Rockstar deserves great recognition for the risks and ambition they poured into L.A Noire, as well as its execution.
Now I love this game, there's a stellar soundrack, voicework, and those fantastic facial animations that make the game work. Sometimes the game tries to hold your hand too much which slightly dulls down the ambition but it does little to dampen its entertainment value.
One thing I must make clear though, is that for a Noire/Detective game such as this, I feel it would have benefited from a non-sandbox style of gameplay. Not neccesarily more linear, but smaller more focused sections. I feel the open world contributed little to the overall exprience, you do little in the world besides drive from point A to point B, and I think it would have allowed them to make a much more polished and focused detective game if they would have done it that way.
Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the cases, and landscapes I got to journey through, I just feel, for a sequels sake, or another noire/detective type game, go with a more linear structure. Other then that Rockstar delivers on all fronts, and its detective gameplay is both intriguing and intense. The story I felt jumped around too much, and didn't really feel cohesize, but overall contained superb enough portions to dwarf these issues. Nearly everything at play in L.A noire works excellently, but could benefit from a restructuring/reinvisioning of the title.