IGN has just recently posted an article on Team Bondi's upcoming detective thriller LA Noire.
Some interesting tidbit of the gameplay mechanics were revealed and I could not help comparing it to another game with a completely different root...
First there was this:
Each interrogation in L.A. Noire features the same set-up, whether it's a person of interest or a potential witness. You pick from a list of possible questions, listen to the answer (watching your subject the entire time), and then decide if they're telling the truth, holding something back, or flat out lying.
Then we have this:
Knowing when someone's lying in L.A.Noire isn't too hard. Whenever you accuse someone of a lie, you have to show evidence to back up the contradiction.
We also know that a large portion of the game revolves around solving different 'cases' with each 'case' involving investigating a crime scene, finding and recording clues and evidences and eventually solving the crime.
Sooo just what do all these points remind you of?
checklist:
Murder Premises - checked
Suspect List - checked
Crime Scene - checked
Cross Exam, er I mean Interrogation - check
Find Contradiction - check
Produce Evidence - check
Accuse Murderer! - check
....hmm...
Ah how glorious it is to draw such parallel! Phoenix Wright is nothing like the upcoming L.A.Noire, yet from what I've read so far, there is so much game mechanic similarity that it almost felt like the evalution of the same genre (2D to 3D transition?)
How ironic that a niche, low budget, eastern style game for a handheld system using outdated technology, 2D sprite and cartoony over-the-top presentation could ever be compared to a western style big budget, home console, state of the art 3D game with such serious and authentically lifelike presentation? And yet at their heart, they have some very similiar core mechanic.
