Team Bondi/Rockstar Games is back with what most are calling a compelling and beautiful interactive mystery. The reviews are out, so let’s see what some of the top review sites are saying:
Joystiq's Justin McElroy gave it 4.5/5 stars, stating "Though some of the credit has to go to Team Bondi's script, seeing it combined with the work of Fringe's John Noble, Southland's Michael McGrady and literally half the cast of Mad Men makes for one of, if not the, most compelling video game stories ever." "This is a little glimpse of an explored territory in interactive media, a hint at an incredibly exciting future that I can only hope we're hurtling towards. L.A. Noire may not always be "fun" in the traditional sense, but it's also unsatisfied with being "merely fun," and the result of that aspiration is something that no one who cares about video games should miss."
IGN’s Hilary Goldstein gave L.A. Noire an 8.5/10 and concludes by saying "There are certain cases that draw me in and side characters who eat up the scene. But it never adds up -- amazing pieces that don’t quite amount to an incredible game. At the same time, no one’s ever played a game like this before. And unless there’s a sequel, I doubt anyone will again for some time. Credit Rockstar for taking a huge risk, for succeeding in many areas, and for offering something fresh and different."
Giant Bomb gave it a perfect 5/5 stars and warned that "before you approach Rockstar's vintage crime opus L.A. Noire, you should set your expectations and be clear that it is, at its core, an adventure game. Like Grand Theft Auto and its legion of imitators, this game has a sprawling, open city environment for you to explore, but don't expect to grab a Tommy gun and wreak havoc in that city whenever you feel like it. This just isn't that kind of game. Instead, the focus is squarely on good, clean police work: scouring crime scenes for evidence, extracting information from persons of interest whether they're willing to talk or not, building a case, making an arrest. It's a hard-nosed and methodical experience that's not quite like anything else I've played in a game of this scale."
Destructoid’s Jim Sterling scored L.A. Noire a 9/10, stating "L.A. Noire is a testament to the possibility of bringing dark, adult, mature games to the mainstream market. When I say mature, I don't just mean that it throws in sex and violence under the pretense of being for grown-ups. It is truly mature, with the kind of narrative you'd only expect to see in a major TV drama series or crime movie."
Ars Technica provided a verdict of "Buy" and compared it to Phoenix Wright, stating "As an LAPD detective in the late 1940s, you collect evidence and interrogate witnesses to build a case, gameplay that is derivative of (and, I would argue, done better in) games with cartoon graphics and melodramatic stories like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. L.A. Noire’s puzzle-solving is subservient to its narrative, but the simple allure of playing a part in the game’s gripping story was such that nothing could tear me away from it."
1UP’s Jobert Atienza gave L.A. Noire an "A", stating "The evidence-gathering gameplay, and conversation-based puzzles requiring actual logic took me completely by surprise -- not just because of how "real" it seemed, but by how entertained I was just doing it all. And just when I thought it would get repetitive, I was sucked even deeper into the experience by the stellar voice acting and smooth motion capture animation."
