One of the most highly anticipated video games based on innovation and graphical quality has been on show for the past two days, and Heavy Rain editor and writer David Cage walked us through the game, and just exactly what it is about. Described by David as a “dark interactive thriller”, Heavy Rain takes you on a journey through the lives of four people whose stories have been intertwined by the Origami Killer, a serial killer who leaves origami figures with every victim. Story wise, the game looks solid, every inch of the game seemingly worked on with surgical precision to ensure that the player is constantly involved. The intricacy level behind Heavy Rain seems off the charts, with a whole host of different scenarios available within the 70+ scenes David said were available in game. The game is one singular story, but the way the events happen is up to you. Main characters can die, but this doesn’t mean game over. If one character dies, there are three left to play with, and the story development is different, but still leading towards a similar conclusion. This style of story development is both fantastic, and intriguing. Take the demo shown for instance. You are Scott Shelby, a private detective who has been tasked with questioning the parents of the victims of the Origami Killer, in the hope of finding information that can help to solve the case. In the scene playable, you are in a small shop, where the owner is the father of one of the victims. Upon questioning him, he doesn’t tell you anything, but when you peruse his goods in search of an asthma spray, wouldn’t you know it, in walks a man, who proceeds to hold up the store.
This is where the game flourishes. Intricate gameplay turns up a notch, and you’re thrust into a scenario where every decision you make has a different outcome to the scene you play. David Cage showed us three scenarios, but as he made clear, there are way more options and decisions possible.
You can attempt to disarm the assailant, you can sit it out and see what he does, you can sneak up and try and reason with him, you can bully him into leaving, you can attempt to barter with him, reason with him. He will fight you, listen to you, pretend to listen to you, try to fight back as you disarm him. It’s a weave of scenarios in which the outcomes are affected by your style of play. Everything within the game happens because of what you choose to do.
The system of possible interactions via button pressing is as intricate as the game itself. As you emotions rise, the buttons around you that you have to press giving the different options shake and become distorted, and when you go to try and disarm the robber, if you try and pick up a bottle, the action is made harder because of your character’s nerves. You have to move the analog stick slower to avoid dropping it, and if you do, then the robber notices and the scene shifts into a different direction.
The level of detail in game is fantastic, and the graphics are just as impressive, facial animations being the best people animation I’ve ever seen in a game. Every inch of detail in both face and body is astonishing, and for the non-gamer looking at the game, there would be times where they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between it and a real life video. It’s that good. All the characters are real actors, so the models were there for Quantic Dream to animate.
When a particularly important section begins, the camera can revert to split screen, enabling you to see what's going on around you.
While talking about the game as a whole, David stated that he would like people to “only play the game once”, because this would mean that you would experience the game as real life, and when talking about the story with friends, you would have had an entirely different gaming experience to them. He went on to say that test users of the game all experienced a different story during a scene, and one tester missed a brilliant fight scene entirely because they had selected a different option earlier on. I can see where David is coming from, but I cannot imagine that gamers would only want to have one playthrough. With so many different variations of gameplay, I could see myself and many other gamers wanting to see how the story would pan out if I made different decisions at different times. You’d miss things, and you’d know you have.
Overall, this session showed me one thing more than anything else: this is a game that goes against the norm. David said that Sony “took a risk” in taking on Heavy Rain, and that it was a good one. Heavy Rain looks absolutely fantastic, and while it isn’t full of action sequences, guns, violence and intense gameplay, what it is, and what it does exceptionally well, is an interactive playthrough of an intricate, detailed, and above all, engrossing story that has a redeeming factor far outweighing most other games.
