Review by: William Abner

L.A. Noire is a game you should play, if for no other reason than to experience how one game can be both brilliant and yet relentlessly tedious. In some ways it signifies the future of videogames. It’s beautiful to look at, it meticulously orchestrates from start to finish, and technologically you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Games are trying to become more lifelike, particularly in how characters interact with each other and L.A. Noire showcases this like no other game before it; from an acting standpoint, both physically and vocally, it’s the game Heavy Rain wanted to be. It tries to be a true crime detective game, and at times it succeeds. It wants to be the most riveting game you have ever played – like reading a great sleuth novel in videogame form.

If only the gameplay could keep up. Ah, that pesky gameplay.

At its heart, L.A. Noire is an adventure game. Specifically a traditional pixel hunt hidden object game, only instead of using a mouse to find the objects you move your avatar around from a third person perspective, which may look a hell of a lot better but it’s also a tad clunky. When you stumble upon a piece of evidence your gamepad vibrates, signifying that you found something. That something might be useful or it could be junk.

Why the game’s form of a red herring is picking up hairbrushes at nearly every crime scene is anyone’s guess but most of the time the stuff you discover you can use. Musical cues let you know that you’ve discovered all there is to see at a location, which I found to be a great touch. It speeds up the process a great deal in what is an already long game. (You can disable all musical and vibration hints but it only serves to drag things out.)

You’re only ever asked to do anything with this evidence during interviews. This is where the game earns its keep as you interview potential suspects and eye witnesses to crimes in post war 1940s Los Angeles. As protagonist Cole Phelps you start as a lowly beat cop and work your way up the ranks to full-on homicide and vice detective. Unfortunately, Cole has the personality of a fish wrapped inside a wet blanket. This is no John Marston. Cole is utterly unlikeable even with a fine actor like Aaron Staton in the starring role. Speaking of the voice work, the voice acting in the game is absolutely wonderful. It’s a character actor’s Super Bowl and if you follow TV or film at all you’re going to recognize dozens of people – many from the cast of AMC’s Mad Men. The game is professionally acted and it shows and adds immeasurable life to the game, despite the fact that you never get truly attached to the main character.