Everything it was said to be, and more. Best game of 2011, so far!
The story is truly immersive and I got hooked instantly, I felt like a real cop the 40s Los Angeles and I wanted nothing else but to stay there and feel the essence of it all and explore the vast and beautiful city. It's really big and very detailed. Worth to mention though is that me personally just love the 40s and 50s and especially America at that time. Everything from the clothes to the music, so it wasen't that strange that I immediately got in to it. It was also something that I had expected in advance.
The acting is amazing, especially in the later portions of the game, as you sit and watch the cut scenes and when you're interviewing people you know this game is something really special, the face animations looks great and there isn't that much to complain about, but the eyes and lips sometimes look abit weird.
The game play starts in a very low pace and when you play you might wonder when things will start to heat up. The story doesn't really call for it to do and it wasen't like I was disappointed about it either. There were nearly no action throughout, but everything from investigating crime scenes to questioning suspects kept you on your heels at all time and it felt more and more intense the higher you climb through the departments different desks.
I finished the story in about 21 hours and 1 hour of that was pure shooting, so as I said it's really not that action packed, but when you are in fire fights the game play is smooth and immersive.
If you expected it to be anything like the GTA series, you're wrong. Yes, you can go anywhere you want and solve the case as you like, going to whatever places you have in your notebook and investigate. But the game doesn't allow you to go on a rampage around town. If you crash cars and are generally insane in the traffic, it's going to show in the case report at the end of each case, where you get penalty founds for car damage, city damage etc. So keep a sane mind in traffic. If you can't, let your partner do the driving. Also you can't even draw your gun if the situation doesn't call for it. This is something I wasen't bothered about at all and I thought it was the right approach.
The game is named L.A. Noire and as the title reveal it draws inspiration from noir movies from the 40s and 50s. I really didn't catch the the essence of being in a noir movie even though it was spot on with almost everything a noir movie has to offer. The big white texts in the beginning of all cases, the deep shadows, the music was spot on, a dangerous and seductive women, a cynical and dark world of foul play and murder but still I did not catch the feeling, maybe because I was so into being Cole Phelps and apart of the world rather than a bystander.
Plus:
Amazing and immersive story, great storytelling
Stunning cut scenes
Great graphics
Fantastic atmosphere
Brilliant sound
Great acting and facial animations
Minus:
Some draw distance graphic bugs
Missing that true "noir feeling" (Solution for this, maybe to play in black & white which is a possibility)