Grand Theft Auto Tehran

[Shakermaker]

I shit you not.

The pitch:

The game aims to combine some sandbox, open-world elements popularized by "Grand Theft Auto" with what Khonsari calls a "baton-pass" narrative, which explores this historic backdrop through the sequential perspectives of several playable characters.

The description:

At the game's outset, the player is an American/Iranian translator on a mission to rescue the embassy hostages. The player must choose one of three historically inspired ways to enter Iran: By helicopter with a U.S. special forces team, through the Iraq border with Saddam Hussein's army or across the Afghanistan border with the Taliban. In these preliminary levels, the game plays as a fairly standard third-person shooter, with some linguistic puzzles that will test your character's imperfect mastery of the Farsi language.

"But once you get into Iran, you're no longer the translator," he said. "You take the role of a student demonstrator who was opposed the shah. You've kicked the shah out, but you're unhappy with some of these fanatical elements you see rising up. "So the game changes, and now your mission is to get this small military group to Tehran, but nonviolently, clandestinely. You want the American hostages out of Iran because you want the country to focus on rebuilding itself, and you've heard all these rumors about a war with Iraq coming."

This, Khonsari explains, is where gameplay shifts to include some morally ambiguous elements of diplomacy, stealth and bartering. Each time the baton passes to a new character, the style of gameplay changes, too. Some characters will focus more on action, while others will feature vehicles and puzzle-solving. "Not everyone you meet is going to be helpful," he said. "There are going to be aspects of bribery, making exchanges and turning a blind eye to really bad stuff so you can get the job done. "Maybe, in order to get the group there, you need to sacrifice some stragglers and let them get captured so the others can get away. And then you'll have some extreme choices to make when you get to Tehran: Are you going to invade the embassy, guns blazing, to try to get the hostages back? Or are you going to try to protect the embassy from the Americans?

While it sounds awesome, I don't see this game ever reaching retail. Which is a shame, because it is a great concept imo. The dev himself is already thinking about sequels:

"(This is) the first installment of a franchise where the games will be named after years in which there were CIA operations within certain countries," he said. " '1979' is the first one because it's closest to my heart and I know the story the best. After that, we want to explore what took place in Panama with (Manuel) Noriega, and Libya back in the '70s and '80s with (Moammar) Gadhafi."

Please, PLEASE don't be vaporware.

 

[knut]

sounds interesting enough to. i'd play it.

 

[Remus]

GTA in the middle east? That's a great idea, NOT. Do not want.

 

[Dinnesch]

If it's GTA, has mountains, (player-controlled!) jets, magnet helicopters and tanks I'll buy it. Man I want a proper sequel to San Andreas so badly.

Oh and I don't care about the story, which this article seems focused at.

 

[knut]

i think the ''grand theft auto'' part of this story is really only about where the guy who has pitched the idea has come from - he has history in the dev team.

i don't nessecarily think this is going to be a GTA game, and good. it sounds far more involving and interesting than simply being the new GTA game, and i'm a huge fan of the series.

 

[Shakermaker]

GTA in the middle east? That's a great idea, NOT. Do not want.

You have no imagination. GTA Middle East will be worth it alone for the radio stations.

This is not really GTA Tehran though, read the description again. I would really like for games to delve into history more, and not in a Call of Duty way by just copycatting scenes from popular movies. A proper recent historical setting with interesting gameplay mechanics sounds pretty awesome to me.

 

[Unfocused]

Phew, for a second there I thought this will indeed be the next GTA game.

 

[Gargantou]

Phew, for a second there I thought this will indeed be the next GTA game.

I made the same mistake, I am sort of disappointed I was wrong.

A woefully politically incorrect depiction of Tehran could have been quite amusing.

 

[Krynn72]

You lied to us Shaker! YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T SHITTING US!

Sounds like a good idea so long as they pull it off maturely. I'll keep an eye out for it.