L.A. Noire: Sifting the Evidence

[Dark Drakan]

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IGN have given the most detailed analysis of the investigation aspect of Team Bondi and Rockstars upcoming title L.A. Noire yet. It also answered a lot of questions and fears i had about the game too. Mainly the part about previewers saying they were handheld through the parts they played with audio clues and the re-playability of cases and such but Jeronimo Barrera, VP of Product Development at Rockstar has said they are optional.​

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It's absolutely non-linear storytelling, and although the cases wrap up in a linear fashion, going one from the other, the way that you actually play it can be very different from your friends. Indeed, L.A. Noire is constantly branching and adapting depending on what players do and the choices they make. The homicides that tie the overarching story together may not change, but a hell of a lot does. investigating a case sees players examining crime scenes, finding and examining clues, discovering and visiting significant locations, speaking to people of interest and even engaging in some good old fashioned action in the form of fisticuffs, shoot-outs and chase sequences. There's nothing that's cut and dry about any of these elements, however. It's possible to miss clues, make poor choices in conversations that result in Phelps missing information he needs and failing action sequences.

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Indeed, in The Fallen Idol case, there's a fight scene that players can miss entirely if they take their time going to the apartment in question, with the result that the scene plays out completely differently.

And that's what will make L.A. Noire a game that players will discuss and dissect. Like Heavy Rain, players won't know about the paths they miss and the sequences that they don't see – they live with the story consequences of their decisions and actions. As you can imagine, this creates something of a minefield, and the team has had to methodically work through every possible permutation and outcome, looking for 'logic bombs'. Maintaining the logic of the gameworld basically adds up to a whole lot of work: writing more dialogue and creating more scenes, all so that the one path the player does take is seamless. ​

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Players will have a fair degree of control over the level of difficulty themselves. If they really want to live the life of a detective, for instance, they can visit crime scenes without any of the assists – no musical cues, no controller rumble when a piece of evidence is nearby. Of course, the flipside is also true – the intuition system is designed to help players if they need it, while failing an action sequence a number of times results in players being given the option to skip it altogether, Red Dead Redemption style.​

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As well as the whole 'tell' system and facial animation clues becoming more difficult with difficulty changes and such.​

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Can read the full article herehttp://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1162011p1.html​