LA Noire - Review

A CAREER BASED ON CLUES AND INTUITIONS

Apart from the story, which we let you fully enjoy and without too many previews, let's move on to the gameplay. LA Noire takes advantage of the concept of free roam in a new way compared to normal Rockstar Games productions. The world will be totally open and available from the beginning of the game, but the freedom to move around the streets of Los Angeles is only linked to the collection of collectibles, the missions do not require movement around the city. Each case is directly connected to three or more specific places that we will have to visit such as crime areas, clubs and shops. To reach these places we will have two possibilities: take advantage of the free roam component, get into the car and drive to the destination, or approach the car and hold down the button to get on board. In doing so, we will not be driving but our companion who, after a few meters in the car, will make us completely skip the travel component "teleporting" to the destination.
The control scheme reflects the classic Rockstar Games system with third-person view, movement and camera managed by the two analogs, a cover system similar to Red Dead Redemption and an action phase referred to the use of bare-handed combat as in GTA IV , as well as obviously firefights with pistols and rifles of various kinds. The action phase however is not the main aspect of the game. The moments of real action are present more in the secondary missions called "Crimes in the street" rather than in the main cases where logic and intuition - real and virtual - are the masters.

The main component of the game is therefore the investigative aspect on which all LA Noire is based. Each case requires several stages, from the collection of clues and depositions to the study of the evidence necessary to frame the culprits. By making a few mistakes and framing the culprits in a short time, we will get a better classification of the case from our boss and as we bring criminals to justice, we will change our status from a patrol policeman to a detective from the Traffic, Drugs, Arson departments. and finally Homicides.

Specifically for each case where we are a detective - things for patrol cops are a little different - we will have to go to the main crime scene and examine every single object and possibly even the bodies at the scene. This phase of searching for clues can be helped by the system in different ways, through the intuition points that we will get by going up in rank, we will have the possibility to show on the mini map all the points where to look, moreover from the options menu we can activate or deactivate sound aids like a music that will stop playing when there is nothing else to do on the scene or the tinkling of little bells that we will hear when we get closer to something to watch - in addition to the audio, we can also activate the vibration of the pad that will accompany the tinkling of the bells. Once all the evidence has been collected and all the objects examined, the depositions of the witnesses and of the people involved in the case will be collected. Here the investigative part takes place where intuition is king and where the Motion Scan system - which we will discuss in detail in the section dedicated to the technique - has its primary function. By questioning people we will get statements that we will have to decide to interpret as truth, lies or whether to remain vague by keeping the doubt. Each statement has a single correct interpretation and by failing to obtain more information because the suspect will withdraw into himself or become aggressive and try to mislead our investigation by giving us false leads. Therefore, having examined the clues and obtained the truth from the various witnesses, we will move on to the final phase of the case in which we generally have a short phase of action in which we will have to follow the suspect or face him guns in hand on foot or aboard vehicles. Once the suspect has been stopped and arrested, there will be nothing left but the last phase of the case, that is the interrogation in which we will have to frame the culprit and make him collapse to obtain the confession that will make us close the case successfully.

Twenty-one times these will be the actions we will have to do: study, collect, question, face and frame. That said, it sounds repetitive and it's not just about impression. If it were not for the forty small secondary cases that we will be able to face while driving in the city and for the interlude cutscenes that will be activated by reading the newspapers, LA Noire would turn out after a couple of hours a game with high promises, but with a boring gameplay, a bit as happened with the first title in the Assassin's Creed series. Therefore, free roam is not always a sign of success if it is not seasoned with events other than the basic gameplay that allow the player to break the routine and have fun while not following the story. In the same way, the story does not return the right pathos, even though it is narrated with skill by all the protagonists of the story, the story never stands out by making that leap necessary to bring the player into the shoes of his alter ego. We will live the life of Cole Phelps, but the feeling is not that of living it firsthand, but rather that of being a spectator in a great Hollywood movie.

The multiplayer sector is missing and with good reason given the nature of the game. Despite this, the longevity of LA Noire is to be commended. Approximately twelve hours are required to complete the game's plot alone through the twenty-one main cases of the story. To these we must add another eight, ten hours to complete the forty secondary missions and the collection of various collectibles - cars, newspapers and places of interest. Therefore, the 100% completion of the title, without taking advantage of various shortcuts and jumps, requires the player from twenty to twenty-five hours of play.

DOCTOR JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

Excellent and with honors the audio sector that offers an Oscar-winning dubbing in English and a soundtrack fully in style with the Los Angeles of the 40s. The sound effects of gunshots, engines and sounds of the city in general are more than enough. Finally, like all major Rockstar productions, the title has only English subtitles, but on LA Noire this cannot be considered a defect.

CONCLUSION