Heavy Rain Demo Impressions

Posted by Harry in Gaming, Gaming Previews, PS3 | 2 comments

No puns here, I’ve got my serious face on. I have a problem with Heavy Rain and I want to resolve it.

A demo of Quantic Dream’s long-awaited interactive experience Heavy Rain was released to the general public last week. I say experience because I still can’t decide whether I should call Heavy Rain a game or not and therein lies my problem.

I’m a film guy nowadays but I have been gaming for many years. I’ve clocked more hours on more games than I’d care to mention. to many gamers I’d be considered a rookie in comparison but with more than a decade of gaming under my belt I can definitely hold my own. I’ve watched the video game industry grow rapidly and evolve faster than I can keep track. New and innovative people show us what could be the future of gaming but rather than disregard them we open our minds to the possibilities. Slowly disappearing are the days of wired controllers, 8-bit games, cartridges, memory cards and rumble packs.

They are being swept aside to make way for motion-controlled gaming, 1080p visuals, downloadable games, internal memory, backwards compatibility, wireless controllers & 3D gaming. Amidst the wave of new ways to play, David Cage asks you to forget most of that and try out a different style of gaming: an interactive movie experience. The idea sounds a little silly but as mentioned earlier, the gaming community can embrace the prospect of a new way to play. Myself along with many others like me found ourselves relishing the opportunity to try this experimental and intriguing new form of gaming.

David Cage had won the gamers over. His charming persona sold us the ideas he had and all he needed was for us to see for ourselves what he was trying to do. Exhibited last year several times, many gamers got the chance to play the first demo for the game. We were blown away by incredible visuals, the prospect of your decisions affecting the story arc and (most importantly) the innovative style of playing Heavy Rain.

I was sold. But when the public demo was released and I got to play a couple of other scenarios in the story I found myself at odds with my own original impressions. Was my first impression affected by the pitch made by Cage? Is Heavy Rain really as good as I believed?

Is Heavy Rain even a game?

When I played through the demo (which I have done twice) I immediately get wrapped up in the world of Heavy Rain, the film noir styles and the thriller elements that the theme of rain itself exemplify. As far as the narrative and the immersion into Heavy Rain’s story go, I was definitely impressed. The two characters you play as and the other characters you meet during the demo all feel believable, unscripted and they compliment the setting perfectly. The first part of the demo (outside of the mini tutorial) introduces you to the asthmatic Scott Shelby, a private detective who is trying to solve the murder case that runs throughout the story.

He’s looking for the murdered known as the Origami Killer and in the demo he’s come to a “sleazy place” to ask a victim’s mother if she knows anything that could help him find the killer. Right from the start of this “sequence” the sense of realism is incredible. Everything you see on screen is immaculately designed, the whole environment looking extraordinary. The first character aside from Scott Shelby you’re introduced to is the owner of the place and his uncaring attitude is just one of many convincing moments. It feels very much like watching a cutscene even though you are in full control.

You can bribe the owner to tell you where to find your person but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Whether choosing to or not is something that could affect the story but I haven’t worked out how yet. Heavy Rain has been touted a lot as being an experience that is affected by the decisions you make but it seems that a lot of decisions do lead to pretty much the same outcome. You’ll experience this during the sequence because many different options are presented to you which in turn play out differently but the end result for me was different in both playthroughs.

One moment that exemplified this was when Scott has an asthma attack – you can leave Scott to have it for as long as you like but no matter how long you leave him struggling before you give him his inhaler, the same end result occurs because it leads to the big moment in the sequence. This kind of annoyed me because it suggested that you have a choice but you really don’t. That being said what follows can play out differently (but only if you chose to not press the buttons).

The other half of the demo seemed to be far more scripted and straightforward. Playing as FBI agent Norman Jayden, in this sequence you are looking for clues to help figure out what happened at the crime scene you are in. Someone has been murdered by the Origami Killer and as Norman you are looking for things that could help you figure out the events that took place. This would be very enjoyable to do were it not for the awkward movement controls within the game – you hold down R2 to move and use the left analogue stick to move in the direction you want to go. It feels unnatural to do this – I’d much rather just have the analogue stick as the movement and use the R2 button for something else.

The sequence is still good fun as you implement your special sunglasses which can detect elements of things not visible to the human eye. Kind of like the glasses in They Live, but with shoe prints and DNA samples instead of aliens. The detective element is where the game flourishes and the quick time events that come hand in hand with the core game play fit well with the more open environment you’re allowed to explore.

Much in the same way as the first scene, the environment you’re in looks fantastic. The height of realism in Heavy Rain is something I haven’t really experienced before and it really does help you engage in the experience. It’s the visuals and the narrative that excel in Heavy Rain and they do help with forgiving the little game play mechanics that can be annoying.

That said though my problem still remains. I liked my time with Heavy Rain and in no way should it be classed as bad. It’s a great experience and it is really good to watch and get engrossed in. But that’s my problem. When I’m playing Heavy Rain, it doesn’t feel like I’m playing a game. It feels like I’m playing out the sequences in a film. It’s a dilemma I’m in because I really appreciate what Heavy Rain does and as an avid film watcher and gamer it should tick all the right boxes.

But there’s that niggling feeling that I don’t want to have any control over Heavy Rain, I just want to sit back and let everything pan out. I would love Quantic Dream to add a feature that lets Heavy Rain randomly play out one of the story arcs so I can sit back and really appreciate the visual quality and the engaging story. While experiencing Heavy Rain I sometimes feel like the quick time elements and the button pressing is detaching me from the narrative and the realism which is what I’m far more interested in.

Heavy Rain is great, no question and I hope that when I pick up a copy (which I definitely will) that my problem will be eradicated. I’d love a Heavy Rain film. If there’s a Heavy Rain in the pipeline then I’m happy.