L.A. Noire

I won't lie. I picked this game up due to the overwhelming hype surrounding it, and the track record of Rockstar. What I didn't expect was an experience as close to playing a movie as I've ever seen. A narrative full of characters that talked and acted like real people, and a hero that is flawed in realistic ways. Team Bondi put a lot of work in getting everything to look and feel as authentic as possible, and it shows. I've played through this twice now, nearly two years apart, and been completely and totally engrossed by the story and the amazing facial motion-capture technique that just adds an extra dimension to the characters you'll come across during it's very long running time.

Some comments have been made about the extended cutscenes and what can be viewed as tedious and repetitive gameplay, but I had no problem with either of these aspects of the game, as the plot completely sucked me in.

Make no mistake about it, this is a very mature tale that features brutal crime scenes, language, and violence, all of which are handled very matter-of-factly. There was never a point where I felt these things were over-the-top, however, but, rather, I felt these aspects added to the realism. Along with this, the whole city of Los Angeles in the 1940's has been lovingly recreated, from the buildings and locations, to the vehicles, fashions, and entertainment of that era.

If I were to pick anything that I had issues with, it was the noticeable lack of side missions or random events. Given the attention to detail that went in to creating the city, I would have thought the development team could have found more creative things to do within it. There are crimes outside of the main narrative that you can respond to that gain you extra "intuition" points to be used during questioning or clue hunting, but not nearly as many or nearly as diverse as there should have been. Also, this is more than likely a game you won't be turning around and playing again immediately after finishing it. It's probably something that's best revisited maybe every year or two.

Overall, I found this to be a stunning and eye-opening look at what games can look and feel like. If this is any indication of what we can expect in the future, I, for one, can't wait to see what's around the corner.