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Friday, February 14, 2014

LA Confidential in a video game - LA Noire REVIEW

You may have never heard of Team Bondi. Team Bondi was a studio under the leadership of Rockstar games. They were responsible for some fragments of the previous Max Payne games, and now they have created LA Noire. The studio bankrupted due to small sales of the game, not because of its overall quality.
THE PRESENTATION
Cole Phelps, a late 40s LAPD cop who has a look of a 40s - 50s average guy and with a voice of a badass is the main pratagonist. The storyline is consisted out of many cases, each has to last for at least 20-30 minutes, but there are some that take much more of your spare time. The thing i liked the most about LA Noire is that the game was never boring, every single part of it is interesting, brings tension, clues, the curiosity behind the victims etc. Every case goes about the same way, you go from the Central Police station, you get to the crime scene, you investigate, you call the police phone operator to get license plates/names/locations, you go to multiple locations, you interrogate multiple suspects and you maybe get into a shootout. It may seem boring, but it's never the same, so it's far away from boring. The game has a brand new face expression engine. During every interrogation in which you use the clues you find around a desired location, you overwatch the suspects face as he/she makes a face that adds up to him/her either lying/telling the truth or not getting enough info. Based on how you see the story of the suspect, you can decide and use either truth/doubt or lie decisions. Every decision affects the further time and effort of the ongoing case. Clues are also a big part. Throughout locations, as mentioned before, you find clues, such as objects, locations, notes, documents etc. Clues are mostly used as an ability to interrogate someone or to prove that someone is lying and affect the final verdict of the case. Cases can be done badly and well. If you do the case as you're supposed to (meaning you find almost all of the clues and you get most of the interrogations right) you get a certain number of starts to determind whether you solved the case or not. Keep it in mind that interrogations and case closes don't really affect the ending of the game. Voice acting is the best i've seen, and with the flawless lip syncing, it can't get any better. On almost all of the cases, you are with a partner, and you can always choose whether you will drive or he will. Partner driving means that the way to the destination will be skipped and possible random crime events will be disabled. Even with the ride skipping, the game has a strong temptation to give you a campaign worth every minute of your time.
THE GRAPHICS
The 1940s/1950s Los Angeles looks far beyond beautiful. The atmosphere is cool, the cars look detailed and sweet. When finding and analyzing documents and notes, the textures will take your attention as they look like they are on a high end PC even though you're playing on the lowest settings.
THE MULTIPLAYER
LA Noire has no multiplayer and it doesn't need one, because it's mostly focused on discoveries and crime, not shooting. Although, it would be nice if a trouble in terrorist town game mode would exist.
THE VERDICT
LA Noire is one of the most beautiful, most detailed and one of the best driven stories ever made. The story in the game is unforgettable, and will not leave you hanging. I give this masterpiece a 10/10. Good job Bondi, if only you guys still existed. For more game reviews, check out my blog. Laters.

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