Los Angeles, 1947.  On the surface, the City of Angels appears like its name sake; quiet, peaceful, prosperous. Beneath that surface is deceit, corruption, lust, and envy.

Enter Cole Phelps, decorated World War II veteran and newly minted cop on the streets. A man of truth and integrity, he is a shining light against the darkness that is the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. You follow Cole as he tries to get to the bottom of the evil that is mankind, all the while trying to solve mysteries and keep the streets of L.A safe for its citizens.

L.A Noire is not your typical game. It’s not action packed (granted there are scenes where it becomes so), but rather a more slow and meticulously paced game. You’ll mostly collect clues and question suspects. Of the two, the latter is much more intriguing. When you talk to persons of interest, you ask them questions. After their response, you must decide how credible this answer is. You can either believe them, think they’re lying (and use evidence to prove it), or you can accuse them of withholding information. The key to figuring this out is to pay attention to the suspect.

Typically, someone who’s lying or not telling everything they know will either refuse to make eye contact, fidget, look concerned, or act defensively should you accuse them of a lie. Determining the correct choice will net you information, and possibly more clues. Incorrectly guessing will result in the suspect withholding information, and will make questioning them harder.

Sometimes the order of destinations will also play a hand in your case. Sometimes if you go to place X first, you might find more clues you’ll need to question a suspect, clues you wouldn’t have if you went to question the suspect at Y first. Events will also play out differently depending on the order of your destinations.

You might catch a suspect trying to flee town, or you might be able to look around their house for clues before they show up. This may improve or dampen your chances of getting a high case rating, which is determined by your interrogation accuracy, number of clues collected, and collateral damage caused.

Aside from the main story missions is a plethora of things to do; from driving every car, to collecting hidden golden film reels, to discovering important landmarks over the city, or even stopping crimes in progress. If you’re the person who will complete a game to the fullest, then you will delight in hours of hunting down every last hidden item.

If you’re like me, questioning every unrealistic action in a game or movie, be patient. More often than not, I found myself questioning the legality of breaking into someone’s home and collecting evidence without a warrant. Don’t let this detract from the game however, it’s still very fun.

All in all, this is an interesting game. It’s unusual in its perspective. It’s interesting in its gameplay. Its based on intuition (both literally and as a gameplay feature) and going with hunches. To delve to the truth, to carry out justice, to protect the citizens of L.A, this is your task. The only problem I see with the game is its limited replayability. Once you know all the correct answers and who’s guilty, it takes all the challenge out of it. Regardless, at least take a look at this out of the ordinary game, which I believe deserves an 8.5/10.

Now go forth detective, and catch those perpetrators! For they can run, but they cannot hide from the eyes of the law.