L.A. Noire is a neo-noir detective action-adventure video game developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. It was initially released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms on 17 May 2011; a Microsoft Windows port was later released on 8 November 2011. L.A. Noire is set in Los Angeles in 1947 and challenges the player, controlling a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, to solve a range of cases across five divisions. Players must investigate crime scenes for clues, follow up leads, and interrogate suspects, and the player's success at these activities will impact how much of each case's story is revealed. The game draws heavily from both the plot and aesthetic elements of film noir—stylistic films made popular in the 1940s and 1950s that share similar visual styles and themes, including crime and moral ambiguity—along with drawing inspiration from real-life crimes for its in-game cases, based upon what was reported by the Los Angeles media in 1947. The game uses a distinctive colour palette, but in homage to film noir it includes the option to play the game in black and white. Various plot elements reference the major themes of detective and mobster stories such as The Naked City, Chinatown, The Untouchables, The Black Dahlia, and L.A. Confidential.
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This review contains spoilers
The main feature of the game is that all of the facial animations were done with motion capture, to try to accurately display whether a person was telling the truth or not. Basically, it all came down to reading body language, which I'm sometimes not very good at apparently. I found interviews and questioning to be difficult to get through correctly, although I learned throughout the game. The action sequences are a nice change of pace from the investigating and interviewing. I also liked the subtle helpful hints in the music and the environment to help me whenever I was stuck. Also, there was a cool feature to play in a black & white mode, which was really cool, and really immerses you into vintage police work. I also liked how all of the traffic cases, homicide cases, etc. were linked together and not just one-off cases, besides the DLC cases.
The overall story of Cole Phelps and the other characters was mediocre by the time I got to the end of the game. I felt that the ending was fairly anti-climatic, being a manhunt for one dude we met once in a flashback and then.
Overall, I really did enjoy playing as a detective and experiencing 1940s Los Angeles. I loved the detective mechanics and animations, but there wasn't a strong story to go with them. The DLC cases are interesting and provide a neat twist apart from the main cases. Also, jazz music was good.
The story has lots of ups and downs and it's making you experience different types of cases and approaches. At times this game felt like a good detective TV Show:)))
The Noir atmosphere of the 40s-50s is just great and L.A is the right city for this kind of game, Los Angeles more like Los Angeles y Los Demonios.
The facial expressions are the game's trademark, revolutionary for 2011. from what i've noticed.. many people find them a little cringy, but i thought they were impressive and added charm to the game.
One of my favorite things about this game is the main menu... it's soo creative, i love when games try to do something unique like that. Out of the the letters from the light panel, only the letters L, I and E flicker, cool detail.. right? You know the game will be good from the moment you see the work and effort put into this kind of things.
Soundtrack is amazing too, especially the main theme. It's very moody and it makes me wanna drink some whiskey and light up a cigar while elegantly dressed in a suit with a nice hat on my head thinking about life and the immortality of the soul.
One thing i didn't liked was how big the map was considering there's not much to do in free roam but its not really a bad thing, they did good with creating the L.A of that time, just not super necessary.
Team Bondi did a helluva job with this game, shame they don't exist anymore. I hope we will see more games like L.A Noire at some point.