10 Reasons L.A. Noire Is Rockstar's Most Underrated Game

8. It's Not All Just Shooting And Driving

Despite how great other Rockstar games are, the developer's gameplay always boils down to the same couple of core mechanics. Namely, players spend most of their time either travelling between locations - by way of car, boat, helicopter or, sometimes, horse - and shooting hundreds of nameless dudes.

LA Noire features both of those activities too, of course, boasting some frenetic shootouts and a bucketload of car chases, but these elements surprisingly take the back seat to more methodical, less bombastic mechanics based around detective work. Between looking for clues, questioning suspects and chasing down criminals, no two cases ever feel the same, ensuring that each new crime you're investigating remains dynamic and different throughout.

From a pure gameplay perspective, the suite of features isn't exhaustive enough for players to become lost in a myriad of systems, but there's not too few to feel like you're doing the same thing all the time, with the game hitting its stride when it starts to mess around with which gameplay sections it's going to throw at you next.

It might not have the tightest shootouts or boast the most flawless driving mechanics, but LA Noire switches its focus so often that these issues don't detract from the overall experience, because it has so much more to offer.