L.A. Noire is Rockstar's best game to date, though it has some minor problems and runs out of steam long before the end.
GAMEPLAY - First off, I would say to not expect a GTA clone. Yes it is an open world game, but this game plays much more like Mafia 2 did. There is a main story that has a bunch of replayable missions, but the side stuff is kept to a minimum. Now let's talk about the meat of the game. This game is a tad on the repetitive side in what you do, but usually this is a good thing. You are given a case, you go to the scene of the crime, and you investigate from there. You look for clues, question witnesses, interrogate possible suspects, and have some (a lot) of chases both on foot and by car. All of this is great fun, even though the foot chases can sometimes be a pain, and they are very commonly seen here. Looking for clues is usually the slowest part of the game, but is oftentimes the easiest aspect about this game. Questioning and interrogating, on the other hand...well let's just say that it can be a little difficult. Almost frustrating at times. Early on it's very easy to figure out who's lying and who isn't, but by the time you get through the homicide portion of the game, you'll start to get stumped much more often by people's actions and words. Especially since some crimes are set up to be unsolvable, and you must convict one out of two suspects, usually, who are both innocent. I realize this is just to make the game more lifelike, but it's frustrating when you have to convict someone in a crime that is unsolvable based on all the evidence, or if you just can't solve a crime despite your best efforts.
Still though, the process of solving crimes is great fun, and one thing I will commend Rockstar for doing is allowing your partner to drive you places. There are still some things I'd like to see changed though. For example, movement is still pretty sluggish, and you are still able to steal cars from people despite being a cop. Combat could also use some improvement, both with hand-to-hand and gunfights. This was an aspect of the game that felt very shallow compared to Rockstar's past releases. A lot of these things are minor, however, and overall this is a great gaming experience that you won't get with anything else out there. - 9.5/10
STORY - You play as an army vet. by the name of Cole Phelps. You begin the game as a lowly police officer, but once the tutorials are over with, you begin your work as a detective. There are four main stages of the game, with homicide being the longest and most fun. I don't want to spoil any cases for you, but basically that's the big picture. The cases themselves can be very fun, because they almost have a Heavy Rain feel to them. Doing or not doing the slightest thing could result in a drastic change in the progression of the case. This definitely makes things interesting and creates replay value.
I mentioned earlier that Rockstar brought over a few annoyances that I had with Red Dead Redemption here in terms of the story, and I'll go into those now. The first is, this game almost feels like two games in one. Remember with Red Dead Redemption how you thought that the main story would be over 2 or 3 times, but it just amounted to being almost a sequel within the same story? That's how it felt here...even though it only happened the one time. The first part of the game you spend during traffic and homicide cases. I personally enjoyed these the most, especially since they incorporated the story of the Black Dahlia murderer in here. The second part of the game sees you being part of the arson department and vice. I personally just didn't enjoy the story here as much. It felt too corny at times, and I found myself missing the murder cases from working with homicide. Worse yet, I wanted the game to be over with long before it ultimately did end. Speaking of the ending, that's another thing that was brought over from Red Dead Redemption. Basically I just thought the ending in both that game and this one was a little unsatisfying. I figured out what was going on long before the end, and when it got to be that time, I just didn't care. And, this is a slight spoiler, so if you don't want to read it, just skip to the graphics section. Towards the end you end up playing as a different character from Cole, and the lack of focus on Cole just made me start to lose a lot of interest in what I was doing. Especially since the game became almost entirely too easy at that point. So yeah, there's good and bad here, unfortunately. It almost felt like Rockstar was trying to finish up this game in a limited amount of time, which is sad considering their reputation. Overall though, there were some great cases in here, and I wouldn't mind going back and trying to redo them and see if I can get different results. - 8.5/10
GRAPHICS - The graphics are also kind of a mixed bag. I'm sure everyone has heard about how Rockstar went about filming the animations by using actual actors playing out the characters and capturing their movements. While this was largely successful, I don't think it's something that is quite perfected yet. It's definitely something they should start using in other games though. But while the animations are great, the graphics themselves are a tad disappointing. This game doesn't really grip you like Red Dead Redemption or GTA 4 did when they came out. I know that graphics in games have kind of hit a proverbial ceiling these days, but my main problem is that the graphics just look really awkward when put with the animations. Basically what I mean by that is while the animations look life-like, the graphics don't. Put them together and it looks kind of funny. This is one of the reasons why the interrogations in this game can be so difficult, because even though you can tell the actor is trying to express themselves, it just doesn't come across well. I think the style of animation used here is great, but they definitely need to do something on the graphical side to keep up with that technology. - 8.5/10
SOUND - The sound is actually a little on the creepier side than I expected for this game. During settings where you're supposed to look for clues, these creepy tones will play in the background to let you know when you're near clues or if there are any clues at all. Aside from that, the music is fine, but nothing special. The soundtrack is a little shallow for this being a Rockstar game, but since you can skip to your destination, I didn't find this to be much of a problem. And of course, the voice acting in Rockstar's games is always top notch. The dialogue here was much more serious than it has been in their past games though. Laughs are few and far between, unfortunately. Still, you can't get much better here. - 9.5/10
LENGTH/REPLAY VALUE - Although a game like this would normally possess little to no replay value for me, I actually find myself wanting to play through again. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a game where you can't help but wonder what would have happened if you had gone with option B instead of option A. Or if you actually questioned the witnesses appropriately in order to close a case successfully. Stuff like this eats at the back of your mind, and makes you want to relive the story all over again. Length-wise, it's a little shorter than Red Dead Redemption was, sadly. Not as much to do either. Still, I had fun with it, and I think most will be happy with the length. Even though I wanted it to be over far earlier than when it did end, that was mostly because of the story. The gameplay was solid throughout. - 8/10
BOTTOM LINE - While L.A. Noire's story doesn't hold up throughout, it does have the great gameplay and the raunchy subjects that other companies won't touch. For those of you wanting another GTA, you might consider passing this one up. This is more for the Heavy Rain fan. I wouldn't necessarily say that this game progresses slowly, but it may not be something you can just sit down and plow right through. Honestly you'll probably have more fun with it if you space it out. And while there is a lack of side activities to do, this is still a game that I would consider buying once it gets to be cheaper. Being able to tackle the cases from different sides is worth that alone. So if you're thinking about getting this game, I would say it's worth it. Even at the $60 price tag, there are a lot worse things out there. But if you can rent it, you might do that first. It took me 2 or 3 days to get through the whole thing, but I wasn't doing much else. So yes, this game is definitely worth your time. As far as your money goes...well, I'll let you decide that. Personally though, had I pre-ordered this, I wouldn't have been unhappy with my decision. Despite the minor flaws this game has, L.A. Noire is a definite candidate for game of the year, and is, in my opinion, Rockstar's best work to date, by far. - 9/10