In L.A. Noire, Team Bondi and Rockstar games set out to create a unique crime thriller that explores what it meant to be a detective in Hollywood’s “Golden Age”. Using new “Facial Motion” technology, Rockstar captures every crinkle and emotion of the in-game characters. They’ve also based much of the storyline on actual criminal cases. Criticized as simply being a 40′s version of Grand Theft Auto 4, Team Bondi seeks to distinguish themselves from their distributor, Rockstar Games.

With a linear, story-focused format, each chapter of the story changes depending on evidence that you do or don’t find, how you interrogate witnesses, time and other variables, ultimately to varying case endings. Side quests pop up sporadically throughout the game that you can respond to at your leisure, but are not connected to the main storyline. It should be made clear that this is an intellectual game; none of the joykilling that made Grand Theft Auto a good place to park homicidal tendencies will be made available to the player.

Each interrogation offers the player three options: believe/coax, doubt/force and disbelieve/accuse. The 22 cases vary between 30-120 minutes in length, with 50 hours of total dialogue. You also got unlimited, free ammo. Sweet, I know.