So is LA Noir the only Rockstar game that you are not forced to play as a criminal in? Its a shame that they bottleneck such a large "open world" to play in by forcing you to play a set protagonist rather than having a character creation tool and a choice to play as a non criminal. Sure you can decide how "honorable" a criminal the main character is, but even if you dont make him a psychopath the bottom line is that he is still a criminal.
I enjoyed the first one because you wasn't really running around being a criminal robbing banks and stuff, you was being forced to hunt down the other criminals that were in your old gang. I dont really see the motivation with this one though, its almost like its morphing into GTA.