Doffing the trilby to the 1940s classic-Hollywood noir genre, L.A Noire released in 2011 to resounding plaudits from critics thanks to its innovative facial capture technology and an astounding presentation. Now a remaster for PS4 and Xbox One is out in the wilderness but can polished up visuals and bundled together dlc make you want a return trip or is this the last case L.A Noire should undertake?
Cole Phelps is a returning war veteran who joins the Los Angeles Police Department as a detective, firstly as a regular street cop, but he rapidly gets promoted to take on private investigation duties in the Traffic division then swiftly moved up to Homicide before more complex opportunities await him at the Vice desk-where the story really picks up steam and Cole becomes embroiled in corruption and uncovers a heavily influential syndicate that is ruthlessly acquiring unprecedented power in Los Angeles. The story is loaded with political intrigue and the bright and breezy promises the American Dream upholds are seen to be slowly smouldering away as crooked characters unite to manipulate and destroy the lives of anyone who opposes them. Cole himself isn’t immune from the dirt either as you will find out through the beautifully paced story, but when the ending arrives the lack of a satisfying payoff stings and makes you wonder whether there is any justice in this world-though this could be the entire point of the story. Cole and the diverse array of figures you come across range from likeable and agreeable to perverse and corrupt-as is the common fashion of a R* production.
Your main role in L.A Noire is to investigate criminal cases as they crop up throughout the story. Typically, before you tackle a case you are given a briefing and if you’re starting out on a desk-introduced to your new partner. From here you and your partner run off to your police vehicle and follow a marker to a crime scene. You will be welcomed by a policeman and/or possibly the game’s coroner and then you proceed to look over the clues and the deceased remains of victims. You will then follow up with an interrogation of the witnesses and if you have leads you will be on your journey to a new location to find more information and make more enquiries, or you’ll be on the phone to dispatch giving details and getting a new location to skulk out. Once you’ve compiled enough evidence and searched enough locations you will be back at the police station interrogating suspects and possibly charging them with criminal offences.
There is a quasi-rinse and repeat formula to the gameplay but it’s often offset by dramatic happenings that catch you off guard including pulse-racing sprints after suspects, hair-raising car chases and thrilling shootouts. L.A Noire constantly keeps you engaged and wanting to continue the story even when its rote aspects might threaten to tire you out. It’s a sensational display of pacing, where you will never do one thing for so long that it gets tiresome, but even when repetition sets in, the story and drama pick up the slack.
Cole Phelps is a returning war veteran who joins the Los Angeles Police Department as a detective, firstly as a regular street cop, but he rapidly gets promoted to take on private investigation duties in the Traffic division then swiftly moved up to Homicide before more complex opportunities await him at the Vice desk-where the story really picks up steam and Cole becomes embroiled in corruption and uncovers a heavily influential syndicate that is ruthlessly acquiring unprecedented power in Los Angeles. The story is loaded with political intrigue and the bright and breezy promises the American Dream upholds are seen to be slowly smouldering away as crooked characters unite to manipulate and destroy the lives of anyone who opposes them. Cole himself isn’t immune from the dirt either as you will find out through the beautifully paced story, but when the ending arrives the lack of a satisfying payoff stings and makes you wonder whether there is any justice in this world-though this could be the entire point of the story. Cole and the diverse array of figures you come across range from likeable and agreeable to perverse and corrupt-as is the common fashion of a R* production.
Your main role in L.A Noire is to investigate criminal cases as they crop up throughout the story. Typically, before you tackle a case you are given a briefing and if you’re starting out on a desk-introduced to your new partner. From here you and your partner run off to your police vehicle and follow a marker to a crime scene. You will be welcomed by a policeman and/or possibly the game’s coroner and then you proceed to look over the clues and the deceased remains of victims. You will then follow up with an interrogation of the witnesses and if you have leads you will be on your journey to a new location to find more information and make more enquiries, or you’ll be on the phone to dispatch giving details and getting a new location to skulk out. Once you’ve compiled enough evidence and searched enough locations you will be back at the police station interrogating suspects and possibly charging them with criminal offences.
There is a quasi-rinse and repeat formula to the gameplay but it’s often offset by dramatic happenings that catch you off guard including pulse-racing sprints after suspects, hair-raising car chases and thrilling shootouts. L.A Noire constantly keeps you engaged and wanting to continue the story even when its rote aspects might threaten to tire you out. It’s a sensational display of pacing, where you will never do one thing for so long that it gets tiresome, but even when repetition sets in, the story and drama pick up the slack.
Searching for clues involves finding objects within the vicinity of the crime scene, picking them up and inspecting them closely. Inspections draws the camera upclose and you use the right stick to survey the object. If what you have found is important you will be signalled to keep the right stick held in a specified direction so the camera does zoom in and you will locate an important piece of evidence or a particular remark from Cole-if you find an object that isn’t useful Cole will sometimes make you aware by telling you something like “it’ll take a smarter man than me to connect that”. Music does a sensational job of cueing you in and letting you know where unsearched pieces of evidence are and will chime in when you’ve collected all the evidence as well as when a particularly important piece of evidence has been found. The way music factors into the gameplay without directly being apart of it is astonishing and only adds to the attention to detail and care that has gone into crafting this gumshoe simulator.
Interrogations can be quite tough in L.A Noire as your success often hinges on how well you can read a person’s facial expressions and decipher the truth or lack thereof in what they are saying. Little details are often the key to recognizing when a person is telling the truth, when there’s some doubt in what they’re saying or whether they are flat out lying to you. Indeed this wouldn’t be possible without the spectacular facial capture technology, which really does a great job of giving you enough intuitional advantage to succeed most of the time. This remaster has replaced the original’s Truth and Doubt options with “Good Cop” and “Bad Cop”, which is a thankful change because sometimes Cole can be ruthless when he doubts what somebody is saying and his demeanour is usually broader than it was, so the new options are far more readable and satisfies the broadness in what he is saying. Furthermore you will usually have to ask three or four questions and successfully get the right response in order to get the whole picture-and once again the music does a fantastic job letting you know when you’ve succeeded and when you’ve failed with an enlightening jingle for correct answers and a dreary tune for incorrect responses.
When L.A Noire lets you fight and chase/pursue the results are mixed. Firefights are cool as shots have a lethal and satisfying impact to them-seeing blood splatters on the wall after you blast an enemy with a shotgun is great. Be mindful of your health though, it’s usually quite fragile but staying in cover and popping out for short bursts work best. Throwing away the guns for trading blows with fists is quite boring because they’re a matter of tapping one button to evade and another to punch and the encounters don’t last long enough to make an impact. Chases are alright as they pick the drama up but unfortunately they devolve into running, climbing and jumping as you get ever closer to your target and either you’ll tackle them or if you time an aim right by filling a circular meter-you can fire a shot into the air and force the target to stop. Car chases fare better as your partner can fire shots out of the window to disable tyres and often times the crashes that result are amazing to behold. There are also times where you will be required to tail a suspect either in a car or on foot and they’re relatively benign but there’s not much of value to them-you either keep your distance or you fail and try again.
Interrogations can be quite tough in L.A Noire as your success often hinges on how well you can read a person’s facial expressions and decipher the truth or lack thereof in what they are saying. Little details are often the key to recognizing when a person is telling the truth, when there’s some doubt in what they’re saying or whether they are flat out lying to you. Indeed this wouldn’t be possible without the spectacular facial capture technology, which really does a great job of giving you enough intuitional advantage to succeed most of the time. This remaster has replaced the original’s Truth and Doubt options with “Good Cop” and “Bad Cop”, which is a thankful change because sometimes Cole can be ruthless when he doubts what somebody is saying and his demeanour is usually broader than it was, so the new options are far more readable and satisfies the broadness in what he is saying. Furthermore you will usually have to ask three or four questions and successfully get the right response in order to get the whole picture-and once again the music does a fantastic job letting you know when you’ve succeeded and when you’ve failed with an enlightening jingle for correct answers and a dreary tune for incorrect responses.
When L.A Noire lets you fight and chase/pursue the results are mixed. Firefights are cool as shots have a lethal and satisfying impact to them-seeing blood splatters on the wall after you blast an enemy with a shotgun is great. Be mindful of your health though, it’s usually quite fragile but staying in cover and popping out for short bursts work best. Throwing away the guns for trading blows with fists is quite boring because they’re a matter of tapping one button to evade and another to punch and the encounters don’t last long enough to make an impact. Chases are alright as they pick the drama up but unfortunately they devolve into running, climbing and jumping as you get ever closer to your target and either you’ll tackle them or if you time an aim right by filling a circular meter-you can fire a shot into the air and force the target to stop. Car chases fare better as your partner can fire shots out of the window to disable tyres and often times the crashes that result are amazing to behold. There are also times where you will be required to tail a suspect either in a car or on foot and they’re relatively benign but there’s not much of value to them-you either keep your distance or you fail and try again.
Story is the driving force of L.A Noire and this is evidenced by a semi-linear open-world where the most significant activity you can take part in outside of the main path is responding to emerging street crimes over the dispatch radio in Phelps’ police wagon. Street crimes are as varied as the dramatic gameplay moments in the story but they serve little purpose besides boosting your rank. There are landmark locations and golden film reels to be found but the open-world is disappointingly meagre and deserves to be much weightier than it is.
When you get down to it L.A Noire Remastered is just a bolstered-up version of the original game with all the dlc and enhanced visuals. The good cop/bad replacement was a good move away from the uncertain interrogation options of the original version, but what we get here is largely the same as before. If you haven’t played the original L.A Noire it is essential- but if you have then getting the remaster will hinge on how much you enjoyed the original game because there is little here to recommend beyond what was already established unless you never played the dlc cases. As a game L.A Noire is phenomenal and as a remaster it does enough justice to the original to be worth playing again but it will depend on your liking of the original and your tolerance for the game’s scarce open-world, iffy fist-fighting and meh chase and following sequences.
When you get down to it L.A Noire Remastered is just a bolstered-up version of the original game with all the dlc and enhanced visuals. The good cop/bad replacement was a good move away from the uncertain interrogation options of the original version, but what we get here is largely the same as before. If you haven’t played the original L.A Noire it is essential- but if you have then getting the remaster will hinge on how much you enjoyed the original game because there is little here to recommend beyond what was already established unless you never played the dlc cases. As a game L.A Noire is phenomenal and as a remaster it does enough justice to the original to be worth playing again but it will depend on your liking of the original and your tolerance for the game’s scarce open-world, iffy fist-fighting and meh chase and following sequences.
STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
PRESENTATION: 10/10
LIFESPAN: 6/10
SCORE: 8/10
A brilliant game with a serviceable but unremarkable remaster-L.A Noire has been preserved well but may not win over the uninitiated but it's still an excellent game. L.A quasi-essential.