L.A. Noire - Can I do some detective work now, please?Unlike Rockstar’s previous period-perfect epics - Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption - Aussie dev Team Bondi wants to feel like a real person. With a real personality, and not just a psychopath. And, more importantly, with a real job, and not just “psychopath”.They turn you into LAPD detective Cole Phelps, a war hero with a sharp suit, a fedora and a stick up his arse. And to make you feel like a detective you spend more time fingering matchstick cases and bellowing at dirty rotten liars than you do shooting guys. Though you do shoot a lot of guys.L.A. Noire certainly makes you feel like an interrogator. The game’s biggest draw, the reason for its half-decade development period and the biggest god-damn bulletpoint on the box is the fact that you grill witnesses, suspects, leads and random neighbours with a truth-seeking line of questions that’d make Phoenix Wright blush.But Noire never made me feel like a detective. The critical other side of the coin that gives you the ammunition - talking point evidence and lie-debunking proof - for your interrogations. I felt more like an overzealous lackey who’d follow in Phelps’ literal footsteps, bagging up his evidence and polishing his shoes, but never doing the police work I so wanted to do.Phelps would always be the one to dispense advice on the case at hand. “We should check out the husband,” he might declare, before the husband is added to my list of suspects. He’d read a matchbook and say “24 Sunset Blvd, we should visit them”, before the address automatically got added to my list of locations, and a dot magically appeared on the city map.I very rarely got to make any substantial decisions in the actual gumshoe investigation work. I’d parade around the crime scene until I stumbled over an object that made the controller vibrate.  Cole would then say out loud whether or not the item is useful. If it was, it was added to my list of clues, formed a question for a specific witness or a location was added my map.The only time you’d really have to engage your brain and think like a detective (outside of the excellent interrogation scenes) is when you’re greeted with a ledger or a list of names or a list of addresses, and you have to guide Phelp’s hovering finger to the right place. Take too long, and Cole will just tell you the answer anyway.But how can a game make you feel like a real detective - who does proper investigative work and follows leads - without making the game impossibly difficult or too open for interpretation? Enter: The Shivah.Shivah is a painfully short but exceptionally well made point and click from indie dev Wadjet Eye Games. You play Russell Stone - a dejected Rabbi who’s wracked with guilt when he finds out that a member of his old congregation, who he shunned years ago, has been murdered. To ease his remorse he decides to play at being a copper, and see if he can’t figure out the case himself.The game treats you like an intelligent human being, and also treats you like a wannabe cop. There’s no in-game journal where Rabbi Stone automatically jots down pertinent information: you have to play the game with a paper and pen (or an iPad jotter app called Penultimate) in front of you to decide what’s worth remembering, all by yourself. Like a big boy.So first of all, I need to find out where this murdered dude lived. I dust off my computer and use the search. To stop your searches for “Jack Lauder” sprawling off into millions of useless results (about 4,380,000 of them, says Google), the game invents a smaller, closed network for the local Jewish community called Ravnet. I plug in Lauder’s name, and his contact details appear. It puts his apartment on my map.Later, after questioning his widowed wife, I end up at his old workplace. I work my way into his computer by guessing his password (I picked it up from his wife - her mother’s maiden name - and wrote it down because I thought it might be important). I go through his emails, sort through spam and start looking for interesting conversations. I spot a suspicious email but it doesn’t - thankfully enough - throw a pop-up message on the screen that says PERSON OF INTEREST ADDED: ETHAN G. So I write it down.Ethan G. Hm, in another email, Jack’s wife talks about meeting the Goldwaters. I try “Ethan Goldwater” in the Ravnet search. Zilch. Later, I see a picture of some old buddies of Jack, and it mentions an E. Goldberg. I plug Ethan Goldberg into Ravnet. Bingo. I find out that he’s been killed too, and it gives me more questions, leads and opportunities. It mentions a bar, and its added to my map.Obviously, the game has to automatically put new locations on my map. I wish I could have an entire city, and actually ride the subway or take a cab to investigate possible locations of interest, just like I’ve been investigating potentially interesting names and events. Like a real cop. But that’s impossible - the rag tag bunch of indie game makers at Wadjet Eye have neither the budget nor time to render an entire New York city map for me to visit.Rockstar does, of course. It has, like five times (two Liberty Cities, Vice City, San Andreas and Los Angeles). It seemed perfect - a dream game was forming in my mind. At the time, I said to my friend Phil in an instant message (good old Gmail, saving years-old chat logs): me: so you’ll be reading people’s letters and jotting down names [to investigate later] i actually wish it had more than that like, addresses when you find an address, you actually gotta figure out how to get there heck, just make it in Liberty City that would be the most insane game ever if you’re like a noir detective dude in a twilight liberty city taking the subway anyway Phil: yeha me: lets talk about games that exist outside of my mind Putting aside my crazy prophetic visions of a detective-style GTA game, I feel like L.A. Noire’s beautiful post-war Los Angeles is hazardously wasted. Like Mafia II’s cardboard cut-out Empire City, Rockstar’s take on LA is a pointless landscape that acts like a time-filling buffer to spread apart the crime scenes and suspects. As the game wraps up, you can just press a button to skip car journeys altogether.It would be been incredible to spot an address on the back of a matchbook cover, and then pull out the map (since when did Rockstar games stop coming with physical maps in the box? Those were great), find the streets and then drive there. Literally drive there, and chat to the patrons. Ambitious, but possible.I wish L.A. Noire was more like The Shivah. Obviously, computers weren’t around in 1940s, but being able to loot hall of records for names, or use microfiche news archives to investigate older events would have made me feel more like the gumshoe I was expecting to be.There are, admittedly, some small bits of bonafide detective work in L.A. Noire. Following a killer’s cryptic clues around LA was a highlight. Plus, sometimes you got to decide which location to go to first - and you might completely bypass an entire area.They were memorable moments, and that was when the game felt like I was actually an active participant, outside of a gun battle or a witness grilling. Otherwise, there’s no real need to pay attention to the clues and follow the leads in front of you. Most of the time, I’d idly follow the paper trail without taking it in at all, because it was so effortless to do so, and then quickly do my homework on the case before an interrogation.L.A. Noire does a lot right. It has a gripping storyline, incredible (incredible!) technology and  meticulous attention to detail. Plus, putting conversations before gunfights is incredibly daring, and should be massively applauded. (Although, under Rockstar’s remit as the multi-million selling industry innovator, it’s about damn time).But it also has its flaws. The story was hammy and hamfisted, the riveting plotlines had disappointing ends and the interrogation scenes would sometimes be way too ambiguous.But, beyond all that - L.A. Noire had the potential to be one of those “dream games”, that sort of incredible idea for a game that you’ve been dreaming of since you were a kid (A GTA game where you can go in every single building! An earthquake survival game! A safari game!). I’ve been wishing for a real open world detective adventure where you have to actually solve clues, follow leads and interrogate witnesses since I was a kid. When I played The Shivah, and realised it could actually be done in a believable and interactive manner, it just made me even more hopeful for a big budget, open world edition.It seems my dream hasn’t been fulfilled just yet.

L.A. Noire - Can I do some detective work now, please?

Unlike Rockstar’s previous period-perfect epics - Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption - Aussie dev Team Bondi wants to feel like a real person. With a real personality, and not just a psychopath. And, more importantly, with a real job, and not just “psychopath”.

They turn you into LAPD detective Cole Phelps, a war hero with a sharp suit, a fedora and a stick up his arse. And to make you feel like a detective you spend more time fingering matchstick cases and bellowing at dirty rotten liars than you do shooting guys. Though you do shoot a lot of guys.

L.A. Noire certainly makes you feel like an interrogator. The game’s biggest draw, the reason for its half-decade development period and the biggest god-damn bulletpoint on the box is the fact that you grill witnesses, suspects, leads and random neighbours with a truth-seeking line of questions that’d make Phoenix Wright blush.

But Noire never made me feel like a detective. The critical other side of the coin that gives you the ammunition - talking point evidence and lie-debunking proof - for your interrogations. I felt more like an overzealous lackey who’d follow in Phelps’ literal footsteps, bagging up his evidence and polishing his shoes, but never doing the police work I so wanted to do.

Phelps would always be the one to dispense advice on the case at hand. “We should check out the husband,” he might declare, before the husband is added to my list of suspects. He’d read a matchbook and say “24 Sunset Blvd, we should visit them”, before the address automatically got added to my list of locations, and a dot magically appeared on the city map.

I very rarely got to make any substantial decisions in the actual gumshoe investigation work. I’d parade around the crime scene until I stumbled over an object that made the controller vibrate.  Cole would then say out loud whether or not the item is useful. If it was, it was added to my list of clues, formed a question for a specific witness or a location was added my map.

The only time you’d really have to engage your brain and think like a detective (outside of the excellent interrogation scenes) is when you’re greeted with a ledger or a list of names or a list of addresses, and you have to guide Phelp’s hovering finger to the right place. Take too long, and Cole will just tell you the answer anyway.

But how can a game make you feel like a real detective - who does proper investigative work and follows leads - without making the game impossibly difficult or too open for interpretation? Enter: The Shivah.

Shivah is a painfully short but exceptionally well made point and click from indie dev Wadjet Eye Games. You play Russell Stone - a dejected Rabbi who’s wracked with guilt when he finds out that a member of his old congregation, who he shunned years ago, has been murdered. To ease his remorse he decides to play at being a copper, and see if he can’t figure out the case himself.

The game treats you like an intelligent human being, and also treats you like a wannabe cop. There’s no in-game journal where Rabbi Stone automatically jots down pertinent information: you have to play the game with a paper and pen (or an iPad jotter app called Penultimate) in front of you to decide what’s worth remembering, all by yourself. Like a big boy.

So first of all, I need to find out where this murdered dude lived. I dust off my computer and use the search. To stop your searches for “Jack Lauder” sprawling off into millions of useless results (about 4,380,000 of them, says Google), the game invents a smaller, closed network for the local Jewish community called Ravnet. I plug in Lauder’s name, and his contact details appear. It puts his apartment on my map.

Later, after questioning his widowed wife, I end up at his old workplace. I work my way into his computer by guessing his password (I picked it up from his wife - her mother’s maiden name - and wrote it down because I thought it might be important). I go through his emails, sort through spam and start looking for interesting conversations. I spot a suspicious email but it doesn’t - thankfully enough - throw a pop-up message on the screen that says PERSON OF INTEREST ADDED: ETHAN G. So I write it down.

Ethan G. Hm, in another email, Jack’s wife talks about meeting the Goldwaters. I try “Ethan Goldwater” in the Ravnet search. Zilch. Later, I see a picture of some old buddies of Jack, and it mentions an E. Goldberg. I plug Ethan Goldberg into Ravnet. Bingo. I find out that he’s been killed too, and it gives me more questions, leads and opportunities. It mentions a bar, and its added to my map.

Obviously, the game has to automatically put new locations on my map. I wish I could have an entire city, and actually ride the subway or take a cab to investigate possible locations of interest, just like I’ve been investigating potentially interesting names and events. Like a real cop. But that’s impossible - the rag tag bunch of indie game makers at Wadjet Eye have neither the budget nor time to render an entire New York city map for me to visit.

Rockstar does, of course. It has, like five times (two Liberty Cities, Vice City, San Andreas and Los Angeles). It seemed perfect - a dream game was forming in my mind. At the time, I said to my friend Phil in an instant message (good old Gmail, saving years-old chat logs):

  • me: so you’ll be reading people’s letters and jotting down names [to investigate later]
  • i actually wish it had more than that
  • like, addresses
  • when you find an address, you actually gotta figure out how to get there
  • heck, just make it in Liberty City
  • that would be the most insane game ever
  • if you’re like a noir detective dude in a twilight liberty city
  • taking the subway
  • anyway
  • Phil: yeha
  • me: lets talk about games that exist outside of my mind


Putting aside my crazy prophetic visions of a detective-style GTA game, I feel like L.A. Noire’s beautiful post-war Los Angeles is hazardously wasted. Like Mafia II’s cardboard cut-out Empire City, Rockstar’s take on LA is a pointless landscape that acts like a time-filling buffer to spread apart the crime scenes and suspects. As the game wraps up, you can just press a button to skip car journeys altogether.

It would be been incredible to spot an address on the back of a matchbook cover, and then pull out the map (since when did Rockstar games stop coming with physical maps in the box? Those were great), find the streets and then drive there. Literally drive there, and chat to the patrons. Ambitious, but possible.

I wish L.A. Noire was more like The Shivah. Obviously, computers weren’t around in 1940s, but being able to loot hall of records for names, or use microfiche news archives to investigate older events would have made me feel more like the gumshoe I was expecting to be.

There are, admittedly, some small bits of bonafide detective work in L.A. Noire. Following a killer’s cryptic clues around LA was a highlight. Plus, sometimes you got to decide which location to go to first - and you might completely bypass an entire area.

They were memorable moments, and that was when the game felt like I was actually an active participant, outside of a gun battle or a witness grilling. Otherwise, there’s no real need to pay attention to the clues and follow the leads in front of you. Most of the time, I’d idly follow the paper trail without taking it in at all, because it was so effortless to do so, and then quickly do my homework on the case before an interrogation.

L.A. Noire does a lot right. It has a gripping storyline, incredible (incredible!) technology and  meticulous attention to detail. Plus, putting conversations before gunfights is incredibly daring, and should be massively applauded. (Although, under Rockstar’s remit as the multi-million selling industry innovator, it’s about damn time).

But it also has its flaws. The story was hammy and hamfisted, the riveting plotlines had disappointing ends and the interrogation scenes would sometimes be way too ambiguous.

But, beyond all that - L.A. Noire had the potential to be one of those “dream games”, that sort of incredible idea for a game that you’ve been dreaming of since you were a kid (A GTA game where you can go in every single building! An earthquake survival game! A safari game!).

I’ve been wishing for a real open world detective adventure where you have to actually solve clues, follow leads and interrogate witnesses since I was a kid. When I played The Shivah, and realised it could actually be done in a believable and interactive manner, it just made me even more hopeful for a big budget, open world edition.

It seems my dream hasn’t been fulfilled just yet.

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