Rockstar anticipates gun-free future

By Fred Dutton Published 11 May, 2011

L.A. Noire to shift focus to conversation.

Rockstar's games have made headlines in the past for their gratuitous violence, but the GTA developer says it can envisage a future where no gunplay whatsoever features in its titles.

When asked by The Guardian whether it would ever make a gun-free game, development VP Jeronimo Barrera said "absolutely", pointing to forthcoming crime epic L.A. Noire as its first title to dip its toes into more contemplative waters.

"We're flirting with that in this game – there are cases when you never draw a gun or chase a criminal," he explained.

"It's something that's going to happen sooner than later. I have children and when we get together as a family we play games, we don't watch TV. We're a generation that's always been around interactivity, and in the future something like L.A. Noire could be broadcast directly onto your cable set-top box. It's the future.

As showcased in the trailer below, L.A. Noire is using groundbreaking facial recognition tech to help make character interaction more immersive and nuanced, so much so that it becomes a key gameplay feature.

Barrera argued that this new focus should prove every bit as groundbreaking as Grand Theft Auto 3's open world gameplay.

"We're taking the same risks with L.A. Noire as we did when we published GTA 3. At that time, I remember trying to explain to people that there aren't really any levels, you can go where you want, you activate missions when you want. It was going over people's heads. They thought it was absurd.

"Well, this game is a bit more cerebral, you have to talk to people, you have to figure out if they're telling you the truth, but it's taking that same sort of step that GTA took. We're going from having a cinematic experience that you can control to a human experience that you can control."

Making conversation so central to the experience represents a vital leap forward in the developer's evolution, Barrera insisted elsewhere in the interview.

"At Rockstar, we're always trying to push the medium. If games are only going to be about shooting things, dying and starting over, that's a pretty boring future for us. So here's an opportunity where we thought, how can we make having a conversation be the focus of the gameplay?

"It's been sort of the holy grail for a long time and the technology wasn't there to approach it in this manner. Obviously, there have been a million talking heads in video games – games like Mass Effect do an amazing job, the guys at BioWare really know how to work conversation systems.

"But we wanted to take it a step further and actually have that human element that can be missing from those games; the ability to see a performance rather than a puppet on screen.

"It's a good step forward, and it's really important to our industry," he surmised. "Sure, there's a place for shooting games, I'm a big fan of Dead Space 2, but we have to expand our horizons."

Not long to wait now until you get to check out out Rockstar's ambitious vision. L.A. Noire launches on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 20th May.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • rogueJT #1 1 year ago

    lol, wat?

  • chrisno21 #2 1 year ago

    If this was just another sandbox game I would be less interested. The fact that it is different and requires a new way to play means I'm actually pretty excited about this game, which is rare these days.

  • jag10 #3 1 year ago

    !

  • jablonski #4 1 year ago

    Wel lhe doesn't really commit his company's future to it. More that it will be an interesting path to explore.

    Seeing as teens these days to nothing but IM / FACEBOOK / CHATROOMS - I think future gamers will be quite happy to converse with other imaginary individuals without having to kill them after.

  • Widge #5 1 year ago

    /awaits "its a game, where is the ganeplay?" comments

  • rojjer #6 1 year ago

    Walternate!

  • martmart #7 1 year ago

    Bollocks to that

  • Snake_2011 #8 1 year ago

    as long as the GTA series continues I'm happy there my fav devs Rockstar.

  • BuddyChrist #9 1 year ago

    Good call. A great rockstar game I can play with my kid, or gf.

    Make awesome games playable to the masses. It can be done.

  • Iain815 #10 1 year ago

    its a game, where is the ganeplay?

  • Smudge1983 #11 1 year ago

    Bully didn't have any guns.... maybe an air rifle if i remember rightly and that game is IMHO one of the best sandbox games made.

  • Tryhard #12 1 year ago

    GTA V play a member of the Salvation Army helping homeless people.RDR 2 Become a suffragette and fight for womens rights.

  • des #13 1 year ago

    lol,Rockstar game without guns or violence =huge sales flop

  • TRUTH #14 1 year ago

    The problem I find with Rockstar games: Gta, RDR..they may all be sandbox natured, but, gameplay becomes rather repetitive and is stretched out to long. Got bored of RDR and GTA by halfway!...they just wouldn't end and left you repeating same missions again again, usually killing or fetching/delivering things!

  • flaming.carrot #15 1 year ago

    If anything GTA4 needed more guns, and a Rhino tank.

  • bratmandu #16 1 year ago

    Just replace the guns with walkie talkies.

  • the_dudefather #17 1 year ago

    Bully + Warriors had no guns right?

    /overlysimplisticargument

  • Goodfella #18 1 year ago

    Good call I say, some of the very best games I've played in recent years haven't had any guns in them.

    Maybe it's cause I'm from a generation (started playing videogames in the 70's) where most games didn't involve you shooting stuff.

    Nothing wrong with it, I just think there should be less of them and different paths explored.

  • Dr.Mott #19 1 year ago

    Table Tennis didn't have any guns.

  • OnlyMe #20 1 year ago

    Insult Crime Fighting

  • timewarp87 #21 1 year ago

    So rumours of EA buying GTA IP are true ??

  • Slikz #22 1 year ago

    After seeing the gameplay trailer I doubt la noire will be anything special, although I really enjoyed heavy rain. I'll get it when the price drops.

  • disappointed #23 1 year ago

    I'm suddenly interested in this game. I always expected the investigation aspect of the game to be a thin veneer over GTA style action. That held no interest to me. Developing communication between characters is a great way for any game developer to go and a big surprise to me, with it coming from a developer I had down as little more than a wannabe film studio. Nice one Rockstar. Please get it right.

  • Snake_2011 #24 1 year ago

    @TRUTH that is the style of there games & they sell by the bucket load get your moneys worth every time as well imo.

  • Redflooch #25 1 year ago

    that isn't supposed to be good news is it. Hopefully Rockstar North don't follow this path ( they are the only decent Rockstar studio anyway)

  • Hindle #26 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 23:04:43 04-04-2012

  • makeamazing #27 1 year ago

    Yeah i think it would make for pretty boring games if there wasnt an element of gun play to it.... Welcome to RDR you're a cowboy fighting criminals with errrm... not a gun... errrm with your wit!!!! thats it we can make it some kind of Fallout 3 voice challenge game... see easy..

    /me worries for gaming in the future if that is the way it went. I dont want games to be dumb shooters, but i want a mix of gameplay, and i dont really seeing this every happening, well certainly in these types of games.

  • Acrid #28 1 year ago

    I don't remember there being any guns in Bully

  • superdelphinus #29 1 year ago

    Isn't this very likely to be simply the best game ever put together so far?

  • superdelphinus #30 1 year ago

    I'd love there to be a really massive open world spy time game with practically no guns in it. More ipcress file than 007

  • zedzee #31 1 year ago

    "facial recognition"?!

    Don't you mean facial features scanning?

  • metalangel #32 1 year ago

    For one thing, this appears to PROPERLY be an adventure game, done with modern technology. NOT the boring puzzles of a Telltale game with nice graphics, but something actually compelling, interesting, to make you care about the story.

    The other thing... is that guns lose their impact (no wordplay intended) if you're firing them all the time. When you're Niko Bellic mowing down a city block of innocents and cops, it just becomes routine and you don't care. But when you only take your gun out for rare occasions, and fire it even less, with a group of people you're more attached to because of the story... well, you're going to be a lot more aware of the consequences. I trust Rockstar to not have every case in LA Noire end in a shootout.

  • Kanjin #33 1 year ago

    Cool. If I think about what I enjoyed most about GTA IV - and I did, in a pretty different way to San Andreas - it was the characters and the amazing game world which sucked me in. Rockstar really could be on to something here.

  • s3box #34 1 year ago

    hey rockstar. look at the adventure games monkey island and indiana jones on amiga. we want games like this TODAY.

    not like the remake of monkey island but with good graphics and fun gameplay. give us more unique games rockstar instead of always gta clones.. stop milking the cow if you cannot deliver fun games anymore....

    gta4 and rdr are way too repetive it´s just always the exact same as gta3 so stop making gta DLCs and take a look at just cause 2 how much fun gta4 could have been
    Edited by s3box at 11/05/11 @ 22:36

  • spekkeh #35 1 year ago

    YES PLEASE

    Although it's kind of weird to hear it from Rockstar, whose games' stories regularly failed because of all the wanton killing filler missions, making any poignancy fly straight out of the window (Minkley wrote a good piece with 'why i hate rdr'). Hopefully this marks a turning point.

  • BuddyChrist #36 1 year ago

    @goodfella
    Exactly.

    It's good to mix things up a little.

    When Rockstar make Sandbox Viva pop Pinata Mama star, capable of making Elton John loose his lunch, I'll take it back.... But it would be great to get a spectacular title that doesn't get orphans to headstom

  • curryking3 #37 1 year ago

    I'm going to love L.A. Noire and love Rockstar for publishing the game, but come on...

    That's like saying no one is going to watch action movies after seeing Titanic or something.

    I'm glad if they will try to make more games like L.A. Noire of course though.

  • neilka #38 1 year ago

    There were no guns in Lemmings. Although there were a lot of deaths.
    Edited by neilka at 12/05/11 @ 00:56

  • Xardan #39 1 year ago

    I for one am glad Rockstar are trying to push the medium. There needs to be more people like the guy here interviewed in the industry.

  • RazorObsession #40 1 year ago

    No guns, fine. I can live with that. So long as I can still knife people.

  • Guildenstern #41 1 year ago

    *Looks at comments above*
    Yeah, that's why we can't have nice things.

  • JesseDeya #42 1 year ago

    How are they 'taking a risk'? Didn't Heavy Rain already take the exact risk they are talking about, and win? I think R* want to think they are pioneering here, but they're really not.

    I'm still looking forward to this though, should be a great experience.

  • Inmediasress #43 1 year ago

    What did people expect anyway from a game that you play as a detective?
    Sure some shooting yes but detective does not equal Rambo.
    However it will be a fine game if it is long enough with an interesting story.
    Tough I hope it's not a 10 hour game and it would be nice if they don't make it too linear.
    Solving cases trough different routes is instant win in my book

  • Lunatic4ever #44 1 year ago

    I've been looking forward to many games in my life but most of the time I knew that it those games weren't really groundreaking.
    They were certainly fun. They made use of a few new gameplay elements but in the end it was just another shooter. Maybe with better graphics than those before but thats about it.

    Now look at this. It's so different in many ways that I can not even really categorize it. That is the main reason why I am excited about this. Simply because I have not played anything like this before. Finding clues and solving cases.
    Its pretty much and adventure but without the point and click aspect. Thats something very unique and I hope it can motivate the gaming industrsy to think about new ways as well.

    So withot further ado-> PRE-ORDER

  • Murton #45 1 year ago

    "games like Mass Effect do an amazing job, the guys at BioWare really know how to work conversation systems"

    They used to, they don't anymore. The conversation wheel is horrible and makes me a spectator in story scenes rather than an active participant. It's also a barrier to immersion and roleplay when I can't decide what my own character says and have to merely pick his mood instead.

    As for a "gun free" future, never going to happen. As development costs rise the industry will gravitate towards the trends that produce the highest profits, and that means trying to emulate the success of the most profitable games of all time, which means Call of Duty, so skill free, soulless MP shooters will continue to be the focus of almost all developers until the genre collapses under its own weight and lack of innovation. What takes over from that after it happens though is anyone's guess, personally I think it'll be shooters with features from other genres bolted on, like Mass Effect, Borderlands, Deus Ex etc.

  • DrStrangelove #46 1 year ago

    Oh God, conversation? Kill it with fire!

  • Gumersindo #47 1 year ago

    The thing about truth/lie can be very interesting. Imagine one character lies to you and you kill the wrong person.
    This means lots of possibilities

  • spekkeh #48 1 year ago

    @Murton, save for MUDs and the occasional declaratively programmed indie game like Facade, you can never really choose what your character says in a game. Besides, an NPC saying something, then you thinking about it, reading six dialogue options, mulling over the right answer, and finally twenty seconds later your character silently retorts (and subsequently finding out the game didn't mean your sentence in a snide ironic way, but you really insulted the NPC) is somehow good for immersion?
    Personally I find the quick mood reaction in Mass Effect, where the game is able to keep the dialogue flowing in a well-written, natural way, a lot more immersive.