Rockstar Games rarely pleases its fans with new game announcements, and therefore many people perceive any news from these developers with particular interest. This happened with the announcement of the re-release of the cult detective action game in the open world, the original version of which was released in 2011 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Let's figure out whether the game is worth being called a full-fledged re-release and whether it can provide a new experience in 2017, when games have taken a serious step forward.
Features of the reissue
Unlike previous reviews, I would like to start the article with the graphics, or rather with their differences compared to the original. It’s worth saying right away that the magic didn’t happen and this is just a slightly embellished game. The terrain rendering range has increased slightly, 4K resolution has been added to PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, and PS4 and Xbox One consoles boast full Full HD (1920x1080).
However, there is no significant increase in the visual component. Even at the time of release, the game was clearly not the most beautiful, and now it looks too outdated. The character body models are kind of plastic, the terrain detail is still lame, and the special effects look too wooden. Compared to L.A. Noire on PS4 with the PS3 version, then the difference is more noticeable than trying to find differences with the game on PC. On personal computers the game looks no worse than on current generation consoles.
Analysis of the graphics features can be carried out for a very long time, touching on one element or another, but in general, the picture is not perceived as somehow fresh and modern. However, the visual part of L.A. Noire, like its original version, is still saved by the animation of the characters' faces. Even in 2017, you can see such acting only in the latest games from Quantic Dream, which in turn are interactive movies. L.A. Noire, for a second, offers players an open world, an action component and a quest part, and therefore such well-developed characters can still be considered a technological breakthrough.
A small but rather pleasant feature of the re-release of L.A. Noire is a photo mode that was not present in the original. This mode is done quite well, allowing us, by pressing two sticks, to stop the game at any moment of the gameplay and take a screenshot. It is worth noting that the mode has quite extensive functionality. We can not only change the position of the camera, but also focus the photo, add various effects and use all our imagination, so that later the photo can be used as a desktop background.
Unfortunately, the re-release runs at 30 FPS on all systems. Considering the considerable age of L.A. Noire, as well as the capabilities of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, it is very strange that the developers did not add any additional graphic settings to the game, like what is in . These are the main differences between the re-release of L.A. Noire from the original, unfortunately, ends.
Plot
Despite the fact that the game was released about six years ago and many already know almost everything about it, we could not ignore the plot part. The game takes us into the body of a young police officer named Cole Phelps, who is about to return from World War II, received a Silver Star and wants to clean the streets of Los Angeles from crime. Initially, we play as an ordinary patrolman, but literally after a few simple cases we are promoted to detective. A strict boss, an experienced partner named Stefan Bekowski, and a meticulously detailed police department make us believe that we are in Los Angeles in 1947, trying to do our part in the fight against crime.
From time to time we are shown short flashbacks that allow us to find out the past of the main character and what he was like during his service. We are immediately given to understand that Cole Phelps is far from an ideal guy, sometimes acting to please his own ambitions. The plot only benefits from this, making the character come to life in our eyes and listen in more detail to every phrase he says.
As the storyline develops, we will repeatedly witness how deceiving first impressions can be. An honest and principled cop, Phelps will experience problems in his personal life, quarrel with his own wife and sometimes go against legal methods when questioning witnesses. In the end, we are shown how a person can change who stands too firmly on his own, without trying to listen to other people.
The storyline really begins to unfold towards the second half of the game. At the beginning we see many incomprehensible scenes, for example, flashbacks of newspapers with a psychiatrist and former military personnel. However, after some time, all the questions that arise during the first part of the game find answers. We will meet that very friend of Jack Kelso, who constantly becomes the hero of flashbacks about the war, we will find out what kind of scam some high-ranking people are perpetrating in order to profit from veterans, and we will also witness many murders taking place in the city and having some connection.
Serious plot holes that are visible to the naked eye in L.A. Noire no. The game is truly captivating with its in-game story, but all the development in the narrative occurs in the second half of the passage, and therefore the drawn-out beginning may scare off a little people who are accustomed to seeing intrigue immediately after clicking on the “New Game” button.
Gameplay
There are a lot of open world cop games with action and investigation, but none of them can offer what L.A. has to offer. Noire. This product is not just some new part of True Crime, but a full-fledged detective story with interesting crime investigation mechanics. Action and car chases in the open world are just an addition to the quest part of the game.
Each case must be investigated from the very beginning to the end, without missing any moments with interrogation of witnesses, search for clues and evidence. In general, each case looks like this: we arrive at the crime scene, look around and look for evidence, then interview witnesses, look for evidence again, and after that we try to put everything together into a single picture. The final stage in the investigation is an attempt to catch a person in a lie or to extract the whole truth from him.
At first, such mechanics make the most pleasant impression and force you to plunge into the game headlong, but by the tenth or eleventh task, doing the same thing becomes more and more boring. Due to the fact that we are allowed to feel almost all the mechanics of the game at the very beginning, towards the end the gameplay fizzles out a little. To get the most out of the game, we do not recommend completing it in two or three days, but trying to stretch the playthrough over a longer period of time with breaks between tasks.
As described above, the key feature of the game can still be considered the excellent animation of the characters’ faces, most of which were played by real actors known from television series and films. The developers made realistic faces for a reason, but added this feature to the gameplay part. The fact is that when interrogating witnesses, we must not only be based on logical facts, but also play the role of a real psychologist. This is done in such a way that when lying, the characters often hide their eyes and behave unnaturally. Thanks to this mechanic, we must carefully monitor all the movements and facial expressions of the characters. In most cases, all this looks very realistic and does not seem like something secondary and uninteresting.
The only problem with the quest part is that when accusing characters the mechanics sometimes fail. For example, we have collected all the evidence, understood the case down to the smallest detail and are already sure that the character we are interrogating is guilty. However, choosing the most logical accusation from the notebook, it turns out that it is incorrect, as a result of which we need to start over. There are no consequences for incorrectly solving a crime, except for fines after the level, which have almost no effect on anything. All there is is a loading screen after failure and re-interrogation. Because of this, some may simply choose charges at random without fear of something going wrong in the plot or the hero getting demoted. Still, this moment could and should have been played out in a more interesting and varied way.
The second part of the game, in addition to quests and simple puzzles, is the action. At first everything happens like in some Mafia or GTA. We rush around the city, exploring the open world and participating in shootouts with opponents. If you look at the action elements in more detail, you can find many shortcomings in them. The physics of the cars is arcade-like even compared to , and shooting is more irritating than fun. For example, we don’t see how many rounds we have, and the controls don’t allow us to change the button layout at all or even see what action a particular key performs. Enemies behave very stupidly in firefights, not trying to somehow get around us or regroup.
However, one could find fault with all these points ad infinitum if L.A. Noire was a full-on action game. However, before us is a quest that is only partially supplemented by shootouts and car chases, albeit implemented very mediocrely.
Results
If you've ever played the game on PC or even previous generation consoles, then the re-release of L.A. Noire is unlikely to give you a new experience, since it does not have any major innovations. The graphics haven't changed much, the frame rate remains the same, and no new modes have been added other than the ability to take photos.
Thus, the game looks more like an improved port than a full re-release. However, if someone missed this detective story at one time, then even six years after its release it can give a lot of unforgettable impressions. The game goes a long way from the television series Columbo to the action-packed thriller Seven, allowing us to take part in catching a serial killer and uncovering criminal gangs.
If you're looking for a great mystery with well-developed characters, excellent music and noir style, and unusual gameplay, L.A. Noire remains one of a kind.
Seven years ago, when the announcement happened L.A. Noire, the press, choked in ecstasy, registered it in the mass consciousness as a “new project Rockstar Games" The subtle fact that the game is actually being created by an Australian studio Team Bondi, most of us for some reason chose to ignore it. As it turned out, it was in vain.
Team Bondi's artistic director is Brendan McNamara, a man with an unkind face that resembles an occasionally smiling chop. Clearly fanciing himself the next David Cage, McNamara has spent a lot of the company's time and money Sony for development The Getaway- a grandiose PS2 exclusive, known primarily for the fact that there you could catch your breath at the wall, thus healing a freshly received burst of machine gun fire. The Getaway - story-driven clone GTA 3, only formally pretended to be an open-world action game. In fact, it was a linear, ambitious, pompous and completely humorless game, whose creator used constructs like “interactive cinema” and “blurring the boundaries between games and cinema” at every opportunity.
In the game, as in modern quests, you can use hints. For example, in order to find all the evidence or hide the wrong versions of questions. This is where the intuition gained with experience is wasted.
Additionally, The Getaway was a very expensive, lavishly produced game with embarrassingly bad gameplay. The driving and shooting there did not stand up to any criticism even by the standards of the early 2000s, and the only reason why The Getaway was offered to be loved was, in fact, the production. Real Lexuses, Rovers and Mercedes were driving around real London, Guy Ritchie's characters were constantly threatening the camera with a cigar (losing any hint of self-irony), and behind the scenes were the signees of the good English label Ninja Tune - in general, The Getaway sold several million copies. Not least because its formal competitor, GTA 3, at that time also could not boast of any impressive gameplay.
So, all of the above is fully applicable to McNamara’s second opus - L.A. Noire. This is a charming, outstanding (in some places) and sometimes even innovative game, designed by an ambitious and rather bad game designer.
Polite refusal
There's nothing easier than falling under the spell of L.A. Noire. She unmistakably knows the pain points of any educated person and hits them with defiant complacency. The game opens with melancholy jazz, pans through post-war Los Angeles, takes in some stunning close-ups (which we'll talk about below) - it's almost impossible not to fall in love with this kind of stuff.
You take your first steps in this world as an enthusiastic tourist: the game carefully leads you to the first crime scene (we arrive there as a patrolman), lets you shine a flashlight, makes you twirl meaningless decorative items in your hands, puts a murder weapon under your nose, offers you a ride to the local gun shop and finally allows him to conduct the first police interrogation of his noir life. You enthusiastically press the buttons, not suspecting that the above procedures are all that you will have to do over the course of three DVDs and approximately 20 hours of game time.
The game has a ton of side missions to apprehend bank robbers, armed psychopaths and other criminals. All of them differ little from each other and are not even suitable for side quests in the same GTA 4.
L.A. Noire is a formalist's erotic dream, a game broken down into episodes, each of which, in turn, represents a clearly defined sequence of the same actions. Episodes here refer to cases that the main character solves as part of his service in various departments of the Los Angeles police.
Each case breaks down into a series of acts: going to the crime scene, searching for evidence, interrogating witnesses, traveling based on leads and the final interrogation. From time to time they let you run after a fleeing suspect, ride in a car, or shoot with a pistol. Ninety percent of L.A. Noire is an extremely formalized action where you do the same thing. Collecting evidence is an intricate twirling of various objects in the hands - no surprising details of the era (except, perhaps, the fact that the hero regularly grabs evidence and examines corpses with his bare hands, without gloves).
In truth, with noir, jazz, and Los Angeles in mind, such a structure could be tolerated—as long as the searching for clues, the driving, the shooting, and the interrogation were fun.
Game formula
In the late edition of “Gaming Light” there was such a wonderful line: “the formula of the game.” So, in relation to L.A. Noire it would look like this: 50% Police Quest + 40% True Crime: Streets of L.A. + 10% Mafia. Most of L.A. Noire is about searching for evidence, and it is done here in the most clumsy way possible - this is pure pixel hunting, even though it is in expensive 3D. Maneuvering among the impeccably designed scenery, you naturally probe the space with the responsible button, hoping to find some active zone. This process is noticeably simplified thanks to special musical prompts: the game uses the sound and vibration of the gamepad to tell you when to press. But, in fact, you will spend about ten hours probing the surrounding furniture.
When the hero picks up a weapon, the worst part of the game begins.
The action is made as if it never happened in this world GTA 4 or Red Dead Redemption(not to mention Uncharted 2): the hero clumsily leans his back against the cover, the space around him reluctantly responds to external stimuli, weapons and the character are not felt at all at the tactile level.
And finally, the driving is arcade-like, completely devoid of any sane physics, mediocre and completely meaningless. After the grandiose performance of the automotive component Mafia 2 travel to L.A. Noire is physically unpleasant. McNamara himself seems to understand this, so he introduced into the game the opportunity to hand over the steering wheel to a partner. The only reason Team Bondi put a huge 3D 1940s Los Angeles into their game is so you can ride around it on a polygon block and look at the sights. Computer game developers have been busy with something similar for a long time. Truckers 3».
There remain interrogations, and with them, fortunately, everything is not so simple. Thanks to clever facial scanning technology, L.A. Noire is truly the first game to be tested in close-up. The characters here have expressive facial expressions: they raise their eyebrows, bite their lips and, in general, justify the costs of Hollywood performers. Another question is that these are, after all, three-dimensional models, and not real people - the game is not able to convey very subtle acting nuances and expressive views. So good Hollywood actors are forced to deliberately overact: theatrically puff up their eyes, puff out their cheeks, move their pupils expressively. The effect of this is somewhat comical: recognizable, seemingly good actors behave like participants in the Buster Keaton Pantomime Festival. But in general, it is, of course, a sin to laugh at such things - Team Bondi have actually made a noticeable technological step, thanks to which, I would like to believe, it will soon be possible to look at a close-up of a kiss between two 3D models without disgust.
An absurd chase scene of a criminal running away from the garden ends almost every case.
As for the actual mechanics of interrogations, what is mostly striking about it is the general optionality of this process. You can react to each of the suspect’s remarks in three ways: believe, doubt, and declare that the person is lying (in this case, you will need to present evidence, which the main character carefully writes down in a notebook). But, unfortunately, no matter what you say, no matter how wrong you make during the dialogue, the game will still find a way to communicate the main plot points. No level non-linearity Heavy Rain(with which L.A. Noire, for some misunderstanding, like to compare) is not here. There is simply an element of the game, in the place of which there could well have been a non-interactive cut-scene - no one would have been particularly upset.
What's most striking about the gameplay story is not its general flabbiness, but where Rockstar Games were looking. Well, okay McNamara - he hasn't made a single decent action movie in his entire life, but Rockstar! People who found the ideal use of Euphoria AI, people who, on the fourth attempt, finally screwed normal autophysics and action mechanics into the open world! Where were these people looking?
In big ways and in small ways
A patient reader can assume that all this disgrace can and should be tolerated for the sake of stunning stylization and plot. Alas, the plot here is also a complete failure. McNamara, a master of large and complex forms (The Getaway, remember, consisted of two acts, where the same events were demonstrated from different points of view), stupidly gives in to the material. For him, noir is a set of formal features that he carefully copies. L.A. Noire is ruined by its own episodic structure. Noir is always a very cleverly wrapped plot, which is almost impossible to understand right away: a series of multi-step betrayals, an abundance of minor characters, fatal blondes, and so on.
Short hour-long sketches of L.A. Noire mostly depicts some boring everyday life. There are practically no interesting characters; Hollywood, a favorite noir theme, mainly works on the periphery: characters float in front of you in a string of bulging eyes and three-dimensional mouths, leaving almost nothing in your memory. The main character is a boring ass with the mentality of an excellent student - the same idiot as his suspects. In general, while we were secretly hoping for a revisionist noir in the spirit of “Chinatown” and “LA Confidential,” the Australians made an interactive version of the imperishable series “Detective Mike Hammer.”
Things get noticeably worse when McNamara decides to add depth to his character. To do this, between individual cases, flashbacks about military service begin to pop up from time to time (to be sure, they are colored in gray monochrome, otherwise the audience will not realize that these are memories). And these inappropriate, poorly staged sketches are especially unbearable to watch. At the end of the second third of the game, McNamara slowly begins to hint that L.A. Noire still has a cross-cutting plot, and the cases turn out to be more or less connected to each other. This happens after the end of the second disc (the version for Xbox 360 takes 3 DVDs), so few will survive until such a turn.
At the same time, call L.A. Noire is still not an unqualified failure. This is a big, ambitious, crude, in places full of outright stupidity (the author's favorite episode is the pursuit of a suspect, during which he shoots down five people, destroys half the city, after which he is shaken out of the car and politely asked to answer a few questions) a game that It comes together periodically and still works. When the heroes arrive at an abandoned movie set to the accompaniment of dreary jazz, when a stray bullet blows off the hats of the participants in the shootout, when the German salon singer L.A. appears on stage. Noire is, in general, something to love. But, as in any real noir, most of the time here is devoted to hopeless, languid melancholy.
Replayability:
Cool story:
Originality:
Easy to learn:
Gameplay:
Sound and music:
Interface and control:
Did you wait?
Instead of the expected revolution, L.A. Noire is a cross between a police quest, a bad action movie and the forgettable Mike Hammer detective series.
"Fine"
Anatomy of a Murder
Forensic medicine in the service of computer games
There are a huge number of simulators of the most incredible things and actions that most players don’t even know about. A bus and yacht driving simulator, a parachute jumping and mining truck simulator, an emergency hospital and veterinary clinic simulator, there are even hacker and game development team simulators.
But among this panopticon there is not, in our opinion, the most unusual, but extremely necessary simulator for the modern gaming industry. Forensic scientist simulator. We think there is no need to explain why this is unusual. And it is necessary - because the use of elements of this kind of simulation in games with a detective plot (and these include quests, action games, and adventure games) would greatly enhance immersion and suspense.
It’s scary to think how many of the main characters, police officers or private detectives, having discovered the body, gave up in helplessness, because they had no idea what information could be obtained from the corpse. The creators of L.A. Noire removed this aspect from the game altogether - here the hero usually receives the results of a forensic examination after the fact, often even over the phone.
We decided to fill this gap for them and integrated an imaginary forensic simulator into the gameplay of modern games. So imagine this. You are an investigator and you are standing in front of a lifeless body. What can it tell you?
Prescription of the crime
In the vast majority of games, the hero who discovers the corpse has no idea how long ago the murder was committed. Nevertheless, there are many ways to determine how long ago death occurred. Forensic experts distinguish between early and late changes in a corpse. By analyzing them, they draw conclusions about when the person died. Early cadaveric phenomena include:
Decrease in body temperature (basal, that is, rectal temperature is usually measured);
The severity of cadaveric spots: if death has occurred recently, cadaveric spots are barely pronounced and easily disappear with pressure; the more time has passed, the more distinct the spots and the worse they disappear under mechanical influence (the blood begins to completely saturate the tissues and does not leave the underlying parts of the body);
The degree of rigor mortis: pronounced post-mortem “paralysis” of the muscles begins to appear approximately three hours after death and reaches its maximum after a day; after this, his strength drops, and after about three days rigor mortis completely disappears;
The drying of the skin and mucous membranes also allows us to judge approximately when the person died.
In addition, doctors sometimes analyze the excitability of muscle tissue (for this, a current is passed through the muscles), the reaction of the pupil to a number of chemicals, and analysis of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract.
By comparing the listed parameters with each other and with tables that take into account the rate of development of various signs depending on humidity and air temperature, it is possible to determine the duration of death with an accuracy of several hours.
Indicator maggots
But this is only if no more than three or four days have passed since the crime. If more, then the situation changes. Drawing conclusions becomes much more difficult, because the forensic expert has to analyze already late cadaveric phenomena. Rotting and skeletonization. If these processes are started, then the accuracy drops sharply; often it is not even possible to determine whether a person died a month or two ago. The situation is simplified if the crime was committed in warm weather and flies had time to work on the corpse. By the size of maggots and the presence of various stages of their development in the body, it is sometimes possible to determine the duration of death with an accuracy of up to a day.
It is clear that it is unlikely that it will be possible to assess the dryness of mucous membranes in games - the graphics have not yet matured to this level. But to twitch your arms and legs and find out whether there is rigor mortis or not, take a look at the cadaveric spots, look at the number of maggots (after all, they often exist in games, they’re just not used in gameplay) - all this can be done easily.
Firearm
If a person was killed from a firearm, then by analyzing the damage, you can find out from what distance the shot was fired, which bullet hit the body, which of the bullet holes formed earlier than the others, and get a lot of useful information that will allow you to quickly resolve crime. Let's give a simple example.
Here you are standing next to a polygonal corpse lying in a pool of blood. You take out a magnifying glass and hold it up to the bullet hole. First, you try to determine whether it is an inlet or an outlet. Look where the edges of the wound are turned. Assess whether there is a chafing band (a bullet, entering the body, pulls the adjacent skin along with it and forms a semblance of an abrasion), a rubbing band (at the entrance, barrel oil and gunpowder and soot residues covering the bullet rub against the skin and form a characteristic dark mark).
After this, using reagents, you look to see if there are traces of soot, soot and gunpowder near the wound, and make an assumption from what distance the shot was fired. You study which bullet wound leaked the most blood, and guess that this damage was caused earlier than others: after the first hit, the vessels narrow, and less blood flows from subsequent wounds, and the settling belt decreases slightly (after all, the amount of lubricant inside the barrel as you shoot decreases).
Poisoned!
Analysis of various types of poisoning can be made a separate element of the gameplay. Here, however, we will need to draw some kind of sectional table in the game. Acids cause pronounced brownish burns on the walls of the pharynx, esophagus and stomach. Poisoning with some acids is generally difficult to confuse with something else. For example, after nitric acid enters the stomach and intestines, the walls of organs acquire a characteristic yellow color. The action of alkalis leads to swelling of the intestines.
That is, all these are clearly noticeable changes that, with the modern level of graphics, cost nothing to simulate. Moreover, visually all this could look much less nightmarish than most of the bloody scenes that already exist in games.
GTA LA
You've probably already heard about L.A. Noire. The first trailer was released almost seven years ago, then the game disappeared from the radar for a long time, but there was still a lot of noise. Everyone knows that this is something very cool. Therefore, there are no preludes, we must immediately say how it is played. How? Yes, like a normal, modern GTA. There are car chases, fights, shootouts with a system of shelters and, of course, a city bustling with life, open for exploration. Worth running L.A. Noire, and you will feel at home. The movements of the main character, the physics of cars, the feeling of the world - everything is native. You just want to shout “eh!”, run over some passerby as a preventive measure, and then go fight crime. But it won’t work (let’s just say right away that a trampled passerby might be forced to go through the mission again). Because in fact, GTA is about thirty percent here. Or rather, this: GTA is a form. And the content is a detective thriller. There are thriller books, and there are thriller films. A L.A. Noire is a GTA thriller.
The main character's name is Cole Phelps. he had just returned from the battlefields of World War II. and now serves in the police. There will be several major cases (chapters) in the game, and after each case Cole will be promoted: this is how he will go from a traffic cop to a homicide operative. With each turn of his career, Cole’s partners will change, but there will also be cross-cutting characters that we will encounter more than once throughout the game.
Crime scene
Thirty percent is GTA. The remaining seventy (or even more) are investigations. As soon as you find out about the crime committed, you need to go to the place (once you get used to the city, you will know every nook and cranny even without a map), and then start operational work.
The first stage is collecting evidence. You simply walk around the crime scene and look for important items. No frills or, God forbid, pixel hunting. Cole himself will turn his head towards the evidence, all you have to do is pick it up (although there will be more complex options, like a note hidden in the exhaust pipe). Didn't find all the evidence? It's okay, you can move on to the next part of the investigation. True, it will be more difficult for you. Each piece of evidence is “stored” in Phelps’s notebook, as if in an inventory, along with names, places and facts known to him. No evidence means less room for maneuver during interrogation.
This is the second part of the investigation. Simply put, it is a dialogue. There can be a conversation with the victim or the suspect - with anyone. The important thing is that this is not a standard RPG routine. not a formal conversation, when you are told something again and again. which is already clear. This is a real duel, a verbal duel. We strongly advise you to pay close attention to the following paragraphs, because they will talk about the most amazing, in our opinion, dialogue system in the world. Let's say you approach the victim: here is the scene of her car accident, doctors and police are walking around, and the lady looks askance at you and barely moves her tongue. She's drunk. Nevertheless, a conversation begins, you ask what happened. She says. Then you have three answer options: I believe; I don’t believe it and I press it; I don’t believe it and I convince you with evidence. All! No chatter ahead of time. No hackneyed phrases. Concentrated psychological choice. Let's say more: during the entire London presentation, Phelps believed his interlocutor exactly once, while he said “no” forty times! Instead of unnecessary chatter, you. like a scout, you “pump up” your interlocutor, fight with him in an intellectual duel.
Show your evidence!
It is important to make a retreat here. What are we even talking about? Why should we believe or not believe someone? First, context and common sense. Roughly speaking, if the interlocutor has blood up to his elbows, and he says that there is no point in doubting his words. Secondly, gestures and facial expressions. This is where all the knowledge you can muster about conversational psychology will come in handy. Where the interlocutor looks, how he speaks, twitches or behaves confidently - all this will tell you how to behave. It is worth noting that a separate studio was created to record gestures and facial animation and a unique motion scan technology was developed, which allows the speech of the characters to be conveyed in the smallest detail. Its key feature is the realistic reproduction of eye and eyebrow movements. So, we don’t trust our interlocutor. We can try to put pressure. Cole will raise his voice, wave his fist, or slam it on the table (possibly in the other person's face). But if you have something significant, then you need to choose the third option, and this is where the fun begins. You are automatically transferred to a notepad, and only now, for the first time, you can choose something from a huge list of collected facts and evidence. In our case, we were able to present a photo to the suspect. which captured her husband right at the crime scene or almost literally rubbing the interrogated person’s nose into his torn underpants.
This has never happened in games. The gameplay is based on the fact that you watch and listen carefully, immersing yourself in the story. The fact that you choose the right interrogation method only proves your adequate perception of history. That is, if you already have evidence in your hands, there is no need to shout at your interlocutor; he has nothing to cover up with, this is obvious. By introducing such a dialogue system. Rockstar doesn't push any ridiculous mini-games or stretch out the gameplay. They only sharpen our senses, forcing us to pay closer attention to the investigation.
Black Orchid
This fact alone allows L.A. Noire claim to be the most cinematic game in history - this is where they really focus on the story! But we haven’t said a word about the setting yet. People know about noir on PC mainly thanks to Max Payne. Leather cloak, impenetrable night, voice-over monologues. eternal rain outside the window... Nothing of this in L.A. Noire No. The gloomy mood here is achieved by completely different means. The contradiction between the luxurious façade of American life and its disgusting underside is very well shown here.
Jazz, champagne, hats - in the late forties, America was experiencing an economic boom. At the same time, soldiers begin to return from the war, and they have no place in this new world. Uncontrollable fun and acute social tension. Hollywood, a film career - and all the dirt of the film business (the case shown to us was about how a producer raped a girl from the provinces who dreamed of getting a role in one of his films).
There is no place for boundless pathos here, no one laments about eternal values, but there is a lot of cynicism. corruption and truth. Honestly, when the case we were investigating suddenly ended in the most pragmatic way, it just relieved our hearts that they were finally talking to us like adults, and not acting out operetta tragedies.
Overall, it's nice to see how Rockstar and Team Bondi work with the gameplay structure. On the one hand, everyone understands that the plot should be at the forefront. On the other hand, you still need to entertain the player with gameplay. And they sew together these two eternally rejected materials.
You need to eavesdrop on an address from a telephone conversation - here's a small stealth episode. Let's go to the place - a small chase. We went into the apartment - there was a fight. And at the end of the chapter, the climax is a shootout! And so we timidly kill a dozen bandits and even blow up, you won’t believe, one (!) red barrel. It is clear that most of the gameplay episodes are far-fetched. But how touchingly, how tenderly they tried to fit them into the plot, deserves the deepest respect. Where Heavy Rain was stuffed with unnatural quick time events, L.A. Noire includes the long-familiar GTA.
The world has not yet invented gameplay. to rock a baby in your arms or cry in the pouring rain. But we have long been able to drive through the streets, shoot and fight. We were taught. All our lives we have been prepared to play L.A. Noire! The latest parts of GTA, Red Dead Redemption, treat them like acting courses. We passed them, and now we can play in a real movie.
A real noir! A game that will make you plunge into the dangerous criminal world of the late forties in America.
Feel like a real detective - intrigues, scandals, investigations, murders and their revelations await you - today we will review the most unusual game from Rockstar.
L.A. Noir – game review
Today we will talk about a truly amazing game created in collaboration with the Australian studio Team Bondi. The official name of the game is L.A. Noire The Complete Edition, for convenience, they decided to remove the prefix “The Complete Edition”, shortening the name to L.A. Noir.
Initially, the development of the game was planned for the PlayStation 3 console, but a few months later the game was released for the PC platform.
Similarities with GTA– the same dimensions of the game city, the same third-person view, graphics, map in the corner of the screen. And of course, a stunning, exciting plot that takes us to the mysterious forties of America - the golden age of Hollywood, prevailing crime, drugs - this is truly a real noir!
Development L.A. Noire
Despite the release of the series GTA, which are full of various rumors and, often, scandals, lawsuits and other things, was released without unnecessary fuss.
The development of the game took 7 years. Back in 2003, director Team Bondi stated that they have a project financed by Sony. A few years later, the publishing house Take-Two included Noire in the list of games expected in 2008. However, the release occurred in 2011. The reasons for this long delay are unknown.
One of the features of the game development is the MotionScan technology used, with the help of which realistic facial expressions of the characters are created.
Plot L.A. Noire
Unlike most Rockstar games, in L.A. Noir we are no longer in control of a notorious bandit, creating chaos right and left, driving around the city in a car and killing everyone he doesn’t like on his way. Now the fate of an American policeman named Cole Phelps has been entrusted to our hands. The main character is a participant in World War II who served in the US Marine Corps. After the end of hostilities, he decided to continue to faithfully help the state and citizens, taking a job with the Los Angeles police in 1947. In his personal charter, a separate column about honor and professionalism is circled in red marker, so, as you understand, life is not at all easy for him.
Main character Cole Phelps
And the era that affected him was quite unique - first he fought in the Second World War, and then decided to join the ranks of the guardians of law and order. At that time, real chaos was happening on the streets of American cities, and Los Angeles, which became the setting for the game, was no exception. In general, he met a lot of reptiles, scum and perverts on his way.
Cole starts from the very bottom - from the position of an ordinary patrolman, and then, as a result of promotion, he moves to the traffic police, then to the department that investigates arson, and from there - straight to the homicide department, until he reached the peak of his career.
The whole essence of the game is built on the plot, and in this regard, Rockstar never failed - they could always tell a big and interesting story, and tell it in an original way, forcing us to unite all the threads carefully scattered everywhere into a huge plot ball.
The plot is based on the development of the character, his experiences, and investigations of mysterious murders. As a result of successful work, the main character rapidly rises up the career ladder, taking part in solving various crimes, from car thefts, arson and murders. Unlike other game series Rockstar, the open world is present, but the developers placed the main emphasis on storytelling, blurring the line between the game and the movie as much as possible.
The plot of the story begins with a series of mysterious deaths of Cole's former colleagues - US Marines who were selling morphine stolen from a US Navy ship that brought them to their native shores. To unravel the tangle, Phelps meets with his friend, with whom he fought together - Jack Kelso. Despite the obvious antipathy towards each other, they jointly begin the investigation.
Gameplay and location L.A. Noire
All events take place in Los Angeles in 1947. As police officer Cole Phelps, the player will be given the opportunity to feel like a detective, solving various crimes by inspecting murder or robbery scenes, collecting evidence, making logical deductions, and, subsequently, actually apprehending the criminal.
An open and well-developed world with residents, cars, and buildings creates an excellent atmosphere and ambiance of a post-war American city. We can move around Los Angeles on foot and by transport, which opens as we progress through the main storyline and complete additional tasks. The game also has a dozen different costumes for Cole, some of which increase his abilities - shooting accuracy, speed, defense.
Very similar to the series GTA, with the difference that creating chaos here is prohibited. Still, the protagonist of the game is a police officer, and not a highway bandit.
We have access to various investigations: thefts, arson, murders, hooliganism, drugs. There are even walkie-talkie calls that can come in while the player is sightseeing in the city.
L.A. Characters Noire
- Cole Phelps is our GG, a former US Marine who participated in the Battle of Okinawa and was awarded the Silver Star;
- Roy Earl is a detective who deals in corruption. Together with Cole, he investigates cases in the morality department;
- Stefan Bekowski - together with the main character, participated in solving crimes in the transport department;
- Ralph Dunn - patrol partner;
- Finbarr Galloway (nickname "Rusty") - worked with Phelps on murder investigations. Characterized by alcohol addiction;
- Hershel Biggs is Cole's buddy in the city police arson department. A closed and insecure character who took part in the First World War.
- Jack Kelpso is an acquaintance of Phelps, with whom he fought together for Okinawa. GG and Jack have an adversarial relationship, but will soon be forced to cooperate;
- Mayer Harrs Cohen (nickname "Mickey") - one of Cole's main opponents when he worked in the police morality department;
- Garrett Mason is a maniac whom Phelps has to catch;
- Harlan Fontaine is one of the main antagonistic characters. Works as a psychiatrist;
- Courtney Sheldon – served with Phelps in the US Marine Corps as a medic. He entered medical school, was subsequently killed by Fontaine, because he was afraid that Sheldon might stir up too much;
- Leland Monroe is the richest negative character in the game. Kelpso shot Monroe in the leg during the attack on the villa and left the latter to bleed to death;
- Johnny Stompanato is "Mickey" Cohen's security guard.
Additional missions
There are not so many random people here - most of them are encountered more than once throughout the plot, and if you wish, you can learn a lot of interesting things about them. In addition to the main storyline, the game provides small incidents that happen throughout the city as help. When going somewhere on business, you can always answer a call - there are not many options here, usually everything ends either in the killing of bandits, or in pursuit of them and subsequent liquidation, or in being caught alive. For each such trip, the player receives experience points, so it makes sense to be distracted by them. At each new level you get something nice - for example, new clothes that increase your health, or “intuition points” that provide undeniable help during interrogations.
Extra skills
Interrogations are the essence of L.A. Noir is her main and, perhaps, useful pastime in the game. In every conversation, you will have to not only listen carefully to your interlocutor, but also monitor his reaction: did he deceive you or was he just lying, told the truth, but he has a nervous tic, or maybe his wife was just killed, that’s why he was so warped. Only you will have to figure this out, and your partner in such cases is simply a dead weight for you. Only glasses of intuition can come to the rescue - with their help we will remove some of the unnecessary options, and then, perhaps, we will be lucky.
Interrogation in L.A. Noier
By the way, if the person being interrogated is blatantly lying and you are one hundred percent sure of this, it is not a fact that you will catch him in a lie - the game also has presumptions of innocence, so if you did not find the necessary evidence, blame yourself and only yourself for this. Therefore, we would advise you to more carefully examine crime scenes and other locations, otherwise the same intuition will help again. For successfully completed interrogations, you receive a lot of amenities.
Protagonist's allies
LA Noir requires complete immersion in the story because it is so similar to real life. In the course of his work, Cole encounters both a rotten system and different human characters that, one way or another, influence him. One of the detective’s partners will be a not at all good-natured lout who disdains women and believes that a real policeman should not sit and think about why a criminal committed this or that act; in general, he lives by the principle “if you have strength, you don’t need intelligence.”
The other, on the contrary, is so smart that he cuts through the expanses of the city in an expensive car, bought with his own money, and proves to us that kicking back criminals for the fact that the police are covering for them is, in general, a useful and good thing.
Roy Earl - the main character's partner
During the course of the game, you will become a witness to the spiritual vicissitudes taking place within Cole himself - after all, we will be shown his military past, and in war, as we know, the whole essence of man is revealed. At first, the federal simply does not understand how it is possible to save the unfortunate wounded man from suffering by simply shooting him, but over time he completely gets used to the cruel reality, where the principle “choose the lesser of two evils” most often dominates.
Over time, it is really possible to get used to the main character, imbued with his story and sympathize with him in times of difficult emotional experiences.
Deep immersion is also facilitated by a general gloomy, depressing mood, because real murders were recreated in the game. On the official portal of L.A. Noir you can read quite a lot of quite interesting information about them. Among these atrocities is the shocking murder of Black Dalia Murder, widely known even to people far from criminology, known in RuNet as the “Murder of the Black Dahlia.”
Technologies in the game
Well, one of the most important elements of complete immersion is stunning visual and sound accompaniment. Probably only the lazy have not heard about the technology that was used to create animation of the characters’ faces - Motion Skin did its job and it was as if real living heroes appeared before us.
Character voice acting
Famous actors took part in the game and lent their voices to the characters. For example, here you can meet Patrick Hischler, who played a role in the series “LOST”, and also in the film “Black Dahlia”, which is a reference to “The Murder of the Black Dahlia”. Also Brian Krause, known for his role as guardian angel Leo in the TV series “Charmed,” who gave the character, in addition to his voice, his appearance. And in the main character, moviegoers will clearly see actor Aaron Staton.
Music in the game
The music for the game was written by composers Andrew and Simon Hale, and the recording was produced by the British recording studio Abbey Road Studios, known for its collaboration with such legendary groups as The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Woody Jackson, who made a significant contribution to the soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption, for which he received several awards, was invited to take part in the recording.
The English musical group The Real Tuesday Weld together with the German singer Claudia Brücken contributed to the musical accompaniment. The music is fully consistent with the spirit of that time - its sound is dominated by jazz instruments - saxophone, trumpet, piano, which is completely consistent with the gloomy style of that time.
Gambling addiction: verdict
According to Igromania, a popular portal among gamers, the game received an average rating of 7.5 out of 10 - “good.” The sound and music were rated on a maximum scale of 10 points, but the plot received record low ratings and was called a failure. But there is no arguing about tastes, and you can decide this question only for yourself.
RESULT
Summing up, we can say with confidence that L.A. Noir turned out to be a very high-quality and very exciting project, the developers did a lot of work and the result was truly amazing and unique. This game is worth the candle. Definitely.
L.A. Review Noire (video)
We understand that we are late with a review of such a game, but we would like to improve. And before the upcoming release of the game on PC, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the game. Especially on PC she'll be a little better (some graphic details).
Others believed that we were in for a detective story in the style of Quantic Dreams- authors of the great Heavy Rain, which set the tone and bar for everyone else. Their arguments were the system MotionScan , specially designed to record the actors’ facial expressions, which hinted at the strong dialogue component of the game, close-ups of the characters and the emotionality of what was happening.
Graphic arts:
The game takes place in Los Angeles 1947, the authors of the game specifically set a record and made the largest, open city available to the main character - a police department detective Los Angeles Cole Phelps (English Cole Phelps ). As befits that time, huge Buicks drive around the city, men in suits and short-sided hats walk around. And the ladies parade in bright outfits. If you walk around the city or go on an investigation during the day, there is no smell of noir here at all - the colors are very bright, everything is as it was at that time. For those who are confused by this, there is a B&W setting in the menu and the game turns into a black and white detective story with all the attendant noir emotions and images.
The picture quality is at a high level. Engine In-house engine handles shadows and animation well. Renders magnificent textures of plot objects. But everything connected with the background and extras no longer has such gloss. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that the cars have significantly less detail than in the same game, and the animation of passers-by is more modest. But as soon as you reach the plot point, you find yourself in a completely different world. There is already a huge number of objects, strong detail, clear textures, background conversations NPC and an atmosphere of crime.
Since the city itself doesn’t invite you to explore its streets, and the plot drags on SO much, you may not notice any easing at all. Therefore, most of the time during the game we will have a great picture.
MotionScan system:
A huge development period, a terrible number of actors and hundreds of hours of recording their faces - all this MotionScan . What's the output? And the result is a very interesting effect. Someone wrote that the heads seem to live separately from the rest of the body due to the difference in animation quality. You can calm down, this is not true.
It looks like this: there is a scripted scene, we are shown close-ups of the characters’ faces and it’s as if we are watching a series about cops. The gameplay begins and with a 3rd person view everything comes to a common denominator, but! the only difference is that when someone is talking or our detective Cole Phelps gets involved in street conflicts, we see this vivid facial expression. In some places it looks forced, as if the actors are overacting. They express their emotions too much, but everything is done correctly. Still, we see everything from afar and in order not to miss significant differences, our attention is focused on these little things. Therefore, we can say that this system sets the game apart from the rest and everything turned out great.
But as always, there are also disadvantages, although they concern those who do not know English. language. So, when playing with subtitles, you automatically miss all these emotions and the acting, because... you just don’t have time to look at them and at the credits. (subtitles also in English)
Sound and voice acting:
Since this is a noir detective story, the musical accompaniment fits the bill. While driving we hear light muffled music from the 30s and 40s. During investigations... more on that later. The most important thing here is the impeccable recording of the actors' voices. Even just walking through the police station and hearing the secretary’s conversation, you involuntarily stop to listen. And what about conversations during interrogations? Impeccable sound quality of dialogues.
Gameplay and story:
I'll start with the plot, but I won't develop the idea much so as not to spoil the impression for people - so no spoilers. I will say very briefly - we play as Cole Phelps, a former diligent military man with a silver star (the Silver Star is a personal US military award, the basis for which is the courage and bravery shown in battle). We start as an ordinary patrol cop and grow through our careers with rapid steps. Ridiculous, cruel, complicated cases await us, showdowns with related federals in the style of - " Who is in charge? -I do! -Not any more"But the key point is the inquisitiveness of our detective.
Each case looks like a separate chapter. Just like in the good old series about Columbo - we are shown the moment of the crime in such a way that nothing is clear, then we receive a briefing and the first clues, take a partner and go to the case. Arriving at the crime scene, we see a cordoned off area, police chasing away onlookers. Forensic scientists describing evidence and traces, annoying reporters.
Light disturbing music starts in the background and we begin the investigation. First, you can go through all the marks noted by criminologists. Look and turn objects. Actually it looks very cool. A huge city, you reach some kind of park. There is a corpse there, go to the forensics mark, pick up a tiny matchbox - and it is just perfectly detailed. Moreover, you see it in full screen; when you open it, you can easily read the inscription of the bar from which they were taken. All evidence, locations and suspects automatically end up in our detective’s notebook. Therefore, you can always sit and think about how this fits in with what. We will have to examine the bodies, go to addresses, work out various versions.
Now about the interrogations. It all comes down to the fact that we ask suspects or witnesses questions about the case and monitor their reaction to them. You need to put pressure on someone to intimidate or push them into dialogue out of shock, to simply agree with something, and to catch someone in a lie. But in order to do this, you need to refer to what you found. Those. to prove that a person is lying, you must select from the list of evidence in the notebook the one on which he screwed up. I must say that the actors are simply brilliant. There are those who do not show it at all and lie at every step, there are those who immediately inject themselves, there are those who themselves threaten us. That’s why it’s interesting to watch their reactions every time.
The game has a hint system. At a crime scene, if you find all possible clues, the music will stop playing. The evidence itself is marked by a slight vibration of the joystick. And correctly asked questions during interrogation are like light piano notes. But if you are in doubt or cannot find a needle in a haystack, you can use intuition glasses. Which will help you find evidence or remove unnecessary dialogue options with the suspect. With a network connected, you can ask what society should do Rockstar Social Club and see what percentage of players passed this moment correctly.
For those who think that all this is easy and for puppies, you can turn off all these tips altogether and do the hardcore investigation.
It would seem like a dream game - a strong plot, good graphics, great animation, decent sound, but there is still a weak point.
And this is driving around the city. How this happened is not clear. But the driving here is the most disgusting thing there is. The physics of machines is simply eye-opening. They accelerate briskly, brake poorly, but most importantly, they turn incredibly sharply. You are driving a huge car, and at full speed it can turn 90 degrees at an intersection without skidding. A very sharp steering wheel and a completely stuck car irritate the entire game. The collision system is tacked on here for show and is, as it were, just there. You can’t crush people - you run into them and see an inscription that it’s not good for detectives to crush people and that this will all affect your final reputation. (I rarely ran into them, I don’t know what will happen if I just do this)
During the chases, everything comes to life - we walk along scripted rails - a partner shoots, city traffic plots - and more or less everything except the steering wheel.
In general, we are waiting for investigations of major cases, calls for crimes (minor), which help to get points of intuition that can be used, but it is important to understand that if you are going to interrogate a suspect and are distracted by another call, you may not catch some juicy thread moment and arrive when they are already waiting for you at the parade, and not unprepared.
Result:
An excellent atmospheric detective story with a powerful plot from the Australian Team Bondi, innovative facial expressions of the heroes, a fascinating investigation system, chases, shootouts, beautiful detailed locations, cool voice acting and cool DLC! Definitely the best buy of the summer season. If only because the titanic work has been done. It's like games Remedy Entertainment— we enter the rooms, fly through there in a couple of minutes, and we worked on it for tens of hours, arranging hundreds of objects. There are even more of them, even deeper, and all of them, even those that cannot be picked up, carry a semantic load and help us make the right decision.
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