I've Waited 16 Years for a Sequel to This Underrated Crime Game

There are no shortage of excellent games that deserve sequels, or even just remasters/remakes. However, cruel twists of fate have prevented some great gaming follow-ups from happening. Sometimes a game just doesn’t find its audience and fails to sell well, sometimes it actually sells decently, but the standards from the publisher were too high and they didn’t see a sequel as a smart business decision. There are all kinds of complicated and frustrating reasons why these things just don’t work out, something that gamers are likely totally used to. However, I’ve been holding out hope that maybe one day we’ll get some kind of sequel or successor to LA Noire.

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Even if you’ve never played it, you’re likely familiar with LA Noire. The game was developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games in 2011 after nearly a decade in development, something that wasn’t nearly as normal as it may be today. It followed the career of an up-and-coming cop named Cole Phelps in 1940s Los Angeles, working his way up the ladder from a patrolman to a homicide detective. It was unlike anything else and aimed to immerse players in this glitzy, yet shockingly grim version of Hollywood through detailed police investigations.

Unfortunately, despite solid reviews and decent sales, LA Noire never got any kind of follow-up despite claims from Take-Two and Rockstar that it was a “strong franchise” and they weren’t ruling out a sequel, even after Team Bondi shut down. Six years later, Rockstar eventually remastered LA Noire for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 in addition to a totally separate VR version. It seemed like Rockstar was maybe testing the waters for more LA Noire, but nothing came from it. I think the lack of any kind of follow-up is one of the greatest examples of unrealized potential in the gaming industry.

**Why LA Noire Would Work Better Now Than It Did in 2011**

LA Noire was a game that was way ahead of its time. It was developed and released as the industry was starting to make use of performance capture technology, but LA Noire was still ahead of the curve. One of the key mechanics of the game involved interrogating suspects and witnesses, prompting you to ask questions and read the subtleties of their facial expressions to determine whether or not they were telling the truth. To achieve the detail necessary for this to work, Team Bondi used a special technology developed by studio founder Brendan McNamara known as MotionScan.

The actor would sit in a chair surrounded by dozens of cameras and perform the scene perfectly still, only acting with their face. The cameras would then capture all of the details and then the developers would map it over the in-game character model. The actors would then act out the full body scenes in motion capture suits on a stage, with the developers combining the two performances after the fact.

Even at the time, Rockstar was apparently uncertain that this would work out and wanted to lean on the more traditional practices it used on its other titles. Alas, Team Bondi had its way and the results were… uncanny. It’s clear that the actors sometimes had to overemphasize expressions in order to get them to read clearly in the game, even resulting in memes and hilarious viral clips, but it was an interesting innovation for facial capture that showed potential.

Now, in 2025, facial capture is a very standard practice for most games. Actors wear GoPro-like cameras while they act out scenes, along with tracking dots to accurately capture the different parts of their faces. It’s a far less intrusive process than sitting in a chair, and the results are unbelievable. Simply look at a game like Death Stranding 2, the fidelity and detail captured is borderline life-like. Actors can just immerse themselves in the scene and their emotions, it doesn’t require so much legwork like it did when LA Noire was originally being developed.

The modern performance capture process feels tailor-made for a new take on LA Noire, and it’s crazy to me that no one has stepped up to the plate to take advantage of this. Not only would the game’s cinematic storytelling be elevated, but the gameplay potential of interrogations would be next-level.

**What an LA Noire Sequel Could Look Like**

So, hypothetically, what would an LA Noire sequel even look like? It can’t feature Cole Phelps because he meets an unfortunate and watery end at the end of LA Noire, but LA Noire isn’t what it is specifically because of Phelps. It’s about the detective fantasy in a fully interactive time capsule. To me, Rockstar would be wise to emulate the formula they have for GTA. New characters, new city, new story, the only thing that remains the same is the general style of gameplay. Jumping between different eras and cities would allow an LA Noire sequel the chance to explore famous crimes, utilize different styles of policework, and much more.

Imagine something like San Francisco Noire, a game set in the 60s where you tackle a bunch of different cases, but the central case revolves around a dangerous and terrifying new serial killer known as The Zodiac Killer. Rockstar loves to take inspiration from films, and using David Fincher’s Zodiac as a reference point would certainly lead to a really cool game. Or maybe NY Noire, a game that follows a New York City detective during the elevated crime in the 70s and 80s.

You could even go way back in the past and have a story set in the Prohibition era in a city like Chicago. There are endless opportunities for more detective games like LA Noire, but I think the key factor would be keeping it set in the past. Although a modern setting isn’t the worst idea, recreating a specific time period gives the game so much more charm and life. It’s like stepping through a time machine. Not only that, but modern technology also makes something like this mildly less interesting thanks to cell phones, mass surveillance, and more.

Could something like this happen after GTA 6? Maybe, but it feels somewhat unlikely. Rockstar’s strategy is unpredictable right now, but it feels more likely that they’d make something brand new from scratch after a decade and a half of sequels.

Instead, an LA Noire successor would likely have to come from another team entirely, but it’s hard to say anyone else would be willing to take on the significant financial investment to bring something like this to life. A report earlier this year suggested there was a cancelled Blade Runner game that could’ve fit this bill, but it won’t ever see the light of day. Perhaps one day we’ll get another AAA detective game like this, but it probably won’t be anytime soon.

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