I find the interface for moving around to be kludgy. It's context sensitive so the same control in one context is not the same elsewhere. Aiming, in the rare moments of gunfire, is oddly both over-automated and underpowered - my avatar will aim at the target no matter if there is a wall between us, but when aimed, it's near impossible to adjust. Steering a car is similarly enraging -I have no sense of inertia, so I tend to overshoot the sharp turns of escaping suspects, or not power through enough to catch a light.
Then there's the interview system. I'm pretty good at finding clues in the game - my one saving grace. However when it comes to interviewing subjects, your choices are truth, doubt, or lie. First of all, 'doubt' means pretty much anything other than believing the subject or having proof against the lie. Second, what constitutes proof is pretty bizarre. I may have just found drugs from the same lot number of a larger shipment I now of, but oddly, that does not disprove the owner's lie about his knowledge of the drugs.
Yet, where the game really pays off is the cinematics. The period is spot on. I feel like I'm playing a noire movie or TV show. I feel like I'm in the Naked City. The music, the clothes, the talk, the stele all comes together to paint postwar Los Angeles as more than a modded Grand Theft Auto arena. It's a world, with very specific characters, motivations, and plots. I pretty much play just to get to the next cinematic. It's like a serial that you obtain by playing rather than paying.
But it is a very frustrating game. As beautiful as it is, I'll probably skip the downloadable content and move on to something else. Ghost Recon is coming out soon, and next fall there is a new Bioshock. I'm sure there will be more Call of Duty, though perhaps I can leave that franchise for good.
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