10 Essential LA Noire Tips
1. Examine the Body
The first of my LA Noire Tips deals with the first thing you should always do when you arrive on a scene: examine the body. Take a look at everything you can and gleam as much information as possible. You’re mainly looking for three things. See if anything has been left behind like a wallet, invoice, or other potential clue. See if anything is missing that should be there, like an impression around the finger but no wedding band. See what happened to the person before they died. You can find bruises, cuts, or other marks on the body which can give you an idea of what evidence and murder weapon you should be looking for.
2. Look at All the Evidence Markers
When you arrive at a crime scene most of the time others have been working the scene already. Obvious clues have been identified and little yellow crime scene markers next to them. Before you do anything else on the scene, make sure you look at all of these clues.
3. Find Your Clues
Just because someone else has been looking around before you’ve arrived doesn’t mean that everything has been found. There could easily be other clues around that could be significant to the case. It’s very important that you find all the relevant information before you actually talk to any witnesses. You’ll be able to ask more questions that way, and be able to prove if they’re lying if they’re not being straight with you. Keep in mind that a lot of the objects laying around aren’t important, but it never hurts to be thorough.
4. Not All Clues Are Within the Yellow Tape
The bulk of the clues that you will find will be contained within the crime scene, but not always. If you have reason to think that your victim traveled from somewhere else to the crime scene, or have a clue as to where the murderer left the crime scene, you should take a look around those spots as well. You just might find a vital clue.
5. Listen to the Music
By default, audio cues are turned on in LA Noire. This means that whenever you arrive at a crime scene you’re going to start hearing background music. This background music plays for as long as there are valid objects around that are clues to your case. While your controller will vibrate the first time you pass by an object you can examine, you will also hear a soft chime indicating the location of that object every time you pass it. While not impossible to play the game without it, can be a very powerful non-intrusive tool in your arsenal.
6. Your Notebook is Your Best Friend. Review Your Evidence
Once your satisfied with all of the evidence that you have collected, you can at any time take a look in your notebook and review everything. While you will want to actually read all of the documents when you’re searching, you can look at the summary of everything in your notepad. The clues you have in your notepad will directly affect if you can catch someone in a lie or not. And while most clues will only be used once, the same clue might prove different people are lying about the same thing.
7. Pay Attention to the Eyes, Hands, and Mouth During Interviews
There are three main spots you need to look in order to tell if someone is telling the truth or not. Is the subject looking directly at you or are they looking away? Does the person try to hide a smile, or are they talking at a regular pace? Are they moving their hands around more than they should as if trying to distract you or are they overly excited about something? All of these are tells that you can use in trying to figure out just how honest someone is being with you.
8. What Do You Think? Are They Clearly Telling the Truth, Telling a Lie, or Are You Not Sure?
There are three options after you ask a question; Truth, Lie, or Doubt. If you think a person is being honest with you, pick Truth. If you think that someone is lying to you and you have a piece of evidence that can prove they’re not being honest, pick lie. If you think they’re lying but you can’t prove it, pick doubt. Pick doubt if you think they’re playing word games. While technically speaking the truth, if their wording is vague and elusive and you believe they’re trying to hold something back from you, doubt what they’re saying. You have to keep in mind the context however. If you’re talking to a potential murder suspect and they’re holding something back by all means call them on it. If they’re a victim however, listen to their words. ‘I don’t remember anything’ is a likely lie or doubt situation, but saying ‘I don’t want to remember’ or that they’re confused is likely a truthful statement even though they could be holding something back.
9. It’s Ok to Call Someone a Liar as Long as You Don’t Try to Prove It
If you’re not really certain that you have the right evidence to call someone a liar but your sure that they are lying, call them a liar anyway. Listen to what Cole says and what the other person says. In that dialogue is likely a clue as to what piece of evidence you need in order to catch them in a lie. If you realize that you don’t have what you need, don’t guess. If you haven’t picked up that piece of evidence to prove them a liar you can back out of the accusation without penalty in order to doubt them instead.
10. You Don’t Need to Fire Your Gun for It to Be Effective
Last, but certainly not least in my LA Noire tips. You are a police officer that is straight as an arrow. That means that you are not going to go around shooting random people. You not only don’t want to shoot innocent people, you also don’t want to shoot suspects either. What you as a police officer want is to interrogate them. If Cole pulls his gun out as he’s running after someone, it means that while you technically could shoot them, it’s much more effective to aim your weapon at them. A circle will slowly fill and when it’s completely solid you will fire your weapon into the air. Knowing that their life is now on the line, the suspect will surrender. On the other hand, if you are aiming your gun at someone and the circle doesn’t appear, it means they’re not going to go quietly. Take them down hard and fast.
References
Information and images from this game can all be found at the Rockstar Games website.
