LA Noire Day#6: Always the Husband?

Long time away between conferences and post-conference work catch-up, but here’s my next day with LA Noire. It’s getting a bit routine frankly. It’s another murder case, and it’s more of the same in terms of things to do. The narrative isn’t bad, but the gameplay is getting quite redundant between the evidence search and the interrogations. It’s interesting enough to keep me going, but I really hope the game twists things up a bit soon. Oh, and not abusing women anymore would help too.

So my next case is The Silk Stocking Murder. It starts with a CS in a diner with the Captain and Finnbar (my partner’s first name). A hispanic woman was killed at city hall in the same style as the previous cases.  Phelps implies that the Muller case was weak, but the Captain is happy with that evidence and wants them to catch another criminal, saying you win some and lose some in police work. They CS leave, and I take control to drive to the crime scene with only one serious accident this time. A cop CS takes us through to the body. The coroner is there and he’s disgusted. He waited for us before he checked the body. I get control and examine the body. She’s been cut up, and she’s only 21. There’s another missing wedding ring, but there’s a library card in her hand. My partner thinks this is a copycat, but phleps doesn’t believe it. I find lipstick and they say they are going to investigate it CS. I also find the stocking used in the strangulation. I follow blood trail, and find a hat owned by an Antonia (the same name as the library card). Continuing to follow the trail, I find a shoe, a house key with the number 5, a sheet with the number 2 5 3, and as I follow the trail to a roof, a Macdonado letter,  precious objects and the ring, and finally a brush that was used to paint the blood trail and the victim’s full name. That gets me the address, and I decide to go there. The blood trail was kind of new, but ultimately it was just more searching for hotspots.

I drive to the address, and it’s a boarding house. A woman answers door, and the detectives CS ask her about the girl and she invites them in. She tells them where the victim’s room is. I get control to go there,  and there’s a smashed window. I find a letter with husband’s address as well as a picture of the victim with a charm bracelet. Heading back downstairs, I rock the questioning with the woman with two called lies and a doubt to learn that the victim’s husband was a bastard and that she was drinking at El Dorado bar. I go to the bar first, and ah, the game fucking froze on the drive. Nice. At least I start back at the drive to the bar. My partner admits he doesn’t want to see a connection in the cases (even though Phelps does) because there are perfectly good suspects for the previous cases behind bars. I get to the El Dorado. They CS go inside and talk to the bartender. CS the bartender knew the victim because she was so drunk. He says she left a letter that was a divorce paper. I get control to question him correctly and find out that she went to a fruit stand to call a cab. I go to the fruit market and it’s shut right now. I’ll have to come back and boy does that cue to me that the fruit stand is going to be important.

Lacking other options, I go to the Maldonado residence. I find the husband’s apartment on the mailboxes, and I walk up to the floor. We cut to a CS as my partner kicks the door in and eventually the detectives get into a fist fight with the two guys inside after one of them jumps my partner. It’s a slightly harder fight, but I win. Phelps CS cuffs him and questions him about his wife. He seems genuinely surprised. I get control to search the apartment and I find wine from the fruit market and a bloodied shirt on the wall. I step back into the hallway to look for neighbors at my partner’s suggestion. One neighbor sleeps nights and didn’t hear anything. Another neighbor jumps out with a scary mask to startle us,  but he just put kids to the bed the night of the murder. The last neighbor heard them fight and leave, but did see Angel (the husband) come back that night. I start to check the fire escape in back, and DISC RESETS. Sigh. I restart and have to replay the apartment scene, but when I get back to the fire escape,  I guess I’m done as there’s nothing else to find here. As I’m leaving, I get a broadcast to go back to station to see the Captain, and lacking anything better to do, I do so. When I arrive, there’s CS of the captain in the basement and Phelps CS meets Finisbrown (sp?). They reveal that they found a letter and a handtyped poem. There’s a message from Henry Case on the collaged letter, and Phelps identifies the poem is a Shelley one. They all think it’s a dahlia thing, and ask Phelps to keep quiet about it. The captain then says he wants Phelps to interview the husband. Left with nothing to do, I decide to follow orders.

I interview Angel and, when I catch him in a lie,  he reveals he saw his wife jump into a Ford Coupe. I use an intuition because I don’t know whether his statement is a lie or doubt but I get it. My correct answer reveals that he’s innocent. He fought with his brother which explains the blood. He slapped his wife, but that’s it. With nothing left, I decide to try the fruit stand again. On the way, I take a side mission:  “Honey Boy”. When I arrive, there’s a CS of wife talking to guy in house and he’s shooting out at her. I have to subdue him. I get control, and run in the house, but get shot and killed. The second time, I try to disarm him and mmm… I shot his arm twice and for some reason, that killed him. Whatever, the mission was successful. I drive back to the bar first, and I find a couple more clues but nothing important. The fruit market is now open, so I go there. I talk to the owner, Clem Feeney. I miss one question in my interview because the lie I pick doesn’t prove what I want but I get him to verify the car that drove the victim around. We search the market and find the victim’s jewelry and a bloody knife. In CS, Clem runs to a car, and I have to beat him in a car chase. I fail once (oh do I HATE driving in Rockstar), but then catch him the second time by ramming him off the road. Phelps CS get Clem out of the car, and we then cut to a new CS of the Captain congratulating the detectives in the fruit market before he sneaks off with some booze. Game end gives me 17/17 clues and 12/13 questions, terrible damages on the city and a weird, nonsensical tip.

Case finished, we cut to a flashback. Soldiers are marching and talking about Phelps as though he were a shadow because he’s always on them They don’t like him, not the least reason because he showed sympathy for the Japanese. The next case is The White Shoe Slaying. A bus lets off a drunk woman as a guy in the shadows watches her. We cut to a CS of the Captain talking to group complementing Galloway (my partner) and Phelps on their last success before giving them the new case. Having had enough violence against women for one session, I call it a night.