Couple of months ago, we were discussing about L.A. Noire
during our Game Production Module. We read an article about their duration of
project schedule and what was the reason for the delay of the game. Because of
that I decided to talk about L.A. Noire.
Before I start on my topic, A very quick introduction about
L.A. Noire. L.A. is a story based game (Detective story) created by Rockstar,
Team Bondi Australia. Player gets to experience the story through completing
cases. Player starts of as “Cole Phelps” a police department office whom later
becomes a detective.
Player gets to work another Non playable character to solve
the case. In order to solve the case, the player has to find for clues and make
the right moves to solve the cases. In
between the game, cut scenes tells us more information on the crime or Phelps
past story. Sometimes Cut scenes are
being triggered off when players find certain newspaper. This game is a mixture between crime solving
and a little of action.
The mechanic of the game was quite complex. However, once
you fully understand the gameplay, the mechanics are no longer a hassle. I like
one of the game controls where you could press “F” button in the car to ask for
direction from your partner. There is a map provided but sometimes, in order to
make sure that you are not lost, you could simply press “F” button to ask for
direction. That simple mechanic is my personal favourite.
The music, sound effects and graphics are fantastic. The music, sound effects, environments,
attires and other parts of the game really sets in the mood the olden times. I
also quite like the simple transition of the cinematics from the gameplay to
past story or quick information on the crime situation.
Besides that,I love how they capture human’s
facial expressions and apply it on the characters in the game. These
expressions play a huge part in the gameplay. When the player is investigating
the situation by talking to the witnesses/suspects, the player uses the clues
found in the crime scene and also looks at the witnesses/suspects expression to
gauge whether it’s a lie or the truth.
Even though it is Rockstar’s game, it is very different from
Grand theft Auto. In grand theft Auto, there are moments, where I prefer to
loiter around until I am in the mood to get back to the story again. In L.A.
Noire the story is extremely linear. You can’t just walk away and drive a car.
In L.A. noire you are given a task and you have to do it. Initially I was a little disappointed when I
found out it wasn’t exactly a game that allows you to explore every bit of the
map. After putting in some thoughts, I
realised that it is actually perfectly fine for it to be very linear. I mean it’s
a detective game that has a very strong storyline.
It’s a little weird to given an assignment from your police
department and then you decide to drive the car around recklessly or killing
random pedestrian. The concept here is just different. The story is simple yet strong. Storyline is not overly exaggerated or the missions
are not very “GTA” like where once Nico was invited to visit the strip club.
The context is just different and unique.
To conclude off today’s topic, I can say that its replay
value is low. I might play a couple more
times but after that I might not play it again. Other than that, it is worth playing the game
especially if you like story based games or detective.
Few screen shots from L.A. Noire:
1) Questions to ask your suspect/witness
2) Cinematic scene before the gameplay.
3) Conversation between the player and the Non playable character.
