The main story campaign is largely linear and mission-based, but the open world every chapter takes place in can be freely explored at almost any time, with various collectibles and side missions scattered throughout for these, the game additionally includes a free-roam mode, The Streets of L.A., which has no mandatory objectives to follow.

Supplementary modes of play include driving, shooting and hand-to-hand combat, but the bulk of the game is comprised of investigation, which can require combing through crime scenes, following leads, solving puzzles or tailing suspects, and the signature interrogation mechanic, for which the game's proprietary MotionScan facial animation technology was developed, which allows the player to read each character's exact expressions when attempting to deduce the veracity of their statements. By finishing cases, Phelps rises through the ranks of the LAPD, from a regular patrol officer all the way to a widely respected Vice detective. You play as Cole Phelps, a US Marine returning from World War II, solving crimes as a policeman in Los Angeles. Noire is similar to that of other crime-based adventure and third-person action games. The post-war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference history and detective films of the time, such as corruption and veteran trauma, accompanied by a classical jazz soundtrack. The game uses a distinctive coloring style, as well as including the choice of a grayscale filter, in homage to traditional film noir. As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir - stylistic films from the 1940s and 1950s that shared similar visual styles and themes including crime, sex, and moral ambiguity, often shot in black-and-white with high-contrast lighting and dark shadows.

Noire is set in a near-perfectly recreated 8 square miles of Los Angeles circa 1947.

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