First Looks// L.A. Noire

It’s here that I’m able to truly appreciate the graphical fidelity of the game, as well as the impressive lip-synching and acting from the models. Team Bondi is using special in-house technology called MotionScan that allows the studio to capture and scan the movements and facial expressions of real actors and translate that into L.A. Noire.

The result is easily on a par with games like Enslaved, and with a bit of touching up and anti-Uncanny Valleying could surpass it.

At end of each interrogation, you get scored on how many questions you responded to correctly. Picking the wrong response to a suspect’s answer might not get all the details you need for your notebook. However, Rockstar says there are other ways of obtaining similar information that can lead to the completion of any case. Multiple paths, perhaps? There exists plenty of incentives for replaying each case, either way.

Collected information, interviews with different characters and spying on other characters lead Phelps to deduce that movie producer Mark Bishop is behind the mess. It turns out that he staged a movie audition with Jessica, and used a prop studio belonging to one Marlon Hopgood to sexually assault her instead.

Open World
Investigation of the studio reveals hidden cameras set up behind one-way mirrors to record the act, with June Ballard using the video against Bishop as blackmail for her own movie career.

During the case Phelps will be exploring the vast city of LA (although this isn’t exactly the open-world Grand Theft Auto-style affair you’ll be used to from past Rockstar titles) to reach specific destinations, driving in classic cars (or letting your partner do it instead). You also get to do the 1940s-style gangster movie thing by sneaking into a cafe and sitting down with a newspaper incognito while eavesdropping on a phone conversation. You also get to smack some gangster thugs about, avoid wrecking your car in downtown chases and shoot down vicious criminal gangs with a Tommy-gun.

Watching these different mechanics play out, they seem very much influenced by those seen in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. But while Rockstar and Team Bondi have clearly taken cues from those titles, to say this is simply ‘GTA in the 1940s’ is kind of cheapening L.A. Noire. This game feels like it has its own identity, its own graphical style and atmosphere.

At this stage, there remains some finishing touches that are required to make this game go from ‘visually impressive’ to ‘graphically stunning’. The framerate is a bit choppy in this build, and certain elements appear to have awkward controls, but I’m told that these are all being tweaked in priority as it nears completion.

With a Spring 2011 release date being mooted, I can’t wait to see more of L.A. Noire further down the line when I’m able to have a proper hands on and put it through its paces. Rockstar clearly wants to expand its portfolio, and after many years in development this looks finally set to be yet another fantastic hit in the studio’s lineup.

Keep an eye out for more over the coming months.