

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.
