On the surface La Noire seemed intriguing; a detective game that combines investigation with combat , driving, and interrogation set in the seedy/glamorous setting of 40's LA. Despite its grand ambitions it fails on almost every level, because the whole thing is a mere illusion. The main crux of the game is - as it should be - about detecting. Scouring crime scenes for clues, talking to witnesses, experts, and adding up the evidence. But all of this is very shallow and limited. Whilst the searching for clues is handled well, how you are able to use them in interrogation is frustrating, and in many instances plain illogical, reminding me of the old point 'n' click adventures, where rather than using logic and the clues in a 'real world' way, you had to second guess what the developers were thinking. There were many instances during the game that if it were for real, i would have shoved a slew of damning evidence in the face of a witness to intimidate and get them to spill, but the game will only allow you to ask a very narrow set of questions, where there is only one 'correct' answer. This renders much of the info stuffed in your notebook utterly useless. As a result interviews - whilst there is no denying the stunning nature of the facial tech - leave you feeling deeply unfulfilled, as do the end of many cases It gives you a whole beautiful city, but nothing to do in it (and no i wasn't expecting it to, nor wanting it to, be gta). The foot chases are simply a case of holding the sprint button and directing which way to run - you dont even have to press a button to time jumps. Also, in some chases you can't draw your weapon (because the game needs you to have the perp taken alive), whilst in others where the game wants you to kill them, it sets up a clunky cover-shoot scenario. And this really sums up the game. Where it should be a game of intellect and choices that have consequence, La Noire never takes off the handcuffs and lets you 'play'. You can't, for example, just go back to interview a suspect you've arrested, you have to wait until the game wants you to. You can't go back to re-interview people - again unless the game wants you to. You can't go and discuss things with forensic pathologist or your captain unless...you get the idea. Everything you do feels like you're being pushed - sometimes forced - down paths to arrive at the next cut scene or the 'correct' conclusion. This is never more clear than at the end of a case where you have gotten many of the questions 'wrong' but still automatically end up solving the case. For all it's faults the game is actually quite engrossing. It pulls no punches in crime scenes and the acting is generally superb. I can only hope that team bondi get another chance to deliver a game of more substance rather than this alluring fraud.
