LA Noire: The VR Case Files plays as a Greatest Hits from LA Noire. With seven things, divided into different departments, you try to make the Los Angeles of the 40s a little bit nicer as the ambitious and enthusiastic Cole Phelps.
The variation between these assignments is great - from foiling a bank robbery to detecting a car thief - but the amount is in stark contrast to the 21 cases and 40 side missions of the original. And just like with a Greatest Hits CD, you miss the context within the bigger picture. From an overarching story and the gradual upgrading to a detective, there is no question anymore.
Giggling for the simplest things
The fact that LA Noire: The VR Case Files is limited to a selection is a shame, because how Rockstar Games has tackled the translation to vr is praiseworthy. You play the game from a first-person perspective and your virtual body follows your own movements as well as possible, including arms and legs. We are not the only ones who left the corrupt Los Angeles for what it was and giggled our best dance moves in front of the mirror in our office. Rockstar has taken a good look at the competition. For example, you do not need menus to select your notepad or firearm, but you simply pick the desired tool from your digital body.
In addition to the familiar teleportation to move forward, you can also hold the right trackpad and swing your arms around your body to walk. This may look crazy to a spectator, but it works wonderfully to create the illusion that you are actually running. Driving is also neatly translated: intuitively you start the engine, turn the siren on and tear you through the streets. As you walk around, there are times when the image turns black, or you see Phelps walking from the third person, which breaks the immersion shortly. However, we can forgive this from the point of view of comfort. Rather a black screen than that your stomach turns around when climbing a staircase.
The ability to seek cover yourself makes the gunfights better to digest than in the original version, but our favorite activities are still the brawls with suspects. With enough leeway you can dance around the suspect and avoid his blows. For an extra dose of humiliation you can hit someone with a flat hand in the face and more than once we felt the urge to give our opponent a knee after a good punch in the stomach. Even though the fist fights are a small part of the game, they are sometimes the smallest things that make you most happy.
Too little, too late
LA Noire: The VR Case Files does not look very impressive after seven years - especially in relation to the very high system requirements - but the facial animations remain excellent. The people you are questioning look straight at you and give you the opportunity to admire each nervous convulsion from close up. And to suspect, of course. Just like with the Switch versionlast year, Rockstar wisely replaced the Truth, Doubt, Lie choice during the interrogations with Good Cop, Bad Cop and Accuse. The reactions of Phelps are therefore better predictable, but as a whole the process remains opaque. For example, a Good Cop response to a traumatized shoe salesman can still lead to an angry reminder that lying to the police is a crime, while we only wanted to ask for the voucher in the victim's jacket.
If LA Noire: The VR Case Files had the full story and all the stuff, it would undoubtedly have been one of the best experiences in virtual reality. As with VR, the simplest interactions are often the best and Rockstar Games has clearly done its best to translate LA Noire into the young medium. With only seven issues to solve and the complete absence of side missions, LA Noire: The VR Case Files ultimately feels more like a demo than a full game.
LA Noire: The VR Case Files is now available on Steam and works with the HTC Vive.
Conclusion
LA Noire: The VR Case Files is a fantastic vr-game. The movement options are great, the fistfights are a real pleasure and a suspicious right in the eye can look fascinating. This could have been the ultimate version of LA Noire, were it not that the content is limited to just a handful of things.
✔ Careful transition to vr, fistfighting, facial animations continue to convince
✖ Only a fraction of the original content, high system requirements, interrogations remain opaque
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Seems like it was only a test - of technology and reception.
Or maybe Rockstar thought it would be to costly (in money and time) too port it all?
The amount of Optimization required for VR is massive, most assets have to be nearly redone, which makes it potentially very costly. Fallout4 is interesting, they managed to transfer a lot of the gameplay into VR, but the reviews aren’t the greatest
I see VR, i upvote! Seriously though, good review. Will definitely check out this game
Wish they had brought it to psvr. Maybe this is just a test, im hoping they try it with the new red dead redemption and the next GTA game.