Review for LA Noire. Game for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 17/05/2011 The version for PC came out on 08/11/2011
In 2011, after a troubled development of about seven years, LA Noire made its debut on PlayStation 3 (of which it should have been an exclusive, at least initially), Xbox 360 and PC. Despite the excellent reception of audiences and critics, in recent years Rockstar Games has never announced any project related to the franchise; disputes with Team Bondi (the developers) completed a picture that did not give fans hope.
This was the situation until two months ago, when the return of LA Noire, in the form of mere remaster for Playstation 4, Xbox One (tested version) and Nintendo Nintendo Switch (to which we have dedicated an ad hoc review), as well as VR experience with LA Noire: The VR Case Files.
The game
Having been one of the flagship titles of 2011, obviously LA Noire was reviewed by Epic Videogames Guide at the time; in the remaster it is never appropriate to make historical revisionism, which is why we will limit ourselves to outline the characteristics of the game and observe how it has aged, in six not very short years.
LA Noire is a rather ambitious detective title, which combines the mechanics of graphic adventures and action games in an open world context, constituted by the city of Los Angeles in 1947. In the role of detective Cole Phelps, the player is called to solve numerous cases that will see him engaged in exploratory sessions (the crime sites), driving, shooting, fistfights and, above all, interrogations , which constitute the most peculiar experience offered by the work of Team Bondi. On closer inspection, the predominant components are, in fact, those borrowed from graphic adventures, while the rest - including the open world - constitutes a contour, pleasant if at times sketchy.
- interrogations they require to collect new clues on the basis of the evidence gathered and eventually to unmask the liars, relying in this case not only on the evidence, but also on the facial expressions of the characters, indicators of their sincerity. The mechanism is interesting, but it can be frustrating at times, as it can compromise the outcome of the investigation in a random way: it is not possible, in fact, to select Cole's phrases, but simply to choose an attitude between “favors”, “force” and “accusation”. The original edition called the three options differently: "truth", "doubt" and "lie"; less misunderstandings? Maybe (actually it fits better in English: we went from "truth", "doubt" and lie to "good cop", "bad cop" and "accusations"), but still such. At this point, the only really useful change would have been the introduction of the possibility to save at any time or to repeat the interrogation.
The remaster
Like every remastered version self-respecting, that of LA Noire offers the original game, accompanied by all DLCs (the contents are those of The Complete Edition, released on PC in November 2011) and with some graphic improvements: beyond the higher resolution (1080p, 4k for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X), in fact, Virtuos (the studio that took care of the ports) has reworked textures, lighting effects and shots. The work is well done in terms of lighting, while the textures have not made a significant leap in quality. Net of the excellent facial expressions, LA Noire has not aged very well from a technical point of view, which had already given rise to some complaints in 2011.
Longevity, on the other hand, is excellent, by virtue of the inclusion of the five DLC cases, which are added to the twenty-one of the base game, for a total that will hardly be less than twenty-five hours.
LA Noire is an imperfect game but with a great personality, so those who have not had the opportunity to play it in its time can be tempted by this remaster. The speech is different for those who have already completed the game in recent years: the technical improvements do not justify the outlay of the forty euros requested.
► LA Noire is an Adventure-Action game developed by Virtuos and published by Rockstar Games for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 17/05/2011 The version for PC came out on 08/11/2011
