9 Video Game Plotlines You Didn't Realise Were Based On True Stories

7. L.A. Noire

Persona 5
Rockstar

The game: Formerly a member of the USMC and eager to get back to work following the conclusion of Wold War II, Cole Phelps takes up a domestic career in the LAPD, rapidly rising through the ranks of beat cop to homicide detective in a 1940s rendition of the City of Angels drenched in film noir thematics.

Lauded for enabling a realistic approach to crime-solving thanks to cutting-edge motion capture tech MotionScan, both the interrogation and crime scene investigation segments forming the core of L.A. Noire's gameplay made every case put on Phelps' desk feel chillingly realistic.

The inspiration: Cole Phelps may have been conjured from the imagination of Team Bondi, but almost every case file left on his desk was the result of meticulous research into real-life crimes of the period by the developer.

The memorable "Red Lipstick Murder" case, for example, drew inspiration from the murder of 45-year-old army veteran Jeanne French in 1947, whose bruised, naked body was discovered with messages written in lipstick scrawled all over her corpse.

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Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.