L.A. Noire

First and foremost is the facial capture technology they used to record all the characters in the game. This of course makes the game stand out head and shoulders above other current games out there.  Having to really pay attention to all the facial expressions a person makes in order to guess whether they’re telling the truth or lying is a very clever and entertaining concept. Aside from the people in the game looking pretty realistic, the visuals and graphics are pretty kick ass as well. IMHO, the scenery is crisp and beautiful.

As to the actual game play, for me personally, I’m enjoying it. I’m really digging the detective work you have to do, trying to find all the clues and examining things, questioning people to get more information. There are main cases you work on, and then there are side quests that pop up as well. If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption, you’ll sense a familiar feel between the games when it comes to that (including the same type of mini map and full blown map, with blue dots/items showing up as friendly people and red ones as the people you should be chasing). There are also collectable things in the game, such as newspapers and hidden vehicles and items (there is a menu where you can view all the different models of cars you’ve driven in the game).

A lot of the time in the game will be driving around the city streets of Hollywood, driving to each different location to check up on clues and information you’ve gathered. And while in a police car, you will be able to respond to crimes that are in the nearby vicinity of where you’re driving (you don’t HAVE to take these side quests, but it is a good idea to, to help build your rank up).  When not driving to each different place, the other things you’ll be doing is looking at clues, interviewing people, and chasing bad guys (which will usually include shoot outs).

As a side note on the driving, I’m starting to get better at that.  You use the right trigger button with your finger the way you’d use your foot on a gas pedal. If you barely press down, the car will go slow. If you press down about half way and hold it there, you’ll go about 40mph or so, and if you press all the way down and keep it that way, you’ll be going about 75mph or there about. The main problem I was having was with the steering though (the left stick) I tend to move it too much, causing the car to swerve a lot =p lol. I’m getting better at that though. Also, if in a police car, you can choose to turn the siren on,  which will cause cars to stop for you and pedestrians to move out of the way, or you can leave it off and then you have to be more careful of your driving (or choose to be reckless and run into things).

For me personally, I love this game. I love the time period, the music, and the visuals. I was always a big fan of LA Confidential (hey, it has Kevin Spacey in it! But besides that, I just really enjoyed that movie for the same reasons, the time period and music, etc) and this game has a lot of similar things to that movie. So if you like that movie, if you like things dealing with the 40’s and 50’s, if you like the idea of being able to explore and try to find clues to help solve cases, then you’ll probably love this game. However, if all you want to do in a game is to just run around and shoot things, you should probably avoid this game. While there are times where you’ll be chasing bad guys and shooting at them, that’s not what this game is about. You don’t just run around shooting people whenever you want.

So, there’s my review! Hopefully, if you haven’t picked the game up yet, that will help you to determine whether you think you’d enjoy trying this title out or not.

You might like this game if you like:

40’s and 50’s time period stuff

Detective stories

Hunting for clues and solving things

Driving games

Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto

You might not like this game if:

You only enjoy FPS  or strategy games

And… that’s about it! LOL =p