14 DAY TRIAL // L.A. Noire was released a couple of weeks ago, with Team Bondi, its developer, and Rockstar, its publisher, promising to deliver a sort of interactive experience seen only in movies or TV shows, not in any other previous games.
While at first glance you can say that this is just a Grand Theft Auto clone, but set in 1947's Los Angeles and with a cop as the protagonist, L.A. Noire is much, much more.
Did the game manage to take interactive entertainment to a new level or should it be escorted off the premises? Let's have a quick look.
L.A. Noire is a Rockstar game but, at the same, is unlike anything the company has ever put out, largely because it gave lots of creative freedom to Australian studio Team Bondi, which used the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) to craft a unique blend of open world gameplay with a detective story that emphasizes careful strategy and thinking before mindless running or shooting.
You play as Cole Phelps, a young LAPD officer who catches his big break while completing a case, thus earning him a promotion out of his regular patrolman uniform and into the suit of a detective.
L.A. Noire carefully introduces you to the core mechanics of its gameplay, with Cole first needing to investigate a crime scene and examine evidence. This is made easy by the game, which uses audio cues and controller vibration to signal the presence of clues.
For those who want to do this on their own, these aids can easily be turned off, and you will no doubt spend a lot of time around crime scenes to make sure every last clue is found and examined.
Once this is done, Cole can talk to witnesses or follow up on suspicious evidence, like handguns, before going forward to start talking to actual suspects.
This is arguably the most important part of L.A. Noire, as you need to ask the right questions, use the evidence you've gathered up until then, as well as study the suspect in order to figure out if they're lying, telling half truths or being honest.
This can make or break your case, so players need to be extra careful and make sure they studied all of the evidence and followed up all of the leads.
This is definitely a fresh experience, which can prove to be a winner in L.A. Noire.
Check out some gameplay footage of L.A Noire, depicting a firefight as well as a bare knuckle brawl below.