Man, am I high on Heavy Rain. After what seems like and endless amount of games where I’m shooting nazis, terrorists, aliens, and whatever the hell else, it’s a breath of fresh air to play something that looks, feels, and plays altogether different from almost everything else out there. I absolutely adored the “Mad Jack” sequence we got to play at last year’s E3, and I made it a personal goal to find the Heavy Rain kiosk in Sony’s section of the central hall at CES.
The demo on the show floor had been covered to death in a variety of print and electronic media, but it was my first personal hands-on with the particular sequence. As Scott Shelby, a detective hired to work the case of the so called Origami Killer, I was tasked with knocking on an apartment door and interrogating the woman who lived there.
What’s really amazing (and one has to assume, from the various trailers, that this stuff runs throughout Heavy Rain) is how it can transform minutia into a compelling gameplay device. When I went into the ladies’ apartment, she hit a timer and indicated her services weren’t for free. Shelby wasn’t there to get laid, obviously, but her rules still applied and I had a work around those restrictions. I needed information, and a variety of verbal interrogation options swirled across the room. Tied to a specific button, Shelby’s choice of words was not only dependent on what you wanted to say, but what you could say, provided you were quick enough to literally catch the thoughts flying out of his head. To top it off, small actions, like sitting on the bed beside the woman or your place in her room, determined her reactions.
In the end I played Mr. Nice Guy, I lied, and I even threatened her, but I walked away empty handed. On the way out of the apartment I noticed a muscular man approaching her door and forcing his way in. Seeing another opportunity to maybe help her and get some information, I broke in myself and got into a confrontation with her aggressor. From a control standpoint I hit contextually appropriate buttons in a manner not unlike a quick time event (though for more complex than we’re used to), and I wound up besting my foe and forcing him to retreat out of the room. Did I get any info out of the deal? Nope, but maybe it will put Shelby in a better position later on. Or maybe not.
Who knows what dozens of other outcomes might have emerged from the situation? It’s part of the appeal of Heavy Rain’s system of consequence. Quantic Dream’s David Cage is on record saying Heavy Rain is going to be a game you’ll want to play over and over again. While this sort of enthusiasm is typical for excited developers, in Heavy Rain’s case the claim actually has some merit. Any given scene (of which I’ve been told there are around 40) could play out in a variety of ways, each of which could have a lasting impression on your characters. You could receive a scar that will last you for the rest of the game, or, in a worst case scenario situation, you might even be killed, thus ending the story of one of the game’s four playable characters. This sort of interface is a gamble and definitely atypical from the norm, but it’s all part of Heavy Rain’s charm; you’ve never played anything like this.
Heavy Rain is due for release on February 22nd in North America. Check back with us around then for a full review!
