New L.A. Noire Trailer Teases Investigation and Interrogation Techniques

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It’s the oldest not-so-stupid human trick in the book and the hardest to pull off in a video game, but freestyle murder mystery L.A. Noire seems on the cusp of nailing it after scanning the latest trailer.

I’m talking about reading someone’s believability based on their body language, from shifty eyes and furtive glances to subtle gesture-based tells–something other games haven’t dared try.

Until now. Team Bondi’s 1940s pavement-pounding whodunit turns you into a human lie detector, squaring off against suspects crafted using face-mapping technology that converts live actors into uncommonly lifelike digital ones. Will you flatter or pounce on suspects? Will they buckle or lawyer up? That’s the question posed in the new game trailer.

(More on TIME.com: New “L.A. Noire” Trailer Outs Release Date)

Getting clues right at crime scenes (or plucking them, say, off cadavers) pops open new lines of inquiry, and the game apparently supports progression while missing them, too, allowing success (or failure) by degrees. The gist of solving cases sounds conventional enough–gather clues, narrow leads, make your Scooby-Doo accusation. But with many of those clues tied up in determining who’s fibbing (or outright lying) based on how they actually behave, how you get from A to “solved” looks to be anything but.

(More on TIME.com: Face-to-Face with “L.A. Noire’s” Cutting-Edge Tech)