An L.A. Noire sequel called Wh*** of the Orient was cancelled in 2015. But according to leakers, the team behind it might be gearing up to try again with a sequel to this unique masterpiece.
Okay gang, we're going to be upfront: this leak comes from 4chan. That means it could be nonsense, but not necessarily. Some of the biggest leaks in the history of the industry have emerged on 4chan; the anonymous nature of the site makes it the platform of choice for leakers from all walks of life. And add to this, an L.A. Noire sequel has already been in development once, so this could well be true.
We'll go through the original L.A. Noire sequel first, because that's a great little story in itself, and then we'll go through the details from this recent leak.
The First L.A. Noire Sequel
An L.A. Noire sequel has already been attempted once, and we kid you not, it was called the Wh*** of the Orient. At the time, the dev team were looking for partnerships to continue the project, but they had been accused of unethical work practices and failed to find support. They were working on the game until 2016 when it was officially cancelled.
The game was supposed to be a prequel that would see us working for the Shanghai police force in 1936. Labor movements would feature heavily, as would the Kuomintang trying to put them down. Exciting stuff, huh?
The L.A. Noire Sequel currently in development
According to a now-expired 4chan leak from January 19, 2022, development is underway for an L.A. Noire sequel. The sequel is apparently following the blueprint of the failed Wh*** of the Orient project. The nature of 4chan means that threads expire once new ones replace them, but we saved the core info from the OPs replies:
- “You get to shoot enemies. Not civilians though.”
- The game will be set in 1936
- It will take place in Shanghai
- “[It's] not a prequel, it's more of a spiritual successor. The cast is completely new.”
- “The game uses the same formula of crime solving. Also, there's an updated version of the face scan technology being used."
- “The protagonist is a white male in his 30s.”
We'll keep you posted if we hear more about this. It's an exciting prospect and would be relatively cheap for Rockstar to develop, but they may simply focus all efforts on GTA in the future. At least Red Dead will be getting a next-gen update.