This Rockstar title is a refreshing departure from their usual fare of over the top crass satire. The characters possess subtlety and are dynamic, the dialogue fits the more ambiguous genre of noire, and a lot of time was put into creating an engrossing environment that is as immersive as the actual game itself. The game is a investigative thriller where you fill the shoes of the flawed Detective Cole Phelps. The gameplay consists of searching crime scenes and suspect houses for clues, interviewing witnesses, interrogating suspects, chasing suspects, collaring criminals, driving fast cars, and of course shooting bad guys. Along the way a few puzzles are thrown in for a change of pace. The plotting early on suffers from using a lot of cliche scenarios, but once you get past the homicide desk the plot becomes a lot more interesting as all the disparate threads of the story start to come together in a rather satisfying finale. It is really after that point that Cole Phelps starts to step out from being a game avatar and becomes a character.
One of the really interesting gameplay aspects is the art of interrogation in this game. You have to really pay attention to people's faces and demeanor as well as what you already know to figure out their honesty and whether to treat them as they are telling the truth, doubt them, or accuse them overtly of lying. It's a very simple system that hopefully in the future will be made more complex if Rockstar decides to release another investigation title (please do). While some characters are better liars than others everyone seems to have a subtle tell that I could spot almost every time. To be honest one flaw in this game is there is a little too much handholding in the investigations in general. The game tells you when you deal with a situation correctly thus eliminating the doubt that your information is good and often times when you are wrong the actors clam up rather than give you misleading information. Every location lead provides you with more leads and rarely are their dead ends and red herrings. There are times when you have to charge one of two suspects, but ala Mickey Spillane detective novellas just charge the commie to score points (although the theme of economics marxism v. capitalism is actually dealt with in the story in a rather interesting manner). It would be nice in future installments if there was a lot more perspectives on a crime. Usually you interview one possibly two eyewitnesses who give you one or two leads and those leads inevitably lead to the suspect. It would be refreshing to have all those eyewitnesses with conflicting interests: fears of reprisal, criminal is a friend, or they want attention so they are making up stuff they didn't see. Yet despite the shortfall of clues and witnesses making nice clean straight lines to suspects, and the removal of doubt this is still a decent investigative drama.
Another strength is the detail and beauty of the locales. All of your investigation locations are filled with tons of details that tell you something about the characters involved and the nature of the crime. Houses are well decorated and fit the character of its inhabitants. Each bar you might go through has a character of its own. You can spend hours just strolling through the setting and find satisfaction. It would be nice if there were some generic interactive npc's that can be a minor diversion and give different areas of the city some flavor but given the amount of time they spent on setting ambiance, voice acting, and motion capture that is forgivable.
All in all this was a very satisfying waste of 20 to 30 hours. The story really comes together quite nicely, the acting has depth and subtlety, and the investigating is fun despite its easiness.
