Welcome to the Interrogation Room, GameSpy's signature pre-release game coverage format. Here, a GameSpy editor (typically one who's relatively in-the-dark about the game in question) grills his peers for information on a hotly anticipated game -- hopefully with more entertaining results than the typical boilerplate preview would provide.
Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: So, is this Grand Theft Gumshoe? Because we all know it's hip and clever and original to describe every single Rockstar game as Grand Theft Something Something.
Will Tuttle, Editor in Chief: First, Grand Theft Gumshoe made me chuckle. Bravo. Second, no, this is not just Grand Theft Gumshoe. In fact, in many ways, it's about as far from a Grand Theft Auto game as you're gonna get. L.A. Noire was already being developed as its own unique beast by Australia's Bondi Studios (with backing by Sony) before Rockstar jumped in and snatched up the publishing rights. It's really more of an adventure game than anything, and while it features some shootouts and driving sequences, the majority of the gameplay revolves around investigation and interrogation. Let me turn it back on you: You're not a GTA fan, but you're very excited for L.A. Noire. Why?
Ryan Scott: Hey now, that's not entirely accurate. I don't dislike GTA; I just haven't been very enthralled by it since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Conversely, I'm a huge Red Dead Redemption fan, as I think the GTA formula works very well when applied to other fictional genres. Obviously L.A. Noire isn't some cut-and-paste job, but the 1947-era film noir aesthetic interests me a great deal. How well does it come across in actual play?
Will Tuttle: I found the aesthetic hugely appealing, too. I'm a sucker for anything set in 1940s Los Angeles; so much darkness and violence lurked just out of the glamorous public eye of Hollywood. In reality, an astounding number of murders occurred in this era, including a several high-profile serial killing like the Black Dahlia. While I don't know many specifics, it definitely seems like L.A. Noire's main narrative thread involves one of said serial killers. I like that the game follows one character from his rookie days as a traffic cop across several years as he makes his way up to homicide detective -- especially given his standing as a golden boy in an otherwise largely corrupt LAPD (guess which side the drunk Irish police captain is on). The developers really seemed to nail the look and feel of the era. I've read a lot of James Ellroy and Walter Moseley crime books, and L.A. Noire made me feel like I was playing one of them.
Ryan Scott: Is it messed-up and violent and depressing and awful (in an awesome film noir way, that is)? What's kinds of things tend to occupy your time in this game? You said it's more of an adventure game than anything, which definitely intrigues me.
Will Tuttle: So far, the investigations I've seen and played revolved around (dead) molested teenage runaway wannabe starlets, (dead) abused wives, and (dead) naked women. So yeah, it's pretty messed-up and violent and awful.
A big chunk of my time was spent investigating the crime scene where the dead wife was found. I began by getting up close and personal to figure out precisely how she'd been killed, as well as what the murder weapon might have been. It's a fairly simple process, as all I needed to do was slowly walk around the scene, and any time I was near a potential clue, a chime would sound. Some of the items I found were just trash and nothing more, but anything important was immediately entered into my handy-dandy notepad, allowing me to use the existence of the evidence whenever it was time to interrogate a witness. While I was technically able to walk wherever I wanted in the crime scene area, it was pretty clear that the trail pulling me in a particular direction. Sure enough, after following a path of blood spatters, I found myself on a roof overlooking the alley were the body was found. Once the evidence search was over, I was immediately transported to the police station to discuss the case with my superiors. The evidence-gathering segments were slow and deliberate, playing to my penchant for exploring, and felt very much like an adventure game.
Ryan Scott: You make it sound like it leads you around by the nose an awful lot. When you said "adventure game," I imagined a bit more puzzle-solving...
Will Tuttle: That may have been more indicative of the specific mission I played than the game itself, as one of the other cases featured a body lying in an empty lot, and required more exploratory investigation. So, that was a lot less linear than the missions I played, which took place in an alley (and it doesn't get much more linear than that).
The more adventure-gamey elements revolve around the Person of Interest interrogations, as I had to basically use my gathered clues to solve the puzzle of who committed the crime. Granted, it's not adventure-gaming in the traditional sense of the word, but it definitely requires some thought. Essentially, when confronting someone who I thought knew something about the crime, I had to figure out which clues would trigger emotional reactions, then read the POI's face to figure out if they were telling the truth, lying outright, or maybe just needed a little more prodding. It's an interesting system, with a fine line between pushing too hard and not pushing hard enough, and I had a lot of evidence that really didn't matter when all was said and done. Of course, interrogating people and figuring out if they were lying or telling the truth would be pretty tough if L.A. Noire didn't feature the most impressive facial animation system seen in gaming to date.
Ryan Scott: Now that's a cue I can't ignore! Go on...
Will Tuttle: See, you'd make a great gumshoe, reading my subtle cues the way you do.
Anyway, much has been made of the game's facial animation technology, and for good reason. I've never seen digital characters that look so realistic and move with such subtlety and nuance. The uncanny valley definitely rears its creepy head at times, but all told, these are the best-looking people I've ever seen in a game. It's a good thing the developers decided that the interrogations largely revolve around said subtle facial movements, as it works quite well. Occasionally, however, I noticed some not-so-subtle clues that made the interrogation a bit easier. During one interrogation with a nosy neighbor, it was pretty clear that she wasn't telling me something, as her eyes very obviously darted back and forth after she finished talking. Hopefully most of the interrogations will be a bit more challenging than that one was.
Ryan Scott: Alright, take us out, Inspector Clouseau -- any final thoughts?
Will Tuttle: Heh, it's funny that you mention the hilarious gumshoe from The Pink Panther films, as I couldn't help but imagine how fun it would be to play the game as a bumbling imbecile.
On that front, I'll be interested to see what the developers decide to do for difficulty levels. As I mentioned above, there were times when the interrogations just felt a bit too easy. There's a thin line between too easy and too hard, so I'm very interested to see if the game feature multiple difficulty settings or if it'll just have a standard difficulty.
Either way, L.A. Noire looks like it's going to be a Rockstar game like no other. I think it's safe to say it's not just going to be Grand Theft Gumshoe.
