L.A. Noire

Go straight to the game's presentation video.


L.A. Noire is available both on XBOX 360 (3 DVD) and PS3 (1 Blu-Ray). The two versions are identical.

We tested the game on XBOX 360. The prices given above correspond to this version. The PS3 pricing is given below.


L.A. Noire PS3



In 1940s Los Angeles, Cole Phelps - Second World War hero - begins his police career on patrol. He'll climb the ranks thanks to his talent as an investigator, but not without certain difficulties.

Content: thrilling cases

On patrol with his buddy, Cole is called to take evidence at the scene of a crime that higher ranked investigators don't want to take on. This is the ideal opportunity to show what we're capable of! The game starts, then, by teaching us the basics: picking up clues, driving the car, asking questions, interrogating or even fighting with an uncooperative suspect and going on to opening fire where there's no choice between saving a civilian or stopping a hold-up.


The cases are believable and even real, with plenty of references to film noir classics. There's no time to get bored as Cole often has to pursue a suspect on foot or get into the car for breathtaking car chases. He may also get involved in shoot-outs, which only go to increase the pace of the adventure.


Thanks to Cole's successes, his superiors quickly understand his potential and start promoting him. He then gets handed lots of different cases (21 in all), lasting a good twenty hours at least and gradually moves up through the ranks. He also gets involved in 40 crime investigations (hold-ups, assaults and so on), which finish all too often in a bloodbath. Between each case, a film cut tells us more about Cole's military career, while becoming entangled in another case without knowing it, involving thirteen newspapers disseminated around the city.


One thing's for sure, the 1940s atmosphere is very well reproduced. You're plunged into the adventure, fully immersed, though there isn't as much freedom as in an episode of GTA. The game is more directive, in spite of giving you the opportunity to work your way around the city as seems best to you, whether on foot or on board one of the ninety five vehicles that the game so faithfully reproduces. You enjoy a comfortable lifespan and there are side missions to get involved in that can take up several extra hours (collect 50 film reels, find 30 landmarks).

Gameplay: reflection leads the action

When you arrive on the scene of a crime, you start almost systematically by gathering clues. Background music plays during this operation until you've found everything. There's a vibration to let you know when you get close to a clue. These aids can be deactivated to increase realism and difficulty.


At the heart of the game, interrogations require a good dose of observation and analysis. Once the clues are collected, the details on crime scenes and individuals are noted in your booklet, which is very useful for synthesising all the factors in a case. Almost all the individuals questioned have something to hide and don't have any qualms about lying. You can choose to believe or disbelieve what they have to say. Note however, it's best not to accuse them or doubt if they are telling the truth, as you risk getting nothing more out of them. Thanks to the observation of facial expressions, you can work out if the suspect or the witness is hiding something and then accuse them of lying. The individual being questioned can then ask us to give them proof, so it's best to be sure!


The best liars however, really hide their game well. You can then use intuition points to remove one of the three possible choices (believe, doubt, lie) and reduce the risks of getting it wrong. You can also use percentages of choices by the rest of the game community, which doesn't necessarily help you out as other gamers may have got it wrong themselves. Intuition points can also be used to detect clues that you've missed.

That said, unless you get things really wrong, the few (inevitable) errors during questioning don't mean you're necessarily going to fail. Errors simply take you in another direction, which while it may be longer and more complex, still allows you to solve the case. Getting everything right allows you to solve the case faster and get more of a reward at the end of the mission. There's nothing to stop you from starting a case again a bit later if you want to take it on from another angle.


The joystick handles very nicely and we like the way obstacles are automatically vaulted during chases. Cole jumps walls and fences, climbs up drainpipes and ladders and jumps the gaps between buildings without you having to move him with your controls. Of course this reduces difficulty levels, but it isn't a platform game and it does increase immersion.

When it comes to driving vehicles, you really feel the weight that is characteristic of models of the era. The cars are however easy to drive, perhaps too easy and a little too responsive.

Graphics: ultra-realistic facial expressions!

Remarkably well reproduced, the city of Los Angeles comes to life thanks to motor traffic and pedestrians. Load times are nonexistent but you can't go into all buildings. Although the architecture of the buildings isn't very complex, we do like the convincing results, with a realistic palette of colours and a light overall filter that adds a sort of grain that's typical of film noir. A black & white mode is also available. Looking at technical faults for a second, there are some slowdowns and some of the decor is sometimes displayed with a little delay.


The animation is also good, especially chases. Movements are very naturally reproduced but they aren't a patch on the facial expressions! And there's a reason for this: the facial expressions benefit from a new technology known as MotionScan, which consists in filming the faces of actors to integrate them into the game. Excellent work has been done here and displays top acting skills on the part of the actors involved. We like the casting which brings together cinema and TV series personalities: Aaron Stanton (Mad Men), John Noble (Fringe, Lord of the Rings), Michael B. Silver (Greg Grunberg (Heroes), Brian Krause (Charmed), Keith Szarabajka (The Dark Knight), Iyari Limon (Buffy), Patrick Fischler (The Black Dahlia, Mad Men, Lost).



The soundtrack has great quality 1940s style music.

L.A. Noire video presentation: