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About two weeks ago I received a phone call from Rockstar Games inviting me out to L.A. to preview L.A. Noire and stay at the world famous Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd. They really didn't have to ask me if I wanted to go, of course I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity like that! Once I landed at LAX I was picked up by one of Roman Bellic's drivers - okay not really - but it was a black Escalade - and we were off to The Roosevelt!
The Roosevelt
My room had a spectacular view of the pool area, and I even had my own cabana! If we weren't
The hotel had a very modern, yet historic atmosphere to it. You could go down to the pool where all the people were hanging out, or you could go back 85 years into the past by just walking into the old part of the hotel. It was a true honor to be able to stay at the Roosevelt.
Black Dahlia Tour
I had the advantage of doing the tour early in the day, so I was able to go back to my room and have the entire night to play L.A. Noire. After experiencing the tour, there was so much more realism brought to the game when I played it. It also gave me that much more respect for Team Bondi's research department, and how detailed they were on designing the buildings. I will get into that a little more later.
L.A. Noire
When I first arrived at The Roosevelt, I was able to unpack my bags and we hung out at the pool for a little bit. At this point I was in awe of this place - at how amazing it all looked. Then a couple guys from Rockstar came up and said, "you ready to go see it?" I think we were already standing up before he got done finishing his sentence! We got into the hotel room that over looked Hollywood Blvd, and the Chinese Theater, and they fired up L.A. Noire. We previewed the Red Lipstick Murder demo that was also shown at PAX East a month ago. Since we have covered this demo pretty heavily, I won't get into too much detail about it. We got to experience a lot more than just viewing a demo...read on to see what we were able to do!
Red Lipstick Murder Demo
A Rockstar employee stated that this is the biggest map they have ever done! I was able to look at the map while playing the game, and I can promise you will not be disappointed! The Rockstar rep also stated that they drove from one end of the map to the other and it took them 30 minutes to drive the entire distance.
There are subtle musical clues that you will hear when you come up to an item of interest. These musical clues will help you greatly in your investigation when searching for items. For example, when you walk by an item on a scene you will hear a few piano chords play and your controller will vibrate - this is informing you that you are near an object of interest. Another clue will be the facial expressions of the characters in the scene. You will need to actually read their faces and study them and choose the right line of questioning to move your case forward.
Once you receive a clue that is in a new location, you will need to drive there. Unlike GTA games where you are encouraged to drive everywhere, you have the option of letting your partner drive. This is a welcomed feature for me personally. We have seen in previous trailers that there will be car chases and shootouts, so for those of you who look forward to that aspect in GTA, you will be satisfied.
Hand to hand combat has greatly improved over GTA IV. You can feel the "weight" of your punches hitting your opponent. The mechanics are much more life-like and fluid than its predecessors. I think you will really enjoy beating the crap out of the bad guys - it's more rewarding than other games!
Full Game Preview
Unlike the folks at PAX East, the 10 of us were treated to a Playstation 3 setup in our room with the full game at our disposal! We were told that we could play all the way through if we wanted, and I intended to do just that! Please keep in mind that I can't give away certain aspects of the game - and I do not want to spoil the "L.A. Noire Experience" that I had the pleasure of having.
Once the game is loaded, you instantly see the noir aspect in the main menu and the music you hear is also from the period. The controls felt natural to me, much like Red Dead Redemption and GTA. A lot of the same buttons did the same actions as in previous games, so you won't have to worry about learning all new controls for L.A. Noire.
Map and Exploration
If you are worried about the game being linear or not being able to explore 1947 L.A., you will be pleasantly surprised. In fact, I encourage you to go find famous landmarks that are strewn throughout the city. You are in total control of the case and the speed at which you decide to go. After I completed a few cases I decided to go out on a scenic drive. I was blown away at how large the city was, and how real everything looked. One of the other guys who played it drove to the Roosevelt Hotel where we were staying just to check it out - that's how realistic the game is! I wish I could compare the in-game Roosevelt Hotel with the photo I took, but that will just have to wait for you guys to find out on your own!
While driving around you will hear a crime come over the radio and you have the option to go investigate it or continue on with your case. If you decide to do the "side mission" you won't screw up your case in progress, it just gets put on hold until you are ready to proceed.
While I'm on the subject of exploration, you will notice building's shop windows aren't "painted" on to the building texture. Team Bondi did an amazing job recreating period shops from the 1940's. The windows have items in them, they have depth, and are very realistic looking. While on a specific case, I came into contact with a lot of period items, and they really took you back into the era. Simon Wood and his team did a phenomenal job creating the most immersive atmosphere in a video game I've ever played. You really feel like you're in the late 40s!
I decided to walk down the sidewalk at one point to listen to the pedestrians. Their conversation topics are the murders around town and other misc. things that you will find interesting. Have no fear - you still get an inkling of Rockstar's humor at certain points, although subtle, it's still there! It wouldn't be a proper Rockstar game if it didn’t!
In between cases, I decided to go cruise around town and check the physics of the game out. The damage modeling on the cars are amazing, they seem to be greatly improved from GTA: IV. I crashed the car into a light pole and where the car hit the pole, it wrapped around it - I was floored! I also took the car off a few cliffs - and I never did get thrown out of the car like in GTA: IV…but you do get a fair amount of damage to the car when you nosedive it from a 200ft cliff!
The Cars of L.A. Noire
During my time with the game I was able to experience a wide variety of cars, an amount that I can not divulge at this time - but I can say that each car had its own handling
I didn't notice any cars that were driving erratic or slamming into other cars – Team Bondi seemed to make their AI a little bit smarter. You may occasionally see a fender bender, but it's not going to be a huge pile up like in GTA. I had a blast driving around in various cars and testing them out, and I know when you play it, you will do the same!
The Weapons of L.A. Noire
I was unable to finish the game during my time with it, but I did get to experience a wide variety of weaponry right from the start. During a specific gun fight, you needed to take cover to shoot the bad guys - and to my surprise there was no auto aim! This brings the "realism
While testing out my headshots, I accidentally missed and shot a guy in his fedora, and just like in Red Dead Redemption the hat goes flying off his head - I really like that effect! Also, if the enemy is really far away and you only have a pistol, don't waste your bullets on them! Cole (your character) will mention that "they are too far away I can't hit them from here" - you will either need to get closer or find a rifle to finish them off.
Being an Officer of the Law
I hate to keep comparing L.A. Noire to Grand Theft Auto, but in this instance I think it's necessary. While I was on a case, I parked the police car and went and did some investigating. When I came back out I decided to not take my police car, but to grab a civilian car. We all know how to "jack" a car in GTA - you run out in front of it, they stop, and you get in. In L.A. Noire, you stop a vehicle and Cole flashes his badge, then the people step out of the vehicle and you legally commandeer it. No punching, no head butting, no shooting a gun, you just get to take it! And I forgot to mention, I did this in front of a police officer walking down the street and I must say it felt weird doing it and not getting chased!
You get the sense when you are out and about in L.A. that you have a duty to accomplish, and that is to solve these crimes that are put before you. Team Bondi and Rockstar did a great job balancing the amount of cases you have with other items in the game that you will have to find out for yourself on May 17th!
Clues and Interrogation
This is undoubtedly the most important aspect of the game. When I played the cases you really have to pay close attention to detail, and the more time you spend canvassing the crime scene, the more that will help you with your interrogations. I remember a case that I was on - maybe 10 cases in or so - I showed up at the crime scene and thought, "okay, get these guys out of here before they contaminate my crime scene!" Personally, when I get that involved in a game and I start to think like that, it's an amazing game.
When you are canvassing an area for clues to a crime, you will notice musical cues that will play if you are near a piece of evidence. You can't pickup everything in the game, but there are a lot of items that are irrelevant to your case that you can still examine. We were told at one point in development that every item was able to be examined, and when game testers were playing they were picking up every object to find clues. I'm glad they decided to not allow you to pick up every object, I think I would have lost interest very quickly if I had to pick everything up to examine it.
On my first interrogation, I was very worried that the facial expressions and voice inflections were going to be over the top and obvious. I couldn't have been more wrong! You really have to work at studying their expressions, and listen to what they have to say about your question. We all know that you get the option to choose whether they tell the truth, doubt them or call them a liar. Well, if you decide to call them a liar I hope you canvassed the crime scene well because you will need to back up your claim with proof!
When you are examining a body, the camera will zoom in on Cole's hand and you will use his hand as your "cursor" to select which body part to manipulate and investigate. This is also the case with inspecting objects in houses that are grouped together. You can use his hand to select which item you want to inspect next. Once Cole picks up the items, you have total control of the object. You can roll the left stick around to find anything of interest on the object.
Final Thoughts
I can't thank the guys at Rockstar enough for their awesome hospitality and making me feel like a Rockstar for the weekend! Also the other fan site webmasters that it was a pleasure to finally meet include, Adam, Jevon, Blair, Andy, Kyle, Gerald, Zeeshan, Jesse, and last but not least Simon. It was also my pleasure in meeting the Sweepstakes winner Marty and his friend that went along, you guys made the trip memorable and I hope we all get to meet again soon!
Be sure and read the other previews as well!
Jesse - IGN
Simon - iGrandTheftAuto
Gerald - GTAWarehouse
Kyle - LANoireGaming
Zeeshan - RockstarDB
Adam, Andy, Blair, and Jevon - GTANet
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If you guys have any questions for us, please feel free to ask, and we will answer them as best we can!
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