Ever think you would make a good detective? LA Noire takes the Grad Theft Auto sandbox experience and puts you on the other side of the conflict as Cole Phelps; former marine, current detective and ass kicker. Team Bondi utilizes the Havok Engine as well as an in-house one to create the fantastic facial animations throughout the game. The setting is immersive; cruising down Main St. in 1940’s Los Angeles with sirens blaring at top speeds gives me quite the “thrill.” Grab your smokes and hat; we’ve got a case to crack!
The Game Toker takes on the role of Cole Phelps, a boy in blue trying to make a name for himself on the force, while struggling with a family and 
dealing with a seemingly haunting past from World War II. After solving a case you are promoted to Detective! As a Detective you are assigned a partner, a car and a hat. With your snazzy as fuck fedora, you get to rub shoulders with movie star...wannabes and get to interrogate little girls who may have been raped, not much has changed with cops I guess. You will be working your way to different desks starting with traffic. I will be honest right now, I did not finish the game, I just couldn’t stay interested. I made it to the Vice Desk and put down the controller soon after.
LA Noire’s game play is kind of bland in this reviewer’s opinion. Lacking the freestyle of raising hell and gunning down civvies hurt the enjoyment for me. Without the openness of actions like in
other sandboxes the game boils down to: asking questions, running after a suspect, walking around looking for clues. On the flipside, questioning and interrogating people in this game is amazing I have to say, the facial animations are unparalleled, though it gets repetitive and easy once you can point out the tells of the unlucky individual across from you. The saving grace here is I have high hopes *snicker* that the face engine will be used in the next GTA installment (you know there will be another one.)
I might just be me, but I can only seem to enjoy a detective experience when a cape and cowl are 
involved. LA Noire lacked in gunplay and action, should have had a bit more to keep that genre exciting. Team Bondi has set the bar with face animations and storytelling with LA Noire, too bad the story couldn’t hold my attention. LA Noire is a good game by all means, but not one that catered to my tastes, I will have to give this classy title…
6/8’s
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