I started out wanting to write a video game review today of Rockstar’s most recent title, “L.A. Noire,” which I just picked up the other day and which has been out a little more than a month. But owing to the fact that I am only a third of the way through the main storyline, I can’t give a complete rating to the game, so I’ll just go on with what is working thus far. Some mild spoilers to follow.
Not unlike many PC mystery games from the mid-to-late such as “11th Hour” and “Myst,” where players must handle clues and search for details to move them along, “L.A. Noire” acts as a detective simulator that not only forces players to scour scenes for evidence, but also to make decisions during interrogation as to how that evidence can help their case.
Let’s take an example: A car full of blood, a lead pipe covered in gore nearby and the wallet of the car’s owner would seem like a cut-and-dry homicide. On further inspection, however, a subtle clue found squirreled away in the car turns the focus from homicide to fraud.
Rockstar’s track record for protagonists in recent years has been stellar. Niko Bellic, the sneering anti-hero of “Grand Theft Auto IV” combined the American Dream with the harsh realism of an ex-Balkan mercenary who killed families and fueled ethnic slavery into a unique character the player either wantonly idolizes or can at least find a sort of sympathy for as the Liberty City crime world descends on him.
John Marston of “Red Dead Redemption” likewise brought forth a penitent outlaw looking to make amends, dropping the Rockstar trademark of exploitative comedy for an all-together more visceral experience in which life and death come with baggage far surpassing a wanted level star. As the game builds to its epic, “High Plains Drifter”-style finale, a full account of the man and his deeds comes into view, revealing an articulation of the human psyche unparalleled in game history.
Cole Phelps, then, has two tough acts to follow. A white collar kid-cum-World War II officer, the player takes control of Phelps as a beat cop in 1947, still haunted by the his time in the service as told through parallel narration. Though the depth of guilt as established by evidence can be controlled by the player, the game’s default trajectory for Phelps is that of a master detective coming into his own, traversing the burgeoning metropolis in Truman-era Los Angeles. Here freeways are a distant dream, marijuana is a menace though morphine and heroin are valuable medical tools, and neither blacks nor women have seen their time of uprising and equality.
Where Bellic and Marston had criminal and damnable pasts which they attempted to rectify through deeds, Phelps’ biggest obstacle thus far seems to be not only the gradually more depraved criminal element in the City of Angels, but the bigotry of his time. Portrayed by “Mad Men” alum Aaron Staton, Phelps would not be out of place on that show some 20 years in the future. The game’s portrayal of immediate post-war America tackles issues much in the same way as “Mad Men” — eschewing any contemporary apologetics or anachronistic ideology for as much period accuracy as possible.
Thus far there has been the choice to stereotype a black man as a thief or to level with him and dispel that allegation. Also I have seen a Jewish man smite an anti-Semite. Men run away from their wives, incite insurance fraud right out of “Double Indemnity” and rig false suicides for Phelps to debunk. These issues all smack of a simpler time, when organizations such as the ACLU, GLAAD or the NAACP had little to no sway in protecting those outside the “moral majority” as dictated by white America. Herein lies much of the game’s appeal — an immersive experience which lends appreciation for the relative advances American society has made in integration and established gender and racial equality, underpinned by the sobering reality that the savage mentality towards minorities and women at that time still lurks today.
My experience so far with “L.A. Noire” is exemplary of the future I hope the video game community will embrace. Using intuitive reasoning and subtle choices, the player can manipulate the story into a generic “Dragnet” episode or something more in the court of James Ellroy, unraveling webs of corruption and slicing through conspiracies in the nick of time. Not only is the rich story presented in a non-linear manner, but the player must work for the next piece of the puzzle and embody Phelps in a manner deeper than even most RPGs.
Until I crack the last case my verdict will be out, but with the glimpse I have now, I can’t help but wait in bated anticipation for what clues are around the next corner.
