10 Best GTA Games That Aren't GTA Games
6. L.A. Noire
Barring its groundbreaking (at the time) facial recognition tech, everything else in L.A. Noire feels a little stiff and clinical. It's a quirk of the game that's hard to qualify beyond that but suffice it to say that it often feels as though Team Bondi had to make concessions elsewhere in the game to ensure its key gameplay hook stuck the landing.
Whatever sacrifices, if any, had to be made, Cole Phelps' believable rise from patrol officer to detective in 1940s Los Angeles is deftly handled, delivering a story far better than anything Grand Theft Auto has ever produced. The accompanying open-world components, on the other hand, are barebones by comparison, but Phelps can explore downtown LA during his downtime between cases and is rewarded for doing so with chance encounters with NPCs and shiny new cars to show off to his colleagues.
In a perfect world where Bondi had infinite time and resources, stumbling upon optional criminal cases not tied to the campaign while out and about would have substantially extended L.A. Noire's longevity, but what's here is still well worth the visit.