Like its contemporary celluloid counterparts in Hollywood, noir isn't the most common of thematic backdrops in the game industry. Video game detectives tend to shoot first and ask questions later (or just never ask them). The deeper threads of mystery rarely penetrate the tough outer skin of the more simplified action plotlines generally seen in gaming—at least not with any major impact.

Though noir is typically associated with a certain high-contrast-and-shadow aesthetic, at its heart the genre is really about states of mind: alienation, nihilism, greed, lust, existential misery. Judging from publishers' penchant to glom on to easily digestible or otherwise throwaway narratives, it makes sense that the genre isn't often sought out in games. Despite its seemingly timeless stylistic appeal, cynical, plot-heavy studies in the infinitely-corruptible underbelly of the human psyche probably aren't going to appeal to the Call of Duty crowd.

Rockstar's upcoming title, L.A. Noir, attempts to mix the noir vibe with gaming anyway. While you're waiting for that to hit shelves later this month, here are a few games to help get you in the mood.

The most recent noir title to see release (aside from L.A. Noir, of course), Gemini Rue takes the route of Blade Runner-style neo-noir, complete with a futuristic setting drenched in a perpetual downpour. With the option to play as both ex-assassin Azriel Odin and amnesiac test subject Delta-Six, Gemini Rue looks and plays like a SCUMM game that time forgot. (LucasArts' most famous point-and-click engine never really tried a true detective game in its heyday, after all.) Although the interface is all point-and-click, the onus is once again on detective work. And as the game switches back and forth between characters, the narrative uncovers its fair share of existential dread, seedy underworld locales, and other noir staples. (It's worth checking out the game for the art direction alone.) The voiceovers aren't so hot, but otherwise, this is definitely a noir adventure that PC gamers would do well to play.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 plays like a cross between an interactive novel and a point-and-click adventure. This DS game has many trappings of noir convention—a protagonist haunted by his past, grim voiceover narration, and plenty of detective work. Hotel Dusk takes former New York detective Kyle Hyde to the eponymous hotel on a tip that his old partner, missing after a memory Hyde would rather forget, had been seen there recently. From the lead, allegedly connected to a mysterious criminal organization, Hyde falls deeper into a world where every guest has a secret waiting to be unraveled. True to form, a good deal of the gameplay follows the gumshoe standard of talking to people and piecing together clues in order to solve any given case. The late 70s setting gives Hotel Dusk a feel not unlike Roman Polanski's Chinatown. Coupled with the black and white pencil-sketch character drawings, this one is definitely one of the more underrated noir titles of the past several years.

Another neo-noir (and quite possibly one of the first games to ever tackle the genre), Hideo Kojima's Snatcher is still considered a classic. This is essentially Kojima's Blade Runner, revolving around a cop in 2047 Neo Kobe City. His job is to apprehend and kill snatchers, organic/machine hybrid androids who have recently been killing prominent figures in society and taking their places undetected. At the beginning of the game, NKC detective Gillian Seed is tasked with solving the murder of another member of his department, allegedly by a snatcher. From there, the narrative devolves into the dark, futuristic underworld exploration you might expect from a sci-fi noir. The game itself plays almost like a digital novel, with only the Western Sega CD release having added shooting sequences. Yet there's enough depth—thanks largely to an encyclopedic and details world Kojima crafted—to yield significant existential, psychological, and psychosexual themes necessary for any appropriately dark detective story.

One of LucasArts' last point-and-clicks, Grim Fandango infused noir with the imagery of Día de los Muertos and Aztec ideas of the afterlife to create a detective story set in the land of the dead. Protagonist Manny Calavera, travel agent of death, uncovers a criminal racket within the Department of Death, which individuals within his own department have engineered. These seedy agents would deny departed souls quick passage from the afterlife to the final resting place of the Ninth Underworld, saving seats on the train that transports souls there for a local crime boss. Manny is drawn into an increasingly twisted plot in which he must save himself and several others along the way. Fandango writer Tim Schafer has said that noir classics like The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity are direct inspirations for the game, with Manny himself providing tongue-in-cheek send-up voiceover narration much like Indemnity's duped insurance salesman Walter Neff. (There's also a lot of influence from Casablanca, a film that sports a very noir visual style even if it's not noir itself.) If you have a computer that can still run this game, it's highly recommended.

While the original Max Payne—which ran a down-on-his-luck ex-NYPD officer through a criminal gauntlet after drug junkies destroyed his entire life in an instant—is widely considered to be one of the most noir games ever made, it wasn't until Max Payne 2 (whose tagline is "a film noir love story") that the series really hit its thematic stride. The game focuses around Max's dangerous relationship with Mona Sax, a gun-for-hire who has been contracted to kill Max. During an ongoing investigation into a string of murders by a group of contract killers, Max finds himself involved in an ever-worsening situation. Fighting at the side of Mona, he aligns himself on the wrong side of the law during a murder, and things only escalate from there as powerful criminal interests are brought into the mix. Though Max Payne's gameplay has always been strictly bullet time-tinged third-person action, its setting and mood set it squarely in the realm of noir. The addition of Mona's femme fatale to the story makes this sequel more genre-specific, and Max's hard-boiled monologues are as prevalent as ever: "The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it." Classic.

By Steve Haske
CCC Contributing Writer

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*