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. (Read our original LA Noire Review .) 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.

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