L.A. Noire - Nintendo Switch

An impressive story and a smart port, with an unfortunately poor open world. Especially considering it originally came out in 2011, I was impressed that playing through LA Noire on the Nintendo Switch amazed me all over again. From the top-quality voice acting and the still-unmatched facial animations to the multi-layered crimes to solve, the parts that really matter work great on the Switch. The old-looking and empty open-world parts in between, not so much. Six years later, LA Noire is still a unique game. There are cops-and-robbers car chases and occasional gunfights, but most of it is a smartly paced, contemplative challenge that keeps you thinking. As a Los Angeles cop working in the 1940s, you’ll be sent to a weird and wonderful array of crime scenes where you find clues, interact with witnesses, and draw conclusions with a limited amount of hand-holding. I never thought I’d find myself interested in the forgery of pink slips until I met the diverse cast of suspects and witnesses involved in a grand theft auto scheme, and using the right pieces of evidence against each of them presented a test of its own. A few of the 21 cases are a little repetitive, but every time I was close to feeling bored, something completely unexpected would happen and draw me back in again.

This is an excellent port of a wonderful game from the last generation of consoles. LA Noire runs great on the Switch and is a joy to play on the go. The episodic nature of the game's lengthy story is ideal to play in small bursts throughout your day on the Switch's portable screen. The game also features touch controls when in portable mode (one of the few Switch games so far to do so). Highly recommended for those who have never played it before. Mildly recommended if you have already played the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions.

People looking for an action-packed game like other Rockstar tittles may be turned off L.A. Noire, but fans of games with a great athmosphere, charm, witts and good story will certainly be entertained. Plays great on the go, and the motion controls are intuitive enough. Looks best when played on Noire (Black and White) mode.

I have a 64 Gig microSD card for my Switch and I'm lucky I do because this game, even with the cartridge, takes up around 15 gigs of space. That's about half the storage the Switch comes with, so you might want to pick up a microSD card like I did. Regardless, this is a fun and stunning port of a quality game. I can't believe we have XBox 360/PS3 games that can now run on a Nintendo Handheld.

It’s like GTA meets Death on the Nile. It’s to the time period, so there are parts of it that are extremely racist. It’s overall a very fun game, if you aren’t easily offended.