L.A. Noire

The working hours and managerial style of the studio was met with public complaints from staff members, and Team Bondi closed shortly after the game's initial release.

The game received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed at the facial animation, narrative, characters, performances, music, world design, and interrogation gameplay, though responses to the shooting and driving mechanics were mixed.

[37] As a detective, Phelps frequently works with coroner Dr. Malcolm Carruthers (Andy Umberger)[31] and technical crime scene investigator Ray Pinker (JD Cullum).

[41] Members of the SRF include real estate magnate Leland Monroe (John Noble),[37] California Fire and Life vice-president Curtis Benson (Jim Abele), and psychiatrist Harlan Fontaine (Peter Blomquist).

[39][42] Fontaine's mentee is medical student Courtney Sheldon (Chad Todhunter)[39][43]—a former Marine with whom Phelps and Kelso were stationed—who becomes involved in the city's drug trade through a partnership with gangster Mickey Cohen (Patrick Fischler).

[44][45] One of Fontaine's patients is Ira Hogeboom (J. Marvin Campbell),[39][46] a former flamethrower operator from the Sixth Marines who became severely traumatised after unintentionally burning out a cave of civilians on Phelps's orders.

[69] The team created over 140 production bibles during development, acting as style guides with information about floorplans, dressing, signs, graphics, lighting, and reference material.

[83] The developers engaged the Real Tuesday Weld to create three original vocal tracks to authentically suit the period's musical identity, performed by Claudia Brücken and sung in-game by Elsa.

[92][93] McNamara felt he had been unfairly maligned by many ex-employees, noting other artists and businessmen in other industries—such as Steve Jobs, Sam Peckinpah, and Werner Herzog—had performed worse actions than he had with much less vilification.

[107] Rockstar also ran a competition to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Festival of Film Noir at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, and play the game a month before its release.

[129] It was praised for its facial animation,[6][22][135] narrative,[6][132][134] characters and performances,[9][20][132] music,[11][135][136] world design,[11][130][131] and interrogation gameplay,[6][9][16] though responses to the shooting and driving mechanics were mixed.

[133] Joystiq's Justin McElroy considered the technology "nothing short of revolutionary", noting it allowed the player to view "an actor's entire performance";[135] Edge found it added a "human element" to the interrogations.

[11][12][132][137] GameSpy's Ryan Scott considered L.A. Noire to be "one of the strongest stories Rockstar's ever published",[132] and Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker called it "among the best in the business", citing its cohesiveness and tension near its climax.

[22][135][137] Eurogamer's Welsh compared it to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) and Midnight Club: Los Angeles (2008), noting "it's the fastidious period detail that really impresses this time".

[131] Matt Helgeson of Game Informer lauded the attention to detail but felt it lacked the feeling of interactivity of Liberty City from Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV (2008).

[9] Petit of GameSpot said the "outstanding" art direction made the game more memorable but the believability of the open world was marred by the awkward dialogue of the non-playable pedestrians.

Eurogamer's Welsh found the foot-chases to be "memorable and fun", comparing them to police television shows,[12] while Game Informer's Helgeson wrote they became "predictable and repetitive".

[12][20] Critics generally agreed the game's shooting mechanics were competent but simple;[6][9][11] some found the controls awkward or repetitive,[12][22] while others considered it lacklustre compared to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

[145] Nathan Grayson of GameSpy appreciated the improvements but ultimately considered it "a pretty bare-bones PC port";[143] Tommaso Pugliese of Multiplayer.it echoed this sentiment, feeling the changes from the console release were minimal and the controls were made worse with a keyboard and mouse.

[146] Anthony Gallegos of IGN felt the port could use additional optimisation, citing some technical problems;[144] Matthieu Hurel of Gamekult was similarly disappointed by the lack of improvements in the Windows version.

[164] The Telegraph's Tom Hoggins called it an "interesting, reactive, and largely accomplished virtual reality adaption" of the game,[167] and Gamer.nl's Wilbert Meetsma compared it to a greatest hits album.

GameSpot's Thang found it made the player reconsider the evidence they discover,[164] and The Telegraph's Hoggins felt the exploration "makes a great deal more sense".

[169] In contrast, IGN's Stapleton found them to be "imprecise but goofy fun to pantomime";[166] Daniel Feith of GameStar said it was realistic but ultimately felt like a gimmick he eventually skipped.

[171] The Telegraph's Hoggins considered the driving to be the least successful feature of The VR Case Files, though praised its detail,[167] and PC Games's Schmid and Döllner criticised it as uncomfortable.

[164] IGN's Stapleton praised the visuals of The VR Case Files, noting the new perspective grants more appreciation of the development and design and the facial animations are enhanced by the closer angle.

[164] Meetsma of Gamer.nl felt the facial animations remained effective but the overall design was less impressive, especially with the game's demanding system requirements;[168] Feith of GameStar found the faces had weakened in virtual reality.

[180] Andrew and Simon Hale were nominated for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media at the International Film Music Critics Association Awards.

[215] Following L.A. Noire's release in May 2011, McNamara claimed future games from Team Bondi would take less than five years to develop due to the existing technology, with MotionScan set to expand to full body performance.

[219] McNamara's next game, Whore of the Orient, was announced in November; in development by KMM Interactive Entertainment, a studio set up by Kennedy Miller Mitchell,[220] it was described as a "spiritual successor" to L.A.

[221] At Video Games Deluxe, McNamara and some Team Bondi alumni worked on The VR Case Files[5] and post-release development of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (2021).

A black man with a hat stands in a railyard, looking to the camera's left. On the left of the screen are three prompts: "Good Cop", "Bad Cop", and "Accuse".
When interrogating witnesses and suspects, the player has the option to believe them, doubt them, or accuse them of lying. [ c ] The options were enlarged in the Nintendo Switch (pictured) and virtual reality versions.
Artwork of five detectives in brown suits. Four sport hats; the other has short, brown hair.
The five main detectives: Phelps, Bekowsky, Galloway, Earle, and Biggs [ 40 ]
A close-up image of bald man looking up behind the camera while talking at a conference.
Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara wrote and directed L.A. Noire .
The left side of the image shows an actor in orange clothing sitting with his arms crossed. The right side of the image shows the equivalent of actor's face as in-game animation.
The game features the motion capture technology MotionScan, which records actors with 32 surrounding cameras to capture facial expressions from every angle, resulting in a realistic recreation of the human face. [ 54 ]
Four actors talking in motion capture suits (black full-body suits, and a small cap upon the head, with small white balls), in a studio.
The actors' physical performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology in a studio. [ 77 ]
From left to right: Michael McGrady , Aaron Staton , Sean McGowan, Adam J. Harrington .
The top image displays the original logo: "L.A. Noire", written in shiny, cursive, silver-and-black font. The bottom displays the final logo: "ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESENTS" above "L.A. Noire", which is written in a much thicker, yellow-and-black font.
Rockstar's redesign of the original game logo was reportedly met with criticism from management at Team Bondi due to the absence of their company logo. [ 87 ]
A large orange box with the letter "R" and a star hangs from a tall building. Below it is a convention booth with the lit-up text "L.A. NOIRE". The game's cover art is vaguely seen beneath the logo.
L.A. Noire was marketed through video trailers and press demonstrations, including at PAX East in 2011. [ 95 ]
Several cars drive down a street in Los Angeles in 1947 in the evening, with several tall buildings in the background.
The recreation of Los Angeles in L.A. Noire received praise, considered by many critics to be the "star" of the game. [ 11 ] [ 130 ] [ 131 ]
The player (in first-person) drives a car through the streets of Los Angeles.
Driving in The VR Case Files received mixed responses; some critics found it accurate and well-designed, [ 164 ] [ 168 ] and others unsuccessful and gimmicky. [ 167 ] [ 171 ]