We've been playing a lot of LA Noire, and it's good... but it's level of violent detail and challenging social mores deserve more than an MA15 rating.
We’re finding LA Noire to be a very... challenging game.
There are many reasons for this, and despite a range of misgivings, we’re nonetheless looking forward to our next sit-down with this sprawling crime epic. However, the game’s focus on violent crime and seedy goings on proves one thing without a doubt.
Our ratings system really needs an R18+ classification, and LA Noire should get that rating.
We’re not calling for the game to be banned, of course. We’d be gutting to see Team Bondi’s excellent effort refused classification in its country of birth. But there’s no doubting that the game is intensely mature, both in its depiction and exploration of violence, and in the attitudes and casual foibles of many of its characters.
Case details One of the key features of the game is the investigation of various crime scenes. Not only are you called upon to examine clues and evidence such as discarded jewellery or matchbooks, but you’ll also need to look closely at the victims of what are often very violent crimes.
In particular, many of homicide cases feature naked female corpses, beaten or strangled to death. Kneeling over these victims – digital, to be sure, but rendered in incredible detail, down to pubic hair and life-like wounds – you must focus on injuries, signs of violence like rings torn from now broken fingers, and even evidence of sexual transgressions. The coroner will often then deliver a report on the presence or lack thereof of semen in the victim’s orifices.
It’s detailed, gruesome stuff.
Sure, the average episode of CSI or any other procedural drama features much the same, but we’ve often heard the Australian Classification Board talk about how watching an act is one thing, but interacting with it is far more impactful. That was the Board’s argument with the drug-taking in Fallout 3, for instance.
We’d be inclined to agree with regards to LA Noire, as well. You may not be the one participating in the violence, but your role in investigating it is nonetheless harrowing. Slapping an MA15 rating on the game obfuscates the true nature of some of the game’s content.
Sexual politics It’s bad enough that women in LA Noire are relegated to the roll of either victim or conniving criminal (though it can argued that that’s ‘merely’ a noir trope), but added to that are some remarkably poor attitudes.
We do get that this game’s aiming to be as much a historical document and interactive drama as a game, and we don’t fault that, but again, a working ratings system should be able to address that. Two characters in particular come to mind, and you end up partnering with them both. Rusty Galloway’s a lawman of the old school, prone to drinking on the job and possessed of the belief that if a woman talks back... she deserves what’s coming to her. Roy Earle is your partner when you transfer onto the vice desk, and an early encounter with him depicts a cruel streak when he backhands a torch singer at an LA nightclub.
The game’s protagonist Detective Phelps, barely bats an eyelid.
The deep-set misogyny and casual violence against women in the game is difficult to take at times. It’s a product of the period, to be sure, but making Phelps a silent witness is problematic. That said, challenge is good, and good media should challenge the consumer – but is it a challenge we want to be putting before 15 year old gamers? And, let’s be honest – when was the last time you saw anyone stopped from buying a game because they were too young anyway? There’s every chance that far younger gamers are being exposed to this very adult game, thanks to either lax sales practices or inattentive parents.
And we feel that’s a very serious issue.
Rate, don’t ban It’s worth re-iterating: we’re glad to see gaming reach this level of maturity. LA Noire may make some mis-steps, but gaming is richer for the effort Team Bondi and RockStar’s gone to to make this game what it is. This isn’t like playing a game; it’s like being inside a James Ellroy novel, and we salute Team Bondi’s dedication to an Ellroy-like sense of seedy despair and gritty noir.
However, much like you don’t want a child reading Ellroy’s depictions of sleaze and the worst of human behaviour, you really don’t want one actually taking part in that kind of world. A working classification system would be able to manage that, or at least provide proper guidelines for store employees and parents.
But, sadly, we don’t have a working classification system. Even RockStar’s own LA Noire site features an age-gate that won’t let anyone under 18 into the site... it seems even the game’s publisher gets it.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012