L.A. Noire Impressions PS3

Any title by Rockstar excites the gamers.With GTA and Max Payne on their resume it's not hard to predict why.When L.A. Noire was announced, many thought that L.A. Noire would have a similar effect like Red Dead Redemption - Game of the year 2010 - in 2011.Although the game looks like a sandbox action adventure like Mafia, Red Dead Redemption or GTA, it's safe to say L.A. Noire is quite different than them and unique in some ways.

The game developers love to chat about their game before they are released. They proudly talk about how great the story would be, how great the graphics and the gameplay would be. Normally what we see when we get our hands on is quite different than the developers claim. About L.A. Noire, before getting our hands on, the game was dubbed as another GTA where you control the cops this time and make several crime investigation. However, L.A. Noire is more similar to Heavy Rain than it is to GTA.

First of all the game is not sandbox. It might be called "semi sandbox" - it's a term that I came up with- perhaps. Sure you can roam around the city of L.A. but there are not enough attractions. There are only a few things that you can do such as finding hidden cars, interfering street crimes and discovering new locations. So mostly, you keep track on the main plot and figure out how to solve crimes one by one and getting promoted in the process.

And yes, investigation and interrogation are the most important aspects of the game. The combat is minimal and composed of high rate of chasing criminals and low rate of having a shooutout with them. That might disappoint some how expected to see more action. But it is the reason why I would compare this game to Heavy Rain than to compare it with GTA

So What's good, what's bad at L.A. Noire ?

***** Facial animations are awesome ! It is one of the best we have seen so far if not the best. Also interestingly - i say interestingly because that doesn't happen often - L.A. Noire is a game that is designed on a strong technical aspect - facial animations - . If it wasn't that good, interrogation part would be completely useless. It is interesting because normally the game is built on different aspects and technical side is just a polish for them, not the case with L.A. Noire though.

*** Interrogations are fun because it's almost real - the facial animations again and the voice acting also - but
--- They are short. You only have 2 or 3 questions to ask to a person in a interrogation at average. I wish it was more.

*** Investigation is fun but..
--- Crime solving is not.. Because it is scripted. I wish we had a chance to fail in a case. What I mean by fail is not dying in a shooutout. What I mean is, accusing a wrong person and sending him to jail.

--- Also I wish we had a chance to explain WHO made the crime WITH WHAT and WHY at the end of each cases. Since we can not do such thing, it feels like we are playing a game that is scripted heavily and we are gonna solve the crimes no matter what which could also mean ;

--- The game is easy. Too easy for hardcore gamers actually. But why we like this game so much ?

Because it is fun to play and it is a type of game that we don't have often and also we love to solve the crimes, investigate the crime scenes and etc. It's great to play as a cop, or as a detective and the city looks good even though there are not many attractions it still feels great to go up and down in the city of angels.

I would rate L.A. Noire as 8 out of 10 and as another solid game by Rockstar.

Game of the year ? Not likely. Maybe not even a candidate for it. But it's still unique in some ways - facial animations are incredible - and the story is quite engaging, making L.A. Noire to have at least a look at the game for any gamer.