Game Review: LA Noire

LA Noire

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

With top-flight graphics, innovative play and one of the richest storylines you'll find in a game, LA Noire has been rightly hailed as an evolution in the genre.

The game starts with you taking control of Cole Phelps, World War II veteran and rookie detective out to clean up the city, move up the ranks and clear his mind of the horrors he saw during the war.

Set in late-1940s America, not only does this game draw heavily on the visual style of the time, but the missions also feel like they've been lifted from the pages of a hardboiled detective novel.

Graphically ... wow. Everything has been rendered to an exceptional level.

From the characters to the environment, LA Noire has set an impressive visual benchmark for other developers to match.

Gameplay is a nice mix of interrogation, action and fighting. The controls can take a while to get used to but work well once you get your bearing.

The highlight is questioning the suspects. Making great use of the incredible rendering they've used, you grill persons of interest and it's up to you to figure out if they're lying or telling the truth.

The only thing keeping this from a perfect score is that it can feel a bit limited at times.

If you're a mission-minded gamer you'll be sorted.

But for those who like to roam about and get up to a bit of mischief in open-world games, you're out of luck.

You just have to keep yourself occupied with more virtuous activities, such as nailing murderers, drug runners and crooked cops.