In the interviews, you must use the evidence and your own intuition to determine if the information someone is giving you is authentic or not. Where LA Noire really shines is during the thick of the investigations, when you are searching for clues, interviewing suspects and piecing together the evidence. On the flip side, the vice desk is the least absorbing, mostly because it involves far too many boring tailing missions that feel like a slog to get through. Of the five desks, homicide was the standout for me, providing the most interesting cases and a compelling mystery to solve. Each case flows well into the next, and most of the cases on the various desks have an overarching connection that keeps the story cohesive.
It’s a dark, sordid place filled with questionable characters and seedy locales hidden beneath a veneer of sunny skies and celebrities. I won’t go into too much detail about the story, considering the original game has been out for more than half a decade, but I will say it does an excellent job of capturing the essence of what I’d imagine Los Angeles to feel like in that era. The story of LA Noire is broken up into 26 cases spread across five different desks. Aaron Staton also does a great job voicing Cole, although some of his lines come off a bit hammy and self-righteous. Slowly but surely, we learn more about Cole, his harrowing stint in the war and his motives for wanting to make the city a safer place. Cole isn’t exactly what I’d call likable, but he at least looks better compared to most of his partners and the people he interacts with throughout the campaign.
Once again you will take control of Cole Phelps, a flawed but interesting character trying to be an honest cop in a city full of rotten ones. Not a lot has fundamentally changed in this version of LA Noire. After diving back into this gritty recreation of 1940s Los Angeles on the Nintendo Switch more than six years later, I realized there is still nothing else quite like it. The facial capture technology had never been seen before in a video game and its interrogation system made it stand out not only from every other Rockstar game but from everything else, period.
When LA Noire first released in 2011, it was a one-of-a-kind game.