LA Noire Switch review: A fantastically fun detective-thriller

Switch - Rockstar - £32.99

When LA Noire reached consoles six years ago, there was a ton of excitement surrounding Rockstar’s non-Grand Theft Auto game. Rather than dealing drugs and running from cops, players were instead putting criminals behind bars while saving the day. The game’s setting — 1940s Los Angeles — was barely explored in the medium, the studio taking inspiration from classic movies.

Even today, LA Noire feels fresh, having more in common with Hollywood productions than the average game. The narrative structure feels episodic, like playing through an exciting detective TV show. Importantly, the characters are great, the story melodramatic, with twists and turns along the way as you bust the biggest cases in LA. But, six years later, how does the game hold up?

Released on Switch, LA Noire remains ever-impressive. The tantalising story, the setting, the characters — they’re all as wonderful as before. The game plays the same as on PS3 and Xbox 360, except now comes on a portable device. The only real difference is being able to use the touchscreen (a completely unnecessary feature).

One of the main talking points around the game’s initial release was the facial recognition technology. Real actors were asked to perform lines, their faces beamed into the game as players were expected to guess whether they were lying or telling the truth. There are still some issues here — characters often look slightly crazed when they’re seemingly not meant to — but overall the graphics are certainly playable.

The main problem, as it was before, remains only having three options to respond when interrogating people — now labeled Good Cop, Bad Cop, and Accuse. Just guessing what your character will say can be difficult, let along what the response will be. Considering Mass Effect and other games offer more detailed discussion abilities, only having these three fairly wide responses can prove frustrating.

Despite this niggle, overall LA Noire plays well and marks a fantastically fun detective-thriller, marking another impressive game to add to the Switch’s library. And, hopefully, a sequel will come soon enough.