Extensively marketed, L.A. Noire was the first video game to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, and received widespread critical acclaim for its advances in storytelling, presentation, and facial animation technology. It had been reported to ship overb five million copies worldwide. L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files, a subset of the game's cases for virtual reality supported through the HTC Vive, was released on 15 December 2017.
Gameplay
L.A. Noire is an action-adventure neo-noir crime game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete cases—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. The game also features a mode which allows the player to freely roam the open world and engage in optional activities. The world features multiple landmarks, which are all based on real monuments from 1940s Los Angeles.
The game takes place in the city of Los Angeles, in the year 1947, with the player assuming the role of Los Angeles Police Department officer, and later detective, Cole Phelps. The game starts with Phelps as a uniformed patrolman, and follows his career as he advances through the police department bureaus (desks) of Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson. Each desk gives the player a new partner who will help Phelps in his investigation of a number of cases based on a specific type of crime. The game assigns the player with cases that they must solve. After each case, players receive a rating of 1–5 stars depending on their performance in both interrogations and searching for clues. In some cases, when searching an area for clues to the crime, the player can also find newspapers. Besides reading the story, the newspapers give access to a short cinematic that either covers a part of the game's overarching plot or a flashback to Phelps' war memories. Near the end of the final desk, players assume control of private investigator Jack Kelso, who becomes the player character for most of the rest of the game; although different in appearance and personality, he controls identically to Phelps.
The game blends investigative elements with fast-paced action sequences, including chases, combat, interrogations and gunfights. Players use melee attacks and firearms to fight enemies, and may run, jump or use vehicles to navigate the world. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system can be used as assistance against enemies. Should player characters take damage, the character's health will gradually regenerate. Weapons can only be used in appropriate circumstances, such as during firefights. When driving vehicles, the player has the option to skip directly to the destination by nominating their partner as the driver. The player can also ask the partner for directions. In addition to storyline cases, the player may engage in optional side-investigations, known as Street Crimes, that are not related to the case that they are working on. Some street crimes will feature characters from previous cases.
Suspects and witnesses in a case can be interrogated for information. When the interviewee responds, the player is given the option to either believe them, doubt them, or accuse them of lying.c If the player accuses them of lying, they must submit evidence to prove it. When interrogating two suspects at the police station, the player may decide who to charge with the crime; charging the wrong suspect affects the player's end rating. The player is presented with the option to skip past an action sequence and continue through the narrative if they fail it three times. There is also a free roam mode called "The Streets of L.A.", which is unlocked after each crime desk is completed, except for the Patrol desk. In this mode, the player and his partner are allowed to freely roam the city of Los Angeles. The player can replay Street Crimes, find Golden Film Reels, discover Landmarks, collect Hidden Vehicles, find Badges or just cruise around and listen to the radio.
Plot
See also: List of L.A. Noire characters
Following the end of World War II, Cole Phelps, a decorated USMC veteran of the Pacific Campaign, returns to Los Angeles, California, to live with his family while taking on work as a Patrol Officer of the LAPD. After successfully solving a major murder case in 1947 and being promoted to detective, Phelps earns a reputation over the next six months for solving difficult cases for both Traffic and Homicide. Upon being promoted into Vice, he becomes involved in the investigation into morphine syrettes being sold on the street, stolen from the ship that had brought home his former Marine unit. During this time, he falls for German lounge singer Elsa Lichtmann, and soon has an affair with her. Phelps eventually learns that several members of his former unit stole and distributed the stolen morphine, only to be assassinated on the orders of Mickey Cohen, who controlled the drug trade and had resented the competition.
Roy Earle, his partner in Vice and a corrupt cop, helps several prominent figures in the city cover up a major scandal by exposing Phelps' adultery before he can further question Courtney Sheldon, a member of Phelps' former unit, over his involvement with the stolen morphine. In exchange, Earle is given a place in a syndicate known as the Suburban Redevelopment Fund (SRF)—a development program that supplies housing for veterans, financially supported by the same people. Phelps's marriage ends, he becomes disgraced in the LAPD, and he is demoted to Arson, where he is tasked with investigating a number of suspicious house fires. Despite noting a strong connection between them and a housing development that the SRF operates, Phelps is warned off by Earle from pursuing the syndicate and its founder, tycoon developer Leland Monroe. Seeking help to investigate the development, Phelps prompts an old comrade, Jack Kelso, now an investigator for the California Fire & Life Insurance Company, to look into the matter.
Kelso quickly discovers that the development is using unsuitable building materials, and that his boss Curtis Benson, a member of the SRF, is insuring them despite this fact. After nearly being killed by Monroe's thugs, Kelso agrees to be an investigator for Leonard Petersen, the Assistant District Attorney, advising him to pursue the SRF. Following a shootout at Monroe's mansion, Kelso learns that the syndicate used a mental patient of Dr. Harlan Fontaine, a member of the SRF, to burn down the homes of holdouts who would not sell to them. Eventually, his patient accidentally killed innocent people in a fire and lost his mind. After Fontaine is murdered by the patient, who kidnaps Elsa, Phelps discovers that Sheldon provided the stolen morphine to unwittingly fund the SRF, only to be later murdered by Fontaine, who had misled Sheldon about his intentions for the stolen morphine. Through a newspaper cutting, Phelps discovers the syndicate was merely a front to defraud the US Federal Government—Monroe acquired land with money invested by the syndicate, building matchstick houses on them to increase their value, knowing the government would later purchase the plots for a new freeway.
