It’s taken a long time, but Rockstar has finally published a game that I can enjoy. The problem is that L.A. Noire will forever suffer the curse of “having been better if they did X instead”. Hindsight is always 20/20, and for backseat designers such as myself there is a lot to nit and pick at. It is not a perfect game, and it is not game of the year.

Yet it is still an important title that should be kept in the eye of the public. Plagued it may be with problems, there’s a lot done here that elevates gaming to being a more mature medium. It is truly on the level of Heavy Rain, though the two execute similar concepts in such drastically different ways it is sometimes hard to compare. In fact, the only real cause for comparison is that there aren’t many games to compare either title to.

STORY

It would have been easy for Team Bondi, the developers of L.A. Noire, to have just looked at a bunch of Post-WWII pictures and films and imitated what they had seen, slapping a “1940’s Los Angeles” label on it. Hell, all you really need is to replace phrases like “bitch” and “ho” and replace it with “dame” and you got yourself a talkie!

Yet more care was put into the time period than that. The very first case exhibits antisemitism and the resulting conflict of racial tension. Throughout the game segregation and the racial divide are portrayed realistically without shining a light on it. At first our minds, so used to political correctness, may find something out of place in the treatment of women and blacks in this story. Yet it is all within the nature of the time period, and that it is viewed as being “normal” only makes the tale more genuine.

At the core of the story, however, is a bunch of soldiers that returned from seeing and doing horrible things during the War and are now trying to find their place back home. While we like to look back and think of WWII as the greatest generation, a lot of troops returned to find nothing really waiting for them but crap jobs and the inability to afford good housing. These issues are interwoven into the story, gradually being revealed as the protagonist, Cole Phelps, goes through the case.

Cole himself is an interesting fellow, a character that seems good while simultaneously being a total prick. This isn’t unintentional. Throughout the game you get familiar with his history in the war and his relation to a character name Jack Kelso. The two are both “good men” on paper, just of a very different sort. Cole Phelps is a “modern day” Paladin, a lawful good “hero” that does everything by the book and cannot abide by anyone who doesn’t. He lacks empathy with others, and it creates a rift between him and those around him.

After completing the game, however, you discover a piece about his past that also explains why he isn’t always so keen to go locking folks up. Something happened to Cole that taught him doing things “by the numbers” isn’t always what is right. As such, he progresses through a series of homicide cases wanting to be certain he’s got the right killer while his superiors just want to put a man in a jail cell and call it a night. The big reveal towards the end shines a light on all of Cole’s character, his actions and his desire to grow and redeem himself. It adds greater weight, and ultimately provides a new perspective when going through the game a second time.

Jack Kelso, who plays a major part despite having little time in the game, is a very different kind of “good”. He is empathetic to those around him. He doesn’t judge what is right and wrong based on law or protocol. He uses his gut instincts and intuition to help him get inside someone’s head. He understands right from wrong by understanding people, a simple trait that ultimately, on paper at least, makes him a “better” person than Cole Phelps.

The game acts as a rather interesting look into what the concept of “right” and “wrong” and what is “good” and “bad” really is, and most of all what it isn’t. This is best spelled out as Cole discovers just how crooked the police system is, which is pretty much par for the course for a good Noir story.

What is most important here, however, is that the protagonist goes through a character arc. By the end he has changed. This may seem like Story Telling 101, but it seems to be the most important piece of the recipe left out of character creation in video games (unless you consider Japanese Role-Playing Games or Bioware’s side characters). They either take a Valve approach (if they can manage it) and place that character arc on the experiences and choices of the player themselves, or it just never happens at all. They noticed all the parts of Joseph Campbell’s A Hero’s Journey except for anything that leaves the protagonist changed in the end.

Yet L.A. Noire features a protagonist that has flaws that must be faced, and by the end he’s learned some new things about the world and of himself. This allows the experience to feel satisfying, even as the credits roll and you realize there isn’t a lot left to do (except for DLC or annoying ass achievements).

GOOD COP, BAD COP

Investigation and interrogation is equal parts entertaining and annoying. Leading up to its release all marketing of L.A. Noire noted players would need to use intuition, gut instinct and to read people’s faces in order to determine whether they were lying, hiding the truth or speaking honestly. This is the biggest load of crap, and instead of intuition a player is better off just accusing someone of being a liar just so they know if they have any incriminating evidence or not.

See, after exploring an environment and finding all the necessary clues, you get to sit down and question witnesses and suspects. Based on their answers you can continue their accusation by believing them, doubting them or claiming them to lie. The biggest hint that someone is hiding something or lying is that they’ll either be fidgeting or have some smug look on their face. If their face is bland, they are telling the truth (usually). Now, the problem is understanding just how smug or just how nervous they are to determine whether they are lying or not. Or that’s what I suspect, as sometimes you may think you have the evidence to prove them wrong, but you really need to choose “Doubt” instead.

The player must also learn very early on that Cole is not going to be saying what they are feeling. In an early interrogation a woman mentioned her husband was wearing a new pair of glasses when he left, yet an old broken pair were found. I chose “Lie”, and suddenly Cole bursts out shouting “I know you murdered your husband!”. Whoa, now! Back on the saddle, Jack! Let’s not be too hasty!

Towards the end of the game it feels less like it is a game of intuition and more like it’s a puzzle with few clues to solve. I really wish Team Bondi had played more Phoenix Wright, as that would have been the perfect place to begin their design. I mean, it’s not like they couldn’t have done focus testing on this system without any programming. Get some amateur actors to play out the parts of characters in an interrogation, get people off the street and tell them what their evidence is and what they can say when. I imagine pretty early on players would have been having trouble. Even after programming the basics this would have been a usability tester’s nightmare.

What makes Phoenix Wright work so well is they give you a character’s individual statements, and all you need concern yourself with is that simple statement. Use what evidence you have to puncture the holes in their story, and if you need to you can press them for details to know precisely where to poke. This is what “Doubt” should have been in L.A. Noire. It should have been an option for when you were on the fence and wanted to learn more, giving you the option later to either believe them or accuse them of lying. Instead, “Doubt” is more or less “You’re lying, but I don’t have the evidence to prove it yet”. Which is awfully flimsy, as sometimes a player will think they have evidence, but it just so happens to need to be used on the next question (a flaw Phoenix Wright is also guilty of).

While the system can be fun, it can also be annoying. That is, unless the player doesn’t care about getting some questions wrong. However, there are a number of cases where the player may put the wrong man in jail, and while this is usually a rail-roaded plot point anyway, it can occasionally be the result of L.A. Noire’s own mind being impenetrable.

This sort of problem can extend to other puzzles as well. The game wants you to look through so many forms and ledgers that require you to point and poke at just the right spot that it can often enough be easy to miss the crucial detail that will allow the case to progress. This isn’t so much a problem at the start of the game, but towards the end you start to run low on interrogations and are confronted with a lot more puzzles to burn through.

LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

Virtual Los Angeles is bustling with life and cars…at least, I feel like it was. There are many complaints that the city feels empty and desolate. Maybe it’s a symptom of the Xbox 360 version, because one of the reasons I hated driving in this game was due to all the slow-moving cars blocking up all lanes. It is probably the number one annoyance of mine in this entire game.

If you just want to burn through the story, then all you need to do is hold the button to enter the vehicle down and the game will automatically take you to your destination. However, if you’d like to complete the side quests, random radio calls indicating a crime going on nearby, then you’ll have to drive on your own. A lot. While activating the siren certainly helps move cars over a lane and clear some space, they often seem to react way too late to make a difference. In fact, the reaction time of other vehicles is all over the place. At certain speeds they’ll anticipate your actions (with great inaccuracy) well ahead of time, while at others it’s like they don’t even see you coming. This is especially bad at slow speeds, where most of my fender benders were a simple result of another car having whole seconds to stop as I pulled out of a driveway or alleyway and decided to T-Bone me nonetheless.

Then the asshole NPC’s step out of their car yelling about you driving like a maniac.

The best way to drive through the city is like a nut case, breaking every speed law and weaving through cars on the wrong side of the road at all times. Accidents are frequent, and ever scratch on the chrome has an effect on your rating at the end of the case.

FILL ‘EM WITH LEAD

Oddly enough, the combat was one of the more enjoyable parts of a Rockstar game. While it is built off of the Grand Theft Auto IV engine, it is not vomit-inducing horrible design. Fisticuffs work well enough, providing a dodge button in addition to two types of attacks. A basic strategy of dodge-punch-punch will work throughout the game. It’s similar to Grand Theft Auto IV’s, but polished and executed well.

While the cover mechanics for the ranged combat are a bit wonky, they function. Press a button to slide against an object and get cover, then press it again for free movement. If you want to jump from cover to cover like Gears of War, however, you’re out of luck. This isn’t really a problem except for the handful of fights where your foe is a great distance away. Most times enemies are close enough that lining up a headshot is no problem.

My only real issue is during some of the smaller crimes committed, where a criminal you’re chasing down could grab a hostage. If you want to try and take the guy out without killing him, there is no option. You can either shoot him in the head or allow the hostage to die, which will result in a Game Over. Which begs the question, if you can screw up an interrogation and throw the wrong man in jail, why can’t you live with the knowledge that you allowed an innocent hostage to die?

The closest option you have is while chasing down a criminal. You can shoot them as they run, or you can hold the crosshair steady over them and fire a warning shot when ready. This will stop them in their tracks and allow Cole to make an arrest. This option is only allowed during certain chase scenes when Cole has his gun out, and is the only time you can optionally spare a criminal (as opposed to when you are forced to do so). It’s not really easy to pull off, either. So in the end a player’s best bet is to chase the guy down until the game dictates it is time for him to die.

RAILROADING

The core of most of L.A. Noire’s flaws lie in the simple fact that they railroad the player precisely to where they want. Now, this is typically what happens in most games, but a good designer knows how to hide it. Or, at the very least, how to give them options.

While I don’t believe Valve to be some magnificent developer, there are just some things they do well. In five years of development you’d think Team Bondi would have spent some of it in focus tests. If they did, then they must not have paid attention to anyone that didn’t play it their way. I can’t be the only person that tried to spare both criminal and hostage by shooting the bad guy in the gun hand (and succeeding…except, y’know, for the part where he still pulled the trigger).

This happens throughout the story as well, where a player may have a different choice in mind than what the game gives them. The first case on the Homicide desk ends with a number of loose ends, and never does Cole question it. I certainly did, and I suddenly felt like I had done the case incorrectly somehow. That is, until the next one, where I was railroaded into screwing the case up again. See, Homicide desk is all about putting the wrong people behind bars, which is incredibly frustrating until you realize it is “for the sake of the story”.

It may be harder, but a player should be allowed to say “I don’t want to arrest anyone right now” and have an additional outcome. Even if it is something as simple as the Chief saying “that’s not your decision” and having your partner make the arrest instead. This allows the story to continue, but it also gives the player some ownership over the character of Cole Phelps.

That is, after all, part of interactive entertainment. Anyone can read a book or watch a film where the character keeps making bad decisions. However, even in passive mediums the audience gets sick of seeing a character make the same mistake repeatedly. They want their protagonist to be clever, and to go against the grain in order to do what is right. L.A. Noire gave the option for the protagonist to either obey orders or…well, that’s it. All for the sake of telling Team Bondi’s story.

L.A. Noire is a huge game with a lot to do, and it is a Hell of a lot more polished than typical Rockstar offerings. The story is good and a lot of the gameplay is enjoyable. Yet at every turn you can find gaps, holes or broken poles where a simple design decision could have made the game a more cohesive, enjoyable and even immersive experience.