LA Noire

[thanatos]

It's a bit of a strange game, but that's mainly because you go into it with a pretty good idea of the kind of game Rockstar Games makes, and then you get something quite different. It feels almost like Rockstar decided to try their hand at a modern version of Sierra Online's old Police Quest games. You've got your open-world driving/exploration sections, you've got your occasional Grand Theft Auto-style shootouts (although fisticuffs are more common), foot chases, and car chases, but the real meat of the game is old-school adventure game-style investigation and interrogation, complete with old-school adventure game "points" that actually affect the outcome of your investigation depending on how many you earn (though not the eventual outcome of the story).

A lot of reviewers have complained that the storyline and interrogations are too linear to justify a second playthrough, but the main campaign is nice and long, regardless. I'm still working my way through it, and the atmosphere is just phenomenal, so for me, at least, it definitely lives up to the hype.