LA Noire reviewed on Xbox 360 by Harry Neary. The game was supplied for review by Rockstar Games

Ignore the flashy facial technology and Grand Theft Auto heritage and look behind the marketing. Can you see it? What lies beneath the publicised bullet points and flashy making-of videos is a game that harks back to the classic days of point and click adventures, most notably those from LucasArts and even more obviously Sierra¡¯s Police Quest series.

Those of us who scoured blocky 8-bit locations for tiny single-pixel high clues will feel right at home here. Team Bondi was clearly so keen on reminding us about those classic games it even included annoying disk swapping into the Xbox 360 game (and no, installing the game makes no difference, annoyingly).

You play Cole Phelps, a man somewhat haunted by his experience in WWII, beset by a driving ambition to succeed as a detective in the Los Angeles Police Force. As he moves from desk to desk you aim to help him solve crimes and this being a Rockstar Game - become embroiled in a bigger conspiracy.

Despite the open world setting the gameplay is more linear than GTA stablemates. The player visits crime scenes, ¡°persons of interest¡± and other locations to scout for clues, along the way talking to witnesses and suspects. Conversations take a traditional point and click route - characters talk and you choose to reply. Rather than choose the exact wording you press a button for ¡°truth¡±, ¡°doubt¡± or ¡°lie¡±. Truth continues the conversation showing you believe the answer. Doubt shows your disbelief and makes Cole more agressive. Lie is used when you have concrete evidence to disprove your witness/suspect. It¡¯s a neat system, but the result of your decisions don¡¯t always match what you have in mind. Interviewing an elderly witness you may hit ¡°doubt¡± for Cole to push the questioning on a little - but will then be surprised he shouts and calls her an ¡°old hag¡±.

The interaction you have with the game is pretty simple. Scouring crime scenes and other locations means looking at opjects highlighted by pad vibration. Important clues are recorded in your notebook. These clues lead onto other locations and people who can then be interviewed. Some cases feature action; rooftop chases, shoot outs, fist fights or car chases. Team Bondi has played a neat trick with all this, really player interaction is quite minimal, cases are very similar - yet it¡¯s the story itself, the setting and the action - that enthralls us. Heavy Rain played a similar trick - realising what we do with the joypad isn¡¯t the be all and end all of how good a game is. LA Noire¡¯s mechanics are pretty simple and old fashioned, but they¡¯ve been used very well in a game that holds your attention with a tight dialogue, intriguing cases, the period setting and superb acting.

The facial animation technology really is something special, a perfect compliment to the very good voice cast. The authenticity of the performances really drew me into the game despite the relatively simple gameplay. Performances from the enormous cast really are terrific, up there with the best of contemporary US drama (not surprising given that¡¯s where many of these performers are from). For the most part the dialogue is snappy and convincing.

Yet there are some pretty poor script missteps along the way. These occur rather often when informing people of the death of their loved one. All too often the approach is ¡°your wife is dead, right now answer some questions sonny or we¡¯ll bang you up¡± and this is from the supposedly sensitive hero Cole Phelps. Even worse is one moment where Phelps informs a young girl of the death of her mother, the girl cries and Phelps then asks if he can ask her some questions. The girl stop crying, smiles and answers in the affirmative. Pretty poor stuff.

Similarly the overarching plot falters a number of times. A character that appears early in the game gives the impression of someone you¡¯ll likely meet again. In most cases the mention of a person by a witness results in them being add as a POI (person of interest) who can then be visited during the rest of the case. However the mention of this earlier character in a later case doesn¡¯t add him as a POI despite being an obvious person to question. For obvious spoiler issues I can¡¯t tell you whether that character really is important as the game heads into the latter stages, but that moment when the person was mentioned but Phelps doesn¡¯t react felt forced, like the developer was making a decision for you based on its own plans, rather than letting you investigate how you would choose to.

There are plenty of problems when questioning suspects and witnesses where good evidence you have isn¡¯t the one Team Bondi had in mind. There¡¯s much less freedom involved here than you might think and after a while you realise to succeed you have to get into the developer¡¯s mindset rather than really read the reactions of the characters.

Another problem comes when finishing cases. Even when doing very well on a case the score screen offers some advice on where you may have gone wrong. Sometimes it has said things like ¡°maybe you should have also interviewed x¡± despite there being no obvious opportunity to do so. Of course I can use the ¡°cases¡± menu to go back and take another long look when this occurs, but I¡¯m still not entirely convinced the game¡¯s many elements have been stuck together without error. I¡¯ve noticed a few times items or events being mentioned to the player as though one should be aware of them already, despite them not having cropped up.

While we¡¯re talking about the ¡°cases¡± menu, it seems rather clunky that this is where the player has to go to begin a free roam game. Surely this should have just been in the in-game menu - offering a chance to pause the story for a while.

Despite some script problems, mid-game fatigue (it picks up again) and the occasional engine slowdown LA Noire is a thrilling experience. I absolutely loved the setting and I hope Rockstar/Team Bondi make use of this huge map for some other stories as we saw with the GTA IV episodes. This massive LA location could play host to some traditional GTA gangster stories, more police fun or something entirely different.

Yes there are plenty of elements in LA Noire that aren¡¯t as cutting edge as you¡¯ve been led to believe, this is really an old school adventure wrapped up in new technology, but it¡¯s still a very good game indeed. Not quite on a par with Rockstar¡¯s last release - Red Dead Redemption - but still a triumph none the less. This is also a proper adult game - not in the sense it features content unsuitable for children - but more that it¡¯s themes, dialogue and action is aimed at an older audience. It makes a change to play an 18-rated game aimed at players with a mental age older than 18.

In a market that seems entirely based on dreadful Call of Duty clones (and dreadful Call of Duty games) it¡¯s so refreshing to see a developer work on something with much more class and a publisher providing the budget to do so. LA Noire is big, beautiful and exciting - with a story and setting that draws you right in and holds onto you right to the end. Like the very best games this is one you¡¯ll be thinking of all the time you¡¯re playing it, even when you¡¯re away from the console.