Oline Cogdill

I never got into the video game kick.

altThat's just as well because I'm really bad at video games as I discovered during the few games of Wii with my godchildren. Oh yes, I've have lost big time to a 12-year-old, an 8-year-old and the 6-year-old. So instead of video games, I spend more time than I should on Facebook.

But I am most intrigued with L.A. Noire, the new game released by Rockstar. Since I have not played the game -- yet -- this is not a review of L.A. Noire but rather my thoughts on why this seems like a game players of any age can relate.

L.A. Noire melds a classic mystery with social issues without, as the articles I read indicated, being heavy-handed.

L.A. Noire is definitely a game but you also don't get lost in the need to blow up things as with many video games.

L.A. Noire is set in early 1947, just before the horrible murder of actress Elizabeth Short was found. The still unsolved murder became known as the Black Dahlia because of the flower that Short often wore tucked behind an ear.

altThe game's main character is Cole Phelps, a L.A. police detective who was a decorated Marine during World War II. (At left is a scene from the game.)

In L.A. Noire, players follow Phelps through each aspect of police work, including other murders that occured just after the Black Dahlia.

Cole constantly fights his own demons as he tries to adjust from the violence of WWII to civilian life and police work.

Video games seldom show the post-traumatic stress of war veterans. The problems of WWII veterans especially were never really given a platform by society as were those by Vietnam vets and those who served in the Gulf wars.

The members of the Greatest Generation were expected to come back home, get married and get to work. There wasn't a lot of opportunity or concern about what these young men had gone through during the trenches of WWII.

Perhaps the only medium that illustrated WWII veterans' problems were the noir films.

The Blue Dahlia, released in 1946, was about an ex-bomber pilot suspected of murdering his unfaithful wife. It starred Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake; the script is credited to Raymond Chandler. Gun Crazy (1950) revolved around a former WWII marksman whose criminal tendencies are released by his new girlfriend. Gun Crazy also is presented as part of a film noir package. (I'll have more of these movies in a future blog.)

But to have a video game that is decidedly 21st century acknowledge these problems and honor WWII veterans is pretty amazing.

Perhaps L.A. Noire also will draw its players to the mystery fiction genre. It might even attract readers to play video games.

la-noire-video-game
1946