L.A. Noire



""In the Marine Corps, you deal with the chain of command. Mistakes get made, but you deal with 'em. You know what you're fighting for, that you're on the same team. But dealing with corruption is like chasing shadows; you never know whether the guy you're talking to is on the path, or whether it's your partner, or maybe even the Watch Commander. So who do you trust, Cole? I made up my mind a long time ago...""

L.A. Noire is a video game by Rockstar Games and Team Bondi, released on May 17, 2011 in North America and May 20 in Europe. You play as Cole Phelps, a By-The-Book Cop in 1947 Los Angeles, before the freeways and the Dodgers came over. You start out as a beat cop, slowly working your way up the ranks of the LAPD and investigating crimes that range from the lurid to the disgusting to the truly bizarre.

One of L.A. Noire's chief selling points is its use of innovative motion capture technology to digitize the actors' faces and expressions and put them into the game. Rather than serving as a gimmick, this is heavily incorporated into the gameplay; when you talk to people and engage in Perp Sweating, you have to read their facial expressions in order to detect unspoken emotional cues and figure out whether or not they're being honest with you, or if they're lying or hiding something.

"Cole:"
 * Actor Allusion: In "The Consul's Car", Valdez angrily calls Cole a madman. (The actor playing Cole stars in Mad Men.)
 * AKA-47: Averted with most of the guns, since they are long out of production, so the developers could use their real names freely.
 * Adventure Game: The game have been compared quite a lot to old-school adventure titles, especially Police Quest.
 * Alas, Poor Villain:
 * Alas, Poor Yorick: Cole quotes the line while holding a shrunken head prop.
 * Always Murder: Subverted. One of the most memorable Traffic cases has Cole and Bekowsky investigating a doping allegation
 * Subverted even earlier in
 * Played straight on the arson desk when a normally very boring and generally dismissed assignment suddenly becomes very exciting when
 * Anachronism Stew: For a game that seems to get everything else so perfect, it's kind of odd that they would put the Intolerance set in the game, which was demolished in 1919. Although this was admittedly intentional, as the creators stated they put it in for a bit of cinematic fun during the conclusion of one of the cases.
 * Another minor example: LA's famous palm trees would have only been at about head height in 1947. The developers intentionally made them taller because they thought it looked cooler.
 * Many of the vehicles and songs in the game are from 1948 or 1949, the most notable being the 1949 Chevrolet Styleline.
 * All the cars in the game have brake lights, a feature that wasn't commercially available until 1952.
 * The jazz pieces from the game's original score are done in a style that wasn't created until the mid-50s, but they just set the mood so well.
 * Also, the term "motherfucker" is used a few times, even though the term was not notably used until the mid-late-1950s.
 * In one case, there is a letter with a ZIP Code on it. ZIP Codes were not introduced until 1963.
 * In one of the Vice cases, gangster Bugsy Siegel is mentioned as if he was still alive, although in reality he was murdered on June 20, 1947, months before the Vice cases take place.
 * In other words, the game designers Did Do the Research, but the Rule of Cool made for a few cases of A Spot Of Weak Anachronism Broth On The Side.
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different: Three of the Arson cases have you playing as, an insurance investigator-turned-Special D.A. investigator and one of the members of
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Two of the preorder bonus rewards are suits, and signing up with Rockstars Social Network also nets Cole a flashy set of new clothes.
 * One of the other preorder bonuses is a small searchquest that gets you another suit.
 * Aside from Intuition Points and hidden vehicles, new suits are the main reward for gaining ranks.
 * Antagonist in Mourning:, but it's subverted since he's faking it.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Cole doesn't always list a suspect's crimes in ascending order of seriousness, leading to a sometimes exact invocation of this trope.


 * Artistic License Military: Marines don't call each other "soldier."
 * Asshole Victim: Everett Gage was a Mean Boss and an anti-Semite.
 * As You Know:
 * The Atoner: Cole, who joined the LAPD to right his past wrongs committed in the Pacific Theater of WW 2.
 * Author Existence Failure: On October 5, 2011, in the wake of an employee working conditions scandal and facing bankruptcy, Team Bondi closed its doors.
 * Bad Liar: Several, though never as much as we'd all like. Frank Morgan has to take the cake, however.
 * Not to mention Oswald Jacobs. He looks like he ate a whole lemon.
 * Badass Bystander: Jack Kelso.
 * Also several characters in the roadside missions. At least thrice, the victims (or some redshirt-clad cops, for that matter) turn on and sometimes even subdue the robbers before Phelps arrives. Once, a criminal's escape from Phelps is cut short when a random guy just punches him flat for running across his lawn. Also, debatably, secretary.
 * Bait and Switch: The flashbacks initially appear to set up  as  . He isn't.
 * Battle in the Rain: The final case.
 * Be as Unhelpful as Possible: But of course! Sorting through people's nonsense or knowing when they're holding out details on you is an important part of the gameplay. Truth in Television.
 * Berserk Button: Cole apparently has one that likely relates to, naturally, withholding evidence, or corruption. Although most of the time his tough stance during interrogations seems to be controlled, at one point he threatens to break a suspect's jaw in what sounds far from his typical controlled hard-nosed spiel.
 * Said case involved an underage girl being drugged and taken advantage of. It was made fairly clear throughout the case that he was disgusted by the events, which is true of most cops.
 * Cole seems to have one for people bad-mouthing his war buddies, as demonstrated when Roy.
 * Biggs finally snaps with the second incinerated family. He dealt with similar issues in World War I.
 * Captain Donnelly is the only one who can call Rusty by his real name without rebuke.
 * Earle really doesn't like Elsa speaking "German gibberish" in his presence.
 * When a witness admits that he didn't call in a murder of a woman because he was  Rusty's immediate reaction was to punch him in the face.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate:.
 * Big No: Cole starts shouting many of these when
 * Bilingual Bonus: Elsa calls Roy an Untersturmführer. Roy calls it "German gibberish", but in fact it is a hideous insult. Elsa is essentially calling him an "effing Nazi", specifically an officer of the SS.
 * A minor one with Hogeboom, as translated from Dutch it means 'High tree', a reference to Ira's large size.
 * "La" is both the common abbreviation for Los Angeles and the feminine French word for "the" while "noir" is the masculine French word for black. The developers added the extra E to Noire to make it grammatically correct by feminizing the noun.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Black and Gray Morality: In keeping with the Film Noir mood, no one character is completely devoid of his or her flaws. Not even Cole.
 * Bland-Name Product: Cola King. Averted with the cars, all of which go by their real life make and model. You can also spy other real products (such as Kellogs Corn Flakes) in various places.
 * Book Dumb - Most of the partners are undereducated, especially when compared to the Shakespeare-quoting, Shelley-reading Phelps.
 * By-The-Book Cop: Cole, but he is not afraid to bend the rules if the situation calls for it.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Phelps, in both his role as a Marine Lieutenant and as a police officer he uses both insistent terminology and a by-the-book procedure, refusing to go outside the law. However, in the former example he is a terribly ineffective commander, and the Marines only put up with him because he is their CO. He is however, an excellent police officer and as a result his partners put up with him despite their constant disagreements.
 * But Thou Must!: Even if you screw up every interview, run over a bunch of civilians, and reduce every vehicle you touch to a pile of flaming wreckage, you'll still solve the case and eventually get promoted.
 * Call Back: Remember  Yeah, they're gonna be important later on.
 * The Caper: The main story is partially driven by the theft of a large cache of military surplus supplies from a Navy ship by a group of former Marines. Cole becomes directly involved in solving a few minor ones throughout the game.
 * Casting Couch: "The Fallen Idol".
 * Chekhov's Gun:.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Reading the newspapers littered around the game unlocks cutscenes which reveal the actions of characters who will take prominent roles in the later cases.
 * It's revealed that, who appeared in one of the flashbacks, is the serial arsonist.
 * A minor yet literal example: Felix Navarro is the bus driver in "Manifest Destiny."
 * The Conspiracy:
 * Cool Car: Duh, it's the '40s!
 * Cool Old Guy: In spades. Fire Chief Lynch, Dr. Carruthers, and Captain Donnelly to name a few.
 * Cowboy Cop: Technically not a cop, but  as a special investigator for the D.A. otherwise fits the role.
 * Da Chief: Possibly several throughout the game as Phelps moves from desk to desk, optionally to the consternation of his superiors depending on the player's interest in collateral damage management in each case.
 * Deliberately Monochrome: If the player wishes to, the entire game can be experienced in full black and white mode to simulate the movies of the 1940s.
 * Detective Patsy:
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: When interrogating you don't get the musical cues for when ask a question. Because the man is legitimately insane and choice you pick will result in him responding the same.
 * Dirty Communists / Red Scare: It's the late 1940's, which means the Red Scare is starting, and many of the suspects you meet are left-leaning or anarchists, and treated like scum for that very reason. Joseph McCarthy's speeches can be heard on the radio as well.
 * Dirty Cop: Seemingly the entire LAPD, aside from Cole.
 * Dirty Old Man: 52-year old.
 * Also,
 * Disproportionate Retribution:  Why? Because
 * Deadpan Snarker: All of Cole's partners, if you're a reckless driver.
 * Cole also shows a snarky streak during interrogations, especially when he catches the perp smack in the middle of lying.
 * Roy Earle might take the prize for this. When, Earle's reply is a dry "Didn't see that coming".
 * Upon finding the factory-sealed soup cans full of marijuana at the stash house, Roy remarks, "I'd say that's pretty good value for twelve cents."
 * Defictionalization: Hey kids, you now can get your very own L.A. Noire notebook, now go get cracking on those cases!
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: The sexism and racism of the post-war era are highlighted.
 * As well as political oppression, namely of communists and anarchists.
 * Development Hell: Beyond the obvious fact that the game took over seven years to make, there's a literal example here. Team Bondi was by all accounts... a shitty place to work. Plus, studio head Brendan McNamara was charitably described as "a tyrant" by most of the workers.
 * It Got Worse when Team Bondi was liquidated. Most of their employees still haven't received their back pay.
 * Downloadable Content: A lot of it.
 * Note: If you have the complete edition you already have it all.
 * Fan Disservice: Some of the murder cases include naked women laying on the grass, but the rawness of the situation is less than appreciable.
 * Drives Like Crazy: The Player, potentially, and while pursuing fleeing suspects in vehicles, very probably.
 * Driven to Suicide: In one of the street cases, the crazy man who believes the government is attempting to mind-control him and wears a tin-foil hat to 'counteract' the mind control. Also, in The Naked City,
 * Drives Like Crazy: The Player, potentially, and while pursuing fleeing suspects in vehicles, very probably.
 * Driven to Suicide: In one of the street cases, the crazy man who believes the government is attempting to mind-control him and wears a tin-foil hat to 'counteract' the mind control. Also, in The Naked City,

"Rusty: I don't care if you were clocked in the head, Cole. You don't call me Finbarr."
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him:.
 * Drop-Dead Gorgeous: Averted with the naked female victims in the Homicide cases. Most of them have massive blunt force trauma on the head. Played straight by this promotional art, however (however no actual scene occurs in the game, although there is a street crime side mission where a female burglar crashes her car, though hardly as well-dressed).
 * Drugs Are Bad: Most Vice cases tout this. And not only are they bad, they're worse ; also averted to a degree during one conversation between Cole and Roy Earle in which Earle states that some amount of illegal drugs on the street is not necessarily a bad thing.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted. As Cole begins solving more crimes and getting promoted, he starts taking on more high profile cases, until.
 * Dummied Out: Reportedly, the game was originally so large that they had to cut out much of the content just to fit the core story cases onto three disks for the Xbox 360. This cut content is supposedly being released as the first batch of DLC. Just to give an idea, as of this writing, 4 Gigs worth of DLC have been released.
 * This is noticeable at several points, such as a throwaway line near the beginning of "A Marriage Made in Heaven" concerning a girl named Anna Rodriguez, which makes no sense unless you play the Play Station 3 version, where the case "The Consul's Car" is included. Also, "The Naked City" explains.
 * Further, looking at the case numbers in the official strategy guide, large gaps in the number sequence are noticeable. For instance, the Traffic cases skip from 1 to 3 to 5. Since "The Consul's Car" takes place between "The Driver's Seat" and "A Marriage Made in Heaven", its safe to assume that it's supposed to be Traffic Case #2. The Homicide desk is the only desk with a full case number sequence at the start.
 * The DLC only covers cases cut from the desks that actually made it into the game. The Burglary and "Bunko" (fraud) desks were cut entirely, and although the developers had hinted that the might complete them and release them as DLC, given Team Bondi's liquidation, this possibility now looks highly unlikely. The game hints towards this when you first switch from Traffic to Homicide, subtly by noting a 6 month gap between the two and explicitly when the chief informs the staff that Phelps was promoted from Burglary.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Every single partner you will have as a Detective, which also makes up a good chunk of the supporting cast, appear in the cutscene that preludes Cole's first case on the Traffic desk. His future Homicide partner, Rusty Galloway, is present in the first mission with his current partner at the time, Floyd Rose (who retires later, with Cole taking his place).
 * Cole meets a lush outside a bar while investigating a traffic case who claims to recognize him.
 * Embarrassing First Name: "Rusty" Galloway has one. It's Finbarr.

": You and your doofus partner, you have been warned. Cole: Thanks for your cooperation, Officer."
 * Every Car Is a Pinto: Semi-averted. Engines may catch fire after taking so much damage, but the only thing worse that you can do to a car is pop the wheels off or, during a chase, you can flip them. The part where you'll have to shoot the gasoline barrels in  and a few other missions played it straight, though.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Guess where it takes place and what genre it is!
 * Exposition Break: Averted, since the game hinges on detective work. Any valuable information you need, you have to find it yourself. The game really only takes control during the intro and closing cutscenes of each case.
 * Expy: Several from L.A. Confidential. Cole Phelps is Edmund Exley. Both are examples of the ambitious, Glory Hound and By-The-Book Cop who have frosty relationships with other detectives. Both rely on their war records (Phelps has a Silver Star and Exley a Distinguished Service Cross from World War II) but . Captain James Donnelly is Captain Dudley Smith: both of them are Irish Homicide Dicks who belief in administering "rough justice" to perps,  . Jack Vincennes and Roy Earle are both examples of a Corrupt Cop whom deal with the Hollywood scene, although Earle is a plain Jerkass and Vincennes is a rare sympathetic dirty Cop.
 * Fair Cop: Cole.
 * And Roy Earle. Even if he's a racist and a snake, he does have some nice suits!
 * Fallen Hero / Turncoat:
 * Femme Fatale: Fading middle-aged actress June Ballard qualifies. Julia Randall, the victim from "The Naked City", as well.  is a subversion as.
 * Film Noir: One of the main influences on the game. It's called L.A. Noire for a reason.
 * Five-Bad Band:
 * Big Bad -
 * The Dragon -
 * Evil Genius -
 * The Brute -
 * Dark Chick -
 * Sixth Ranger -
 * Five-Man Band: Formed in the last three Arson cases.
 * The Hero -
 * The Lancer -
 * The Big Guy -
 * The Smart Guy -
 * The Chick -
 * Flashed Badge Hijack: A common game mechanic.
 * Forgiveness: A subversion of sorts on Forgiveness Requires Death, as well..
 * Foreshadowing: When finds a flamethrower, pictures of his old unit, and maps of the Los Angeles tunnel system when tracking down the serial arsonist.
 * At the beginning of the hobo's interrogation in the fourth homicide case, Cole states that the hobo got his scars from a flamethrower during the war. He also mentioned that the big guys were given flamethrower duty during the war. Throughout the newspaper cutscenes we see the story of a rather large veteran . Guess what he did during the war.
 * Cole asks the watch commander about the marked map in the Traffic office, and learns about the freeway project that's still in the planning stages. The freeway construction.
 * During "A Slip of the Tongue", Cole mentions he likes blondes.
 * Inverted by
 * George Lucas Throwback: To classic film noir.
 * Glory Hound: Phelps gets accused of this, usually from sour cops thinking he has ulterior motives.
 * He was when he joined the Marines.
 * Going by the Matchbook: Used a number of times to find new locations. Inverted when the crime scene is a nightclub and irrelevant matchbooks are scattered throughout the location.
 * Golden Age of Hollywood: Near the tail end of it.
 * Guide Dang It: If you haven't been tracking down LA landmarks, solving the Black Dahlia killer's clues fall under this. You're supposed to use the map to solve them, but the only landmarks that show up are the ones that you've already found. Spend enough time randomly driving around LA during the mission and Phelps will eventually solve the clues himself.
 * Also, in lots of missions, going to some location or interrogating someone at the wrong time will mess up the mission structure, sometimes ending the mission before you got all the clues. This comes without warning and leaves you with lower scores for not guessing what order the developers had in mind.
 * The golden film reels are even worse, because they are often located in obscure locations like in the middle of train tunnels or random playgrounds. Without a guide you almost literally need to cover every street, back alley, and overland area of the game map to find everything.
 * Averted with regards to the "Complete Edition" version of the game, which includes the bonus levels previously released for download which, as a result, are not covered in the officially published game guide.
 * Hat Damage: Hats can still be shot in gunfights as in Red Dead Redemption, but they can now also be knocked off during fistfights.
 * There's even an achievement for managing to keep your hat on during a fistfight.
 * Headbutting Heroes: Cole and Kelso.
 * He Knows Too Much:
 * Heroic BSOD: Cole breaks down late in the game and suffers several of these.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hide Your Children: Played straight during general gameplay, insofar as children do not appear as regular pedestrians. Averted, though, with child characters appearing in cases. For example:
 * 15-year-old Jessica Hamilton, the  and attempted murder victim in "The Fallen Idol".
 * You also see Teresa Taraldsen's daughters in "The White Shoe Slaying".
 * In "A Polite Invitation" a  12-year-old girl is found in Benson's apartment.
 * And during the Arson cases a couple of families were burned inside their houses. This includes their children, with graphically detailed charred bodies.
 * Cole has two daughters, and you can see them.
 * In a variation, dog houses are seen throughout the neighborhoods but there are no dogs in the game.
 * Historical Domain Character: Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato. In a Shown Their Work moment, Phelps and Stompanato (a real-life veteran) talk about fighting on Okinawa.
 * Historical In-Joke:
 * There's also a joke about 3-D movies never catching on.
 * Homage: A conspiracy involving a burgeoning Los Angeles' infrastructure, ? The game pays heavy homage to Chinatown and The Two Jakes, and even uses a a Suspiciously Similar Song version of Chinatown's score during the incidental music. L.A. Confidential is also referenced.
 * Upon playing as, the offices of   bear some resemblance to the offices of.
 * Some parallels can also be drawn with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * A whole mess of homages to James Ellroy.
 * One of the apartment buildings lists an N Wolfe as one of its tenants.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight:
 * I Am One of Those, Too: During "The Naked City",  lies about having been in the 6th Marines at Okinawa to actual 6th Marine, Cole Phelps. Phelps is understandably unimpressed.
 * I Can't Reach It: Sometimes, combinations of evidence could prove someone to be lying, but the game only allows you to use one to make the accusation.
 * I Love the Dead: Implied with Ferdinand Jamison, who is found kissing a murder victim.
 * Ink Suit Actor: Everyone, due to the face-rendering technology used in the game.
 * Insufferable Genius: Grosvenor McCaffrey is a big one.
 * Insult Backfire: Couple of these.
 * I Can't Reach It: Sometimes, combinations of evidence could prove someone to be lying, but the game only allows you to use one to make the accusation.
 * I Love the Dead: Implied with Ferdinand Jamison, who is found kissing a murder victim.
 * Ink Suit Actor: Everyone, due to the face-rendering technology used in the game.
 * Insufferable Genius: Grosvenor McCaffrey is a big one.
 * Insult Backfire: Couple of these.

"Cole: Your vast corrupt future is draining away as we speak.
 * (laughs) I got better things to do than argue the rub with you."

"Bekowsky: That's ridiculous. You'd scare people out of the theater. Who in God's name would want that?"
 * Interface Spoiler: The second you open up your notebook on your first Traffic case, you'll see all the desk to which you'll eventually be assigned, in order. The descriptions for many of the achievements spoil the fact that
 * It Never Gets Any Easier: A visibly disturbed Cole says this word for word after shooting  at the end of "A Marriage Made in Heaven".
 * It Will Never Catch On: During the case "The Consul's Car", Phelps talks to Bekowsky about the U.S. Navy developing 3-D movies.

"*Head-On Collision* Partner: "Jesus, Cole!" Cole: "I know what I'm doing!""
 * Although the game is set prior to the advent of the first 3-D movie craze, which died out quickly, this is also likely a reference to the modern rise of next-generation 3-D movies.
 * Ivy League for Everyone: Phelps is a graduate of Stanford.
 * Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Surprisingly enough, there's only one usage of it during the game.
 * Jerkass: Vice Detective Roy Earle. SO much. In fact, Earle as a character is so hated that YouTube has loads of videos featuring people abusing the hell out of him via the righteous application of Car Fu. Of course, because he enjoys the special protection of Story-Driven Invulnerability/Gameplay Ally Immortality, actually managing to kill him results in a Nonstandard Game Over.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rusty Galloway comes across as brash and kind of a dick, constantly spouting misogynistic put-downs about many of the women he encounters. He also appears in some of the incidental dialogue to be a genuinely caring father, and he's remarkably tender with Michelle Moller when he and Cole have to tell her that her mother is dead.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Also,
 * There can potentially be a good number of them if you manage to let a few perpetrators go free.
 * The game deals with a Real Life Karma Houdini, the Black Dahlia murderer.
 * Kill It with Fire:  weapon of choice is a flamethrower.
 * gets to wield a flamethrower, which is Awesome but Impractical.
 * Killed Mid-Sentence: Hostage situations generally end like this, provided you don't miss. If the timing's right, it may also result in a Curse Cut Short.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Biggs and Kelso.
 * Knight Templar: Just before Cole does his first interrogation at the station, he's advised by the Homicide department's Captain James Donnelly that if he's struggling to get a confession just by questioning the suspect, it's OK to use a little violence. He is also far too happy to send criminals to the gas chamber.
 * Large Ham: Captain James Donnelly and Jermaine Jones, oh so much.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Many of the who steal military-grade morphine from a supply ship and begin selling it on the black market end up getting killed off by rival drug dealers.
 * Law of Conservation of Detail: Deliberately averted. Each crime scene has a number of props lying around that Cole can interact with, but do nothing to advance the case.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During Captain Donnelly's end-of-case congrats (or indeed his verbal beatdowns, depending on the outcome) he will occasionally glance to the camera, as though he were talking to the player.
 * Left Hanging: Two plot elements seem major but are never connected to the main storyline.
 * It's possible this is down to Rockstar's savage cutting down on the storyline to squeeze the game onto three discs.
 * Lifelines: A non-game show example. When talking to/interrogating people, you can use "intuition points" to eliminate one of the three questioning options (truth, doubt, or lie), or see what other players selected for that option, similar to the trope namer's "50/50" and "ask the audience" options.
 * Los Angeles
 * Made of Iron: Cole Phelps  have this through their Regenerating Health due to Gameplay Story Segregation.
 * Also applies to the vehicles, which unlike their GTA counterparts can't actually be blown up (though they can still lose their engines and, in a change, entire tires), and are generally tougher to disable. Justified because to make a car safe at the time, you'd need to build it like a tank.
 * Madness Mantra:
 * Magical Database: R&I is almost never without the ability to find answers for any questions about names, addresses, or histories that Cole asks, no matter how obscure. Even better, they can almost always produce an answer within seconds. This was Lampshaded when GameSpot had a retired LAPD Detective play the game to see if it was accurate - the real R&I obviously had business hours and couldn't be rung up at 2:30 AM, and often took hours or days to get back to you. And this was in the 1980's.
 * Meaningful Name: Looks like Mr Leitvol in fact was.
 * Mercy Kill:
 * Moment Killer: Cole Phelps is one in one of the street crime cases.
 * Moon Logic Puzzle: The Interrogations, in some instances.
 * Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Fontaine.
 * More Hero Than Thou:.
 * Name's the Same: Amusingly, this is the second major story-driven action game set in the 1940's/1950's era with a Big Bad named.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: During WWII, Phelps' men nicknamed him the "Shadow of Death".
 * Narrator All Along: . After the opening monologue, you don't even meet him or hear him speak until.
 * The Neidermeyer: Phelps is commonly seen as one by the Marines under his command.
 * And, in one of the flashbacks
 * Newsreel: Used to showcase an important story element regarding.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers do an excellent job of not talking about the real villain, . The trailers also make it seem like the Black Dahlia Killer/Stuart Ackerman is the main antagonist, and the cases are not shown to be split up into desks.
 * Never Found the Body:
 * Never My Fault: Averted for the most part, but played dead straight for all the wreckage the Player might cause while driving.
 * Never My Fault: Averted for the most part, but played dead straight for all the wreckage the Player might cause while driving.

"Cole: A fifteen year old girl told me how she was drugged and molested at a casting house, I found the chloral hydrate in your drinks cabinet. You give me something or I will break your fucking jaw, Hopgood!"
 * Nice Hat: Considering it's a piece of Noir fiction set in the 40's, just about everyone of importance sports one.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
 * Even more dramatically
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:  Thank you,.
 * Noble Bigot with a Badge: Detective Galloway's attitude towards women isn't exactly enlightened.
 * No Dead Body Poops: The coroner will refer to the "usual evacuation smell" while investigating one of the homicide victims' bodies.
 * No Export for You: A free Play Station 3-exclusive DLC Case isn't available outside North America, for the Xbox 360 or the Play Station 3.
 * Notice This: The piano key that plays whenever you approach a piece of evidence.
 * Not Me This Time: Herbert Chapman, a firebug, insists this when you meet up with him during the Arson desk.
 * Officer O'Hara: There are plenty of police officers with Irish surnames, but Capt. Donnelly of the Homicide Desk is Officer O'Hara gone retro. He has a thick (and catchy) Irish accent, calls Phelps "ludd" or "boyo", refers to criminals and the Japanese that Phelps fought against as "heathens", and calls the work at the homicide desk something along the lines of "God's work". Furthermore, he is fond of shouting and drinking on duty. Well, not that no one else is...
 * Off on a Technicality: Donnelly
 * Only a Flesh Wound:
 * Can also be said of Phelps as well when he takes obvious bullet damage during gunfights but appears to shrug it off.
 * Optional Traffic Laws: You will never get pulled over during the normal course of events, even though you're in a non-marked police car. This is justified if use a car with a siren though (plus, you are playing a cop, after all).
 * Particularly evident during the Jack Kelso cases, since the same applies and Kelso isn't even a cop!
 * Pedo Hunt: One of the Homicide cases has a paroled child sex offender as one of the prime suspects. Despite all of the evidence pointing to the victim's husband as the killer, your captain chews you out if you don't charge the pedophile, and it's impossible to get a perfect rating if you charge the husband. Rusty even lampshades it, saying that while the husband is no threat to anyone else, the pedophile is a constant threat to a local high school and they need to get him off the streets.
 * Perp Sweating: A key gameplay feature.
 * Police Procedural: Much of the game is focused on investigating crimes, and will require the player to collect evidence, interrogate suspects, and perform other police work.
 * Politically-Correct History: Mostly averted. Racism and double standards are prevalent, with special hatred directed towards the Japanese and Germans given the war still fresh in everyone's mind. However, Phelps seems to be a man out of his time - he treats women and black people far better then his compatriots, and reflects the attitude of the 21st Century. He also expresses deeper understanding of the Japanese in the war flashbacks.
 * Not to say that there weren't others who supported race/gender equality back then, but if they'd been too vocal about such progressive ideas at the time, they'd most likely have been labeled Communists by everyone else. Berkowski even calls Cole's belief in equality communistic, during some of the incidental conversations.
 * Post Climax Confrontation:
 * Precision F-Strike: Plenty of these later on in the game.
 * Even early on, Cole gets one during a profile of Hopgood during "The Fallen Idol" case, bringing up the evidence of chloral hydrate:
 * Even early on, Cole gets one during a profile of Hopgood during "The Fallen Idol" case, bringing up the evidence of chloral hydrate:

"Cole: "He was a better man than you'll ever know. You say one more thing about him and I WILL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!""
 * Cole has one when telling off Roy for speaking ill of the late.

"Kelso: You pick me up in front of my apartment like a common criminal and expect small talk? Fuck you."
 * Kelso pulls one when Cole has bought him to the police station for interrogation.


 * Preorder Bonuses: Ranging from suits that affect gameplay to additional cases, depending on who you bought the game from. Rockstar have said they'll eventually put these items up for sale on XBL and PSN, so players won't have to miss anything.
 * A "Complete Edition" of the game was released for Play Station 3 and other platforms in 2011, containing the bonus missions.
 * Private Eye Monologue: During the opening,.
 * Psycho for Hire:, and as usual for the Trope, he turns on his master.
 * Pun-Based Title: "La noire" is literally "The black" in French.
 * Specifically, how "noire" is the feminine spelling of the word. I see what you did there. Bondi...
 * R-Rated Opening: The first Homicide case immediately opens at the scene of a brutal murder, with the victim, a young, naked girl, sprawled on the street.
 * Real Estate Scam:.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: After is banished to the Arson desk. However...
 * Reassignment Backfire: ...this merely puts him on the trail of a serial arsonist and a deeper conspiracy behind it. Note:
 * Regenerating Health: As you take damage, the sound of a beating heart and a change from color to black and white on the screen will tell you to hide for a few seconds so Cole can shrug off his bullet wounds.
 * This also applies to Kelso though,.
 * Red Herring: Some of the clues you collect are never used to disprove a lie and there's also the bits of sometimes significant looking detritus you'll find at crime scenes.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Most of Cole's partners are red, and Cole himself is blue.
 * Redshirt Army: The LAPD Patrol Division.
 * Retirony: Averted with Biggs. He's close to retirement
 * Returning War Vet: Phelps and Kelso. Phelps does it of his own accord, Kelso is dragged into it.
 * Revolvers Are Just Better: Averted with Cole's 1911 and Jack's Browning Hi-Power. Played straight with all the partners.
 * Played straight in order to get the Roscoe and Friends achievement, during the patrol assignment "Armed and Dangerous," Cole has to drop the shotgun he automatically picks up and instead use his service revolver. It's the only time in the game he ever has the opportunity to use it.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The assault on.
 * Room Full of Crazy:
 * Rousing Speech:  gives one in the post-credits cutscene, declaring his ethics, an interesting contrast to   who wanted to prove his ethics, but still fell for a Femme Fatale and left his family.
 * Rule of Cool: Aside from all the previously mentioned examples of Anachronism Stew, it rains more often in the game than it does in actual LA, usually for dramatic purposes.
 * Saved From Development Hell: Trailers were running for this game for at least four years before its release, and judging from the increase in "Rockstarisms" in the later trailers, it underwent many design changes.
 * Scare Chord: The sound that plays upon getting an interrogation question wrong.
 * Scenery Porn/Real Place Background: Team Bondi has been able to create a very accurate representation of late 1940s Los Angeles, and it seems that the research and attention to detail has paid off.
 * Here's a fun Game Within a Game: Walk Phelps down some of the real-life streets in the game, and simultaneously have the Google Street View of the same locations up on your phone or laptop. Especially in some of the largely unchanged sections of town (e.g., Hollywood), it's actually rather alarming how much of the architecture is still standing, and how accurate the in-game models of those buildings are.
 * Although, strangely, the reproduction of the Chinese Theatre omits the famous celebrity cement imprints.
 * Semper Fi: Cole was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps before joining LAPD. Flashbacks are periodically shown involving his service. Many other important characters in the story are also Marine veterans.
 * Serial Killer:
 * Sharp-Dressed Man: Every character in the game; it's the 1940's. Some of the suits are particularly notable, such as Roy's pink and gray two-tone getup, and Mark Bishop's blood-red affair.
 * A number of different suits for Cole are unlocked as the game progresses, with several of them providing additional abilities.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cole and Biggs, to a degree.
 * Shout-Out: In one of the DLC missions, you run into a used car salesman who is a dead ringer for Foghorn Leghorn, talking like him and even directly quoting him at several points.
 * In one Arson Case, you can hear a bystander state that "If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
 * The man who is described as a "Boris Karloff type". When examining the, Cole muses that . The final mission is also a clear Shout-Out to The Third Man, which also ends with.
 * A few cases are named after famous noir films, such as The Black Caesar and The Naked City. Additionally, a DLC case is named after the (in)famous 1930s anti-drug film, Reefer Madness.
 * In the Vice case "The Set Up," you enter a hotel to find that your suspect, along with may other guests, have signed in under fake names. Among the people supposedly staying there are Shirley Temple, Orson Welles, and Winston Churchill
 * The offices of California Fire and Life look almost exactly like the offices of Walter Neff's insurance company in Double Indemnity.
 * Shown Their Work: Team Bondi used hundreds of photographs and maps of 1947 Los Angeles in order to perfectly re-create the city as it existed then. The first order of business? Getting rid of LA's freeway system.
 * According to this news article, Team Bondi used 180,000 photos to create the map for L.A. Noire.
 * Smug Snake: Too many to list.  tops the list, since
 * The Stinger: A final flashback after the credits reveals that
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge:
 * Story Breadcrumbs: The newspapers, and Cole's World War II Flashbacks.
 * Story Overwrite: No matter what car you're currently driving, it gets replaced by your current default police car during important scenes like chases.
 * Thousand Origami Cranes: The opening of a case shows a man in a dark room folding origami cranes amongst many others. Later on, Phelps makes reference to this particular legend when he sees the room.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: In addition to revealing the culprits of several cases, at least one trailer spoils
 * Trailers Always Lie: Some of the commercials and trailers make the game out to be more GTA in the 40s, rather than a slower narrative game in the vein of Heavy Rain.
 * True Crime: All of the criminal cases you investigate are based on real crimes that occurred in 1940s Los Angeles. Additionally, a few cases pit Phelps against notorious real-life L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen.
 * True Companions: The Sixth Marines.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Cole has a Type II relationship with most of his partners.
 * Waistcoat of Style: The last unlock-able outfit is exactly this, even allowing Cole to take more damage.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: In the very first tutorial mission, it is heavily implied that Detective Floyd Rose had something to do with the murder, and may have in fact framed the man who ultimately gets arrested for it. Aside from being told that he retires when Cole gets promoted to Homicide, this is never brought up again.
 * Unlike Cole's other partners, Ralph Dunn never shows up again after Cole's initial promotion.
 * In The Naked City, after, it's never shown what happens to his girlfriend, Heather, nor is there any mention of her.
 * The only SRF members are the D.A. and the editor of Los Angeles Times. . Your pick.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Arresting  during The Gas Man results in you being chewed out pretty badly: "How is it you can bring no less than three suspects in to the station and still manage to charge the wrong fucking guy?!"
 * Captain Donnelly will also voice his displeasure should you  at the end of The Golden Butterfly.
 * What the Hell, Player?: Your partners will know when you're screwing around with them - like driving off without them or being a bad driver.
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Admittedly, the sandbox is not quite as wide open as Rockstar's other games.
 * World War I: Biggs fought in it, and had a particularly disturbing encounter with German flamethrowers during the Battle of Belleau Wood.
 * World War II: Cole is a veteran of it (Okinawa), like most men his age.
 * Wham! Episode: "Manifest Destiny".
 * The newspapers would also count.
 * Wham! Line:
 * World of Buxom: applies to virtually every adult female character due to the way their bodies are animated. In-game this is only acknowledged in the downloaded level "Reefer Madness" (also available in the Complete Edition version) with the appearance of a buxom secretary who flirts with Phelps at the soup factory office (and who is portrayed by a Playboy model).
 * Would Hit a Girl: Roy Earle, misogynist and all around scumbag, smacks Elsa Lichtmann for talking back to him (while she's grieving, no less). Jack Kelso, in a more justified moment, punches out Miss Cansino after she shoots him in the arm.
 * strikes Elsa with a glass ball in an attempt to kill her.
 * Generally averted with regards to the suspects Cole encounters. Although he shoots dead many male suspects, he never lays a hand on any female suspects. A potential exception is in one of the optional street crime missions in which the option exists for Cole to shoot and kill a fleeing female burglar, but the case is failed if this happens.
 * X Meets Y: L.A. Confidential meets Chinatown meets Grand Theft Auto.
 * You are Number 1247: Cole Phelp's badge number, you'll hear it whenever he makes a phone call, which is a lot
 * Younger Than They Look: The 12 year old girl who shows up during one of the final cases has the same body model as two other teenage girls Phelps encountered before that, both of whom were other 15.
 * Your Cheating Heart:
 * You are Number 1247: Cole Phelp's badge number, you'll hear it whenever he makes a phone call, which is a lot
 * Younger Than They Look: The 12 year old girl who shows up during one of the final cases has the same body model as two other teenage girls Phelps encountered before that, both of whom were other 15.
 * Your Cheating Heart: