Heavy Rain looked awesome the first few times we saw it displayed at shows and event.  It’s been a long road for a game that’s days away from release now.

I must say I wasn’t really looking forward to it.  It looked intriguing, but was too low a priority to even take time to try the full game, with everything that’s coming out in 2010.  Mostly because it looked more like an interactive movie and not much of a game, and it was filled with QTEs, one of gaming’s deadly sins.

After playing the demo, I must say that my original impressions from previews were almost completely off.  While what looked  awesome graphically on display, looked more on par with the average PS3 game.  Though it’s probably due to the console’s current limitations.  The rain effects must be taxing a lot of resources.  Then came the actual game, playing with a controller in my hands, it was closer to a game than a bunch of interactive cutscenes, which was definitely a good point for me.

Disclaimer: I do know about Indigo Prophecy and Farenheit, but I never played those, so I’m a first timer with these developers.

Perfect Ambiance for a Serial Killer Thriller

The first thing that grabbed my attention through the demo was the whole ambiance to the game.  It’s dark, but not discolored generic FPS #423 gray and brown.  The rain gives the gritty and depressing atmosphere the themes warrants.   You find out soon enough you’re on the trails of a serial killer leaving origamis shaped in a bird on their victims as a signature and you’re set on what should be the mood for the whole game, something written with a mature audience in mind that loves mysteries fiction.

Like a Point and Click Adventure, Without the Point and Clicking…

If there’s a genre that needs more titles, it’s definitely the P&C adventures.  Most of the ones I’ve played have tended more to the comedic themes, as in Sam & Max and Monkey Island.  Here, we’re in the same genre (minus the funnies and adding a murder plot), but not completely. You can move your character around freely, something I must admit surprised me, since I really thought the game had a more “automatic” flow.   I must say though that the way you walk around, while it looks mostly realistic, it’s also not controlled too well and makes it look kind of weird from time to time.  The option to run would be nice on some points too, but then that would look silly and kill part of the mood when the character has no incentive to do so. You also depend a lot on finding clues around and talking to other characters.  Though in this game you’ll find the narrative taking much more place then in most adventure games.  The dialogue is really well-written too.

In some part of the demo, you also have to look around for clues like your typical P&C.  More on that down a few paragraphs.

Unlike P&C adventures though more then anything is the way you do things like opening doors, starting up a car, picking up something in your pockets, etc.  You don’t have a menu with all your inventories or a set of actions you can perform to pick from.  You’re actively using actions the game wants you to do to keep the flow of the story going, instead of trying every possibilities until you get what you need.  Just a bit less thinking, but it’s worth it since it’s a lot less tedious and keeps you thinking about what really matters, which is what and who you should approach in the game.

Wait.. what should I ask you?

When you have a discussion with an important character, you’ll have to choose what you want to say to them, feature popular in Western RPGs.  Instead of prefabricated lines to choose from, you’ll usually have different keywords floating around you with a button next to them, and pressing that said button will you have talk about that topic.  I think this makes the execution much better then having the whole sentence written to you before you have to choose.  This way this keeps the dialog at an interesting pace, instead of having to stop to read your choices after each dialog branch.

A game for everyone

Given the more cinematic approach in Heavy Rain, you’re going to attract a more casual crowd, especially the high hype given to the game since it was first announced and the developers behind the game knows this very well.  The difficulty setup changes the controls depending of how well you know your PS3 controller.  So if you don’t want to bother too much with the QTE’s and just watch the game unfold itself, you have the option to have the simplest choice of inputs in the more fast-paced part of the game.

How about the two scenarios in the demo?

The demo let’s you see part of two of the game’s multiple characters’ stories.  Here’s my thoughts on the two scenarios.

The Sleuth Questioning the Hoe

The first part of the demo has you walking in an apartment building as a middle-aged detective looking for the mother (also a whore) of a one of the victims of the origami killer.  This is set up first to show you how to control your character, and then how to interact with your environment.  I really liked how I could walk around and look/interact with the environment while I was asking questions to the victim’s mother.

Then there’s  a battle with another guy, and while this looked kind of cool and goes on differently depending on your ability to keep up with the timed inputs, it’s really annoying that it is afterall nothing more than QTEs.  But kudos for the many alternate outcomes you can get, this at least makes you feel at least a bit in control of what’s happening.

Hi, My Name is Mulder…

The next part has you play as Mulder from the X-Files.  Ok, not really, but he reminded me a lot of him.  You’re actually a young FBI agent on one of the murder scenes looking for clues.  While there’s some dialog going on here too, this part seems to show-off more the clue-searching part of the game.  As you really have to walk around the murder’s area for clues by using your high-tech I don’t know what shaped like black sunglasses.  That’s right, your character is so cool that he gets to wear sunglasses at night in heavy rain (referring to actual heavy rain, not the game’s title).  They actually have something like night-vision and a scanner that picks up on ADN left around.

I got caught up for a bit trying to find every single clue until you’re asked if you want to leave by the cop-detective that you had to talk to a bit before that.  I kindly refused and actually went back and look for more clues.  Seems like I had them all already though, so I made my way out expecting to see a bit more of the game, but the demo ended there.

So my verdict is?

I honestly was going to completely pass on this game before I tried the demo.  But now I know I at least think it’s worth a rental for about anyone that is at least a bit intrigued by the concept of a game that’s closer to a movie than any other games ever really was.

The interaction with the environment and the random button input for those didn’t really bother me, it added a bit of immersion to the game.  For the battle instances though, while I can see myself getting used to it, is a bit less my thing.  Though I feel QTEs are more at their place in a game such as this one instead of an action game like God of War or Bayonetta. And like someone else said, it’s better than just “Press X to not die”.

So I’ll be renting this and would certainly buy it if it wasn’t for all the other games coming out this Spring.

Also, we’re going to start seeing some impressions of the whole game tomorrow, as the embargo will be lifted to the press that had access to a review copy.

David A. demo, impressions, ps3