L.A. Noire Complete Edition review (PC)

The original version of L.A. Noire was only available on Xbox 360 and PS3 at launch back in May 2011. Now the PC has been gifted with a bumper edition port of the title, featureing all the DLC previously released as separate addons for its console compatriots – reason enough to revisit this widely discussed title.

The case that makes you…

In the unlikely case that this is the first time you’re reading about the game – here’s a quick summary. L.A. Noire puts you in the skin of Cole Phelps, a police officer in post-World War II Los Angeles. Solving a murder case puts Phelps on the radar, and after a few more quick cases as a beat cop, which mainly serve as tutorials and introductions to the game mechanics, Cole gets promoted to Detective status.

Starting on the Traffic desk, you will work your way through a fair variety of cases as you move through the departments. The main activity in the game is of investigative nature – canvas crime scenes, find and follow clues, interrogate witnesses and suspects. Thrown in for good measure are car and foot chases, gunplay and hand-to-hand combat.

L.A. Noire

The widely praised MotionScan facial animation technology is more than just a gimmick. In fact, the entire interrogation/interview mechanic builds on it. All of the characters’ faces are incredibly detailed, and it is up to you to use this to its fullest. In an interrogation, the facial expression of a character will give you clues as to the truthfulness of their statement. Highly impressive tech that has been well implemented –and it looks even better on the PC.

Typical for Rockstar Games, LA Noire comes with an Open World component – which is rather out of place. Every now and then, street crimes will be called in and you have the option of accepting these calls, or just skipping them. It’s not an open sandbox game in the vein of GTA, simply because you have to move within certain boundaries as a police detective, and can’t just go and create chaos. Therefore the game is best played sticking to the main narrative, working through the cases and ignoring the generic side missions. Oh, and whenever you can, let your partner drive.

L.A. Noire

And the case that breaks you…

Since there isn’t exactly a ton of gameplay and variety here, it’s up to the narrative to keep the player engaged; in that department L.A. Noire does a great job – creating an immersive film noir atmosphere, with several subplots accompanying the main storyline. How all these threads run together at the end is one of the intricacies of this game, and this alone makes it well worth playing. Interestingly, none of the main characters are really likeable – Cole Phelps can be downright unsympathetic.

The control scheme has been translated to the PC reasonably well. I played the game on PS3 shortly after release, and initially some of the actions and controls felt awkward on the PC. The vehicle controls are the biggest problem and ultimately compelled me to pick up a game pad. You just can’t beat analog sticks and triggers when it comes to driving cars in this type of game. Switching between controller and keyboard/mouse is seamless; in fact you can use them at the same time. The game will even pick up what you’re using right now, and adapt the in-game tips accordingly.

L.A. Noire

The visuals were noticeably beefed up, but not to a level that you’d call amazing. This version sports sharper textures and proper anti-aliasing, but depth of field and view distance gives away the console roots of the engine. The frame rate has been capped at 30fps, a move that will irritate PC enthusiasts with even a half-decent rig. On the upside, the game is very stable; although I experience an annoying crash every time I exit to desktop – aggravated in my case because it seems to take the sound driver with it…

So is this edition worth it? If you haven’t played it before, it most certainly is. All the existing DLC has been added to the Complete Edition – bonus outfits, challenges, and five additional cases that tie in well with the existing narrative. If you already own the original version, it will be cheaper to pick up the DLC separately. The improved visuals alone are not enough to make the PC version all too superior to the console version, and the Complete Edition is available for X360 and PS3 as well. So at the end of the day, it’s a matter of which system you prefer to play on.

But play this game you should. L.A. Noire is certainly one of the better titles that was released this year, despite its flaws and shortcomings. With the additional material and at least a good 20 hours of playing time, the Complete Edition is a worthy (re-)release on any platform.