Questioning witnesses and possible suspects is what the game is all about, however, and the scenes that ensue are still as emotionally gripping as they were the first time around.
#Games like la noire serial#
The paper trail that the Black Dahlia serial killer sends you on is a great example of this: while you interpret poems that the killer has left behind and clamber up some of LA’s landmarks, your partner Rusty Galloway sits back and enjoys a smoke. Searching the crime scene for clues certainly isn’t the most exciting thing, but combing the area and trying to find a snippet of a lead to go on is fun - not least because of the banter between Cole and his various partners.
Noire aren’t the warehouse gunfights or the high-speed chases, but the quieter moments. In fact, it’s almost flipped around now: there are some instances where a character’s hair won’t match the detail of their clothes, which can be a little disengaging, although it illustrates how far the industry has come visually. Thanks to updated clothing textures, there’s less of that ‘facial swimming’ effect that was present in the original game, in which characters’ faces almost wouldn’t match their bodies because of how detailed they were.
LA Noire’s groundbreaking MotionScan mocap technology is still effective today - interrogation scenes are nerve-wracking and engaging as you try and read the face of your suspect. Despite the seedy underbelly and the crime-ridden nature of the city as it’s presented in the game, it’s still hard not to be wowed by the vibrant vistas at sunset and the glowing neon signs at night. Newly remastered by Rockstar, the detective thriller is as confounding and cool as it was back in 2011, with a new lick of paint adding even more beauty to the lovingly rendered postwar California setting. If you used your detective skills to deduce that this is a lie, then Team Bondi’s noir classic could be your type of game. Noire actually released closer to the 1940s than to 2017?