Right now, there isn't another video game I'm more excited for than Rockstar Games' upcoming Ellroy tribute, L.A. Noire, which is finally hitting the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this May.
What about it, really? People hear the Rockstar name and immediately picture a Grand Theft Auto set in the 40's. It's not, and what gets me revved up about the game's release doesn't even have anything to do with painstakingly recreated open world of 1947 LA; impressive as a task as that may be. It has more to do with the promised gameplay, which Rockstar is creating a series of videos to show off. The first of the series, embedded below, gives an overview of the kind of things you'll do in the game, and it does more to sell the game than any of the previously released trailers.
Although one can clearly see from the video that the game still packs a few violent shootouts, Rockstar has admitted that they've known from the start that it's going to be a low body count game (you play a straight-and-narrow cop, after all), meaning what action it has will probably be dominated by foot chases and knuckled brawls. I say what action it has because the main focus of the gameplay will not be that. Perfecting it is the reason the game is much talked about.
I'm talking about the interrogations, of course. When questioning witnesses and suspects, the game requires you to fish the truth out of them and act accordingly in order to complete your objective. Information gathering via Q&A is pretty standard in role-playing games, but they tend to rely heavily on choice of words and cartoonishly exaggerated voice acting, often leaving the player to fall back on mindless guessing and trying (Heavy Rain is the latest victim of this). The uniqueness of L.A. Noire is the reliance on observing facial acting, which is a giant step in the right direction. To be able to achieve this, they developed a new motion scanning technology and scanned professional actors such as Mad Men's Aaron Stanton.and Alexa Alemanni.
The level of precision in the facial expressions in the game looks incredible, and it should offer pretty groundbreaking gameplay. For once, we have a game developer bragging about their graphics for something other than "immersion" and awe tactics: it's actually relevant, nay, necessary in order for the game to work. How rare is that?
These days, a bold move like that is the only kind of thing that intrigues me anymore. Heavy Rain was a great idea, but the long stretches of minimal player interaction, not to mention the nonsensical plot twist and bad dialogue submerge the game's intention. Rockstar has a solid track record in storytelling, but it's too early to say if they can actually meet this big of a promise.
