An article posted on the nzherald.co.nz website on the 22nd December, 2011 (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/games/news/article.cfm?c_id=38&objectid=10774637) attributes the “Game of the Year” award to L.A. Noire, designed for XBox360 and PS3. I wanted to explore what features of gaming are considered groundbreaking in terms of modern gaming and where the future of games are heading towards (according to the critics).
Last week I discussed Rockstar Games hugely successful videogame Grand Theft Auto III, and discussed issues surrounding the violence in these games. However, Rockstar Game’s latest design focuses more on human emotion and realism, with a massive emphasis on pre-determined narrative.
The game takes place in Los Angeles, 1947 and the player takes the position of detective Cole Phelps. The creators used a technology known as ‘MotionScan’; where an actor performs in a white room, surrounded by 32 cameras which capture their every move, including subtle facial expressions. This is something used in animation graphics in cinema, such as Lord of the Rings. This means that the characters within the game are so detailed that they have the potential of immersing the player into the world of the game. Part of the game’s features that makes it unique, is that as the detective you interview suspects around the cases and you judge the suspect based on their facial expressions specifically. The game’s surroundings are also highly realistic in their details and encourage the player to explore this post-war setting.
However, I wanted to explore the game in the context of immersion. Yes, the game is innovative in terms of graphics and storytelling. However, when discussing this game with my brother (a ‘gamer’), he described it as ‘an experience, but not something he would play repetitively’. I decided to investigate further and discover why.
The game creates the illusion of realism or a hyper-reality, yet the potential or room for the player to control the narrative is small. When looking for clues, the player is required to continuously press A when approaching objects or suspects and if the game has inscripted the suspect or object as important to the case, it will allow you to investigate further. This directs the player in the direction of the narrative and does not give the player much freedom, as opposed to games like Skyrim (a game which my brother continuously plays, over and over again, morning, noon and night). Skyrim takes place in a massive interspace or world and gives you more freedom to explore the things that you want to explore. There are also numerous options in terms of missions and each one differentiates from the other, whereas L.A. Noire has a repetitive narrative in terms of cases; the crime occurs, the investigation begins, the suspect is interviewed and a solution is found.
The game creates the illusion of realism or a hyper-reality, yet the potential or room for the player to control the narrative is small. When looking for clues, the player is required to continuously press A when approaching objects or suspects and if the game has inscripted the suspect or object as important to the case, it will allow you to investigate further. This directs the player in the direction of the narrative and does not give the player much freedom, as opposed to games like Skyrim (a game which my brother continuously plays, over and over again, morning, noon and night). Skyrim takes place in a massive interspace or world and gives you more freedom to explore the things that you want to explore. There are also numerous options in terms of missions and each one differentiates from the other, whereas L.A. Noire has a repetitive narrative in terms of cases; the crime occurs, the investigation begins, the suspect is interviewed and a solution is found.
The feature which makes it unique to the gaming world is the interviewing of suspects and the judgement through facial expressions and emotions as to whether they are telling the truth or not. It has been described as misleading as you are given only three options; truth, doubt or lie. The options are too clear cut and as a player you get them wrong. When thinking about why that might be, a possible reasoning crept into my mind; perhaps the fact that the game is so realistic and attempts at representing human emotions and facial features is the exact reason why players find it so hard to judge someone innocent from guilty. It seems too simplistic for the obvious complex emotions which the human body can resonate.
My brother described L.A. Noire as a reinvention of the point and click adventure and although the graphics and new technologies used to create the game are attractive to a gamer, the game itself does not encourage repetitive play. It is however, a cinematic spectacle which tells a story and perhaps would be more successful as an animated film, rather than encouraging limited interaction with the fictional world. Even the trailer promoting the game (which I have attached below), echoes a movie trailer rather than a game – in fact, as a ‘non-gamer’, this was initially how I came across this game and I originally thought it was an animated film. Perhaps the conclusion I have come to here, is that modern gamers want more freedom and more agency as a player – they want more than simply participating in interactive cinema?
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