because she's a 15-year-old girl being grilled for information on the death of her mother?

I adore the use of music in the crime scene investigation portions of the game. The music itself is moody and carries with it the seriousness of the actions behind your task. The chimes that indicate an examinable object are subtle but helpful, and short fanfare that cuts off the music once all clues are found is incredibly useful. I like that there are always things to pick up that aren't useful -- even if plenty of them would be in this day and age of DNA testing. I also like that plenty of clues are only useful in helping you conduct your investigation and won't actually be strong enough to serve any purpose in your interviews and accusations.

Similarly, as has become the norm with Rockstar games, the atmosphere is impeccable. It feels like a 1940's hardboiled crime serial, even if your role as a "real cop" rather than a private detective necessitates a less pulpy approach. The music, the style, the characters all work out great. Despite what one of my roommates seems to think, all of the actors so far have provided strong performances. Between the period nature and the abundance of familiar faces, LA Noire has actually done a fair bit to satisfy my Mad Men itch while I wait to catch up on Season 4 via Netflix.

That said, roughly half-way through the game, I can't condone the various 9.0 and higher ratings that everybody seems insistent on giving the game simply because this core gameplay mechanic doesn't account for the bulk of the game.

You see, you don't just move from scene to scene and talk with witnesses. You need to drive all around an expansive LA. The city has been compressed from real life, but it's still huge. The intro talks about LA as being a new sort of city, one built around the automobile and the ability to commute from your own home on the outskirts. The game takes this seriously, as you're regularly going to be spending 5-10 minutes driving, stuck in traffic trying to get where you're going. Sure, you can speed and navigate your way around somewhat more quickly, but the cars handle so poorly, and the AI governing other drivers is so flaky, that you're likely to cause a fair bit of damage, both taking you out of the experience of being one of the few "good cops" in the LAPD and reducing your post-case rating.

Then, when you're on your way to your next scene, you're virtually guaranteed to get a call on the police scanner about some crime occurring in a completely different part of the city. You can, of course, choose not to respond to these, but they increase your detective rating, and it's just hard not to do anything when you hear "officer under fire". These street crime cases nearly always result in shoot-outs, which just aren't fulfilling -- both because the gun play isn't terribly well developed and it just feels like bad police work. If these were just an occasional diversion, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but I once started a case only to spend 40 minutes driving around and responding to three such incidents before I ever reached the scene of the crime.

Finally, the basic character handling isn't a hole lot better than the cars. Wandering around a crime scene and getting stuck on corners because Cole moves more like a mannequin than a war hero turned star policeman is just strange. Chasing down perps isn't a whole lot smoother, especially since the camera just doesn't keep up with all of the turns you have to make. Complaints here are reminiscent of some I made about Assassin's Creed 2 last year, except more aggravating considering I'm just running through alleyways and climbing drain pipes, not attempting death-defying acrobatics high above the streets of medieval Venice.

So, as much as I'm loving LA Noire, I find that I can't play it for protracted periods of time. One case is about my limit, and I'm often ready to quit even before then if I'm moving frequently between sites. The new ideas it brings to the table are fantastic, but slapping it onto a modified version of an existing Rockstar engine and bloating things up with extra tasks just wasn't necessary. Moving to different sites around LA for crimes would give the same sense of scope without forcing you to drive it, and the street crime inserts its way into things far too insistently.

Still, I'm enjoying the cases themselves and the back-story about Cole's experiences in WWII (that this largely seems to tie into the Battle of Okinawa, an event to which I have strong personal ties, only makes it more fascinating to me), and the subplot that seems to be developing through the newspaper stories is also intriguing. I'd definitely check it out to see if you have the patience.

8/10