L.A. Noire has been a long time coming. With its genesis occurring on the PS2, with a subsequent upgrade in hardware once the next generation of consoles were released, this is a game that has been anticipated and on the tip of peoples tongues for quite some time. So the main question that will be on everyones minds at this point, inevitably, is: Is the wait worth it?

Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Holy crap, absolutely yes. Even longer answer? Keep reading.

For the one or two of you reading this review who might not have any idea what this game is about, I will give you a quick primer before we dive in. L.A. Noire is a detective thriller game that is set in 1947 Los Angeles. You play as Cole Phelps, a WWII veteran who received the silver star in the course of his duties. Phelps joins the LAPD after returning home to his wife and children, and the events of the game unfold from there.

The gameplay is broken up into three major disciplines: action, investigation and interrogation. Action is something that any fan of Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption will be familiar with: shoot-outs, high-speed chases, etc. Investigation involves Phelps and his partner walking around the scene of a crime, or the house of a person of interest perhaps, looking for clues to aid in the investigation. Interrogation is where the amazingly-detailed MotionScan technology, which was used to create super-realistic faces of all the characters, filming them doing their lines and translating them to 3D models for the game, really shines. In order to tell if that bum youre rousting is telling the truth or not, you need to look for clues. Presence or absence of eye contact when they provide an answer is very telling, as is any nervous habit, like scratching behind their ear or biting their fingernails. The most important part of the interrogation proceedings is being able to pick up on slight cues from the person youre interrogating.

Combining all three of these elements you come up with a game that just…. works. Its a beautiful mix of using your brain at a crime scene, using your brawn in a fist-fight, and using your cunning to outsmart a suspect and get a confession out of it. What you end up with here is the most unique gaming experience you have ever had to date, and likely it will be the only one of its kind that you will ever have. Im not sure if Team Bondi or Rockstar have thought about a sequel, but really I feel as though the only way well get this kind of experience again is if we get a direct sequel. So, that said, lets tackle some of the standard review criteria and see what we come up with.

The graphics of the game are jaw-dropping, even with some minor graphical glitches along the way. It goes without saying that the MotionScan technology that brought us the super-detailed and realistic faces of our characters is a huge pay-off for the narrative. I was initially worried that we would be delving a bit into the Uncanny Valley where the faces would look almost too realistic and therefore be alienating, but that simply was not the case. It was easy to get lost in the 1947 Los Angeles that was created, and that is largely due to the facial animation system in play here. The car models looks stunning (though I admit my bias towards classic cars), the buildings have a good amount of detail on them, and eveything seems to come together to present a great graphical package. One frustration that I had, however, was the tendency for assets to pop-in or take a while to load, and the frame-rate takes a hit every once in a while. This might be due to the fact that so much of the data is read from the disc, as my disc seems to spin a lot throughout the game. However these items are not nearly large enough to eclipse the feat of artistry that is the graphical presentation of L.A. Noire.

The audio composition, from music to sound effects to voice acting, is top-notch as is expected. The sultry jazz music, the fierce cracking and popping of firearms going off, and the engine roaring, tire-squealing action of taking a way-too-heavy car around a corner at speed all serve to immerse you all the more in the game universe. The voice acting deepens the experience all the more. It helps that you are seeing the face of the actors who are doing the voice-overs – heck, Im not sure I would even call it a voice over though… Basically youre watching their performance! I am personally a fan of jazz. Im not talking about Kenny G smooth jazz crap, but the real-deal, big-band swinging jazz. The soundtrack is pitch-perfect and serves to lay the best background audio canvas that I have experienced in a game for quite some time. All said, the audio direction in the game is definitely one of its strongest points.