LA Noire: PS4 Review

LA Noire: PS4 Review

Developer: Team Bondi
Published by Rockstar Games
Platform: PS4

In 2011, the publishers of Grand Theft Auto released a crime game that very much shook the boundaries of what to expect for the police procedural.

With its take on Hollywoodland and its combination of open world maps and GTA similarities, the game was understandably an easy hit, giving the platforms something cinematic at a gaming level.

Meshing film noir in both plot and aesthetics, it's the tale of a copper on the beat and later a police detective in 1947 LA. With various crimes and progressions through differing departments, from Vice to Homicide, the game tracks the life cycle of Cole Phelps and sees you assessed from all angles.

With the usual tropes of the genre covered from femme fatales to corruption, LA Noire could be accused of taking the lazy route, but what it actually does is create a game and atmosphere that's second to none and an evocative atmospheric take on the usual films you'd see in the cinema.

From elements of LA Confidential to hints of the Black Dahlia, everything's covered in Rockstar's game and it's all the better for it.

With characters that rise and situations that feel authentic, the engagement with the game and its mechanics is evident from the start.

Unfortunately, the graphics haven't quite been rendered upto the spec of the machines it runs on - and while others like Crash Bandicoot and to some degree Ratchet and Clank may have got a spit and polish, this year's LA Noire seems to have lost out in some of the technical finesse you'd have expected from a remaster.

It still looks good, but in parts, frankly, it does look like a last generation console  game and that's a shame.

One of the tweaks Rockstar's made is in its interrogation scenes with the blurred lines in testimony and confessions being a little more tied up with what plays out on screen and a bit more in sync with the keeping of the game.

Ultimately, what the remaster of LA Noire may lack on a technical level, it gains from the gameplay - involving and evocative and with a depth that's engaging, it's more than enough to keep you at the scene of the crime throughout.