Is the world ready for Heavy Rain?

Posted on Feb 17, 2010 in games | 0 comments

This past weekend I fired up the ol’ PS3 for the first time in a longtime and downloaded the Heavy Rain demo. This is a game I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of because, well… it’s odd.

It’s more dectective whodunnit story and less traditional ‘game’.
It’s got branching storylines depending on your decisions; with real consequences.
It’s characters can live or die depending on your actions, and the story continues to go on.
It doesn’t have a “Continue? Yes/No” screen.
It’s not what the average gamer is used to playing.
It has the potential to be a tent-pole in interactive entertainment.

It’s one of those games that most people won’t even know anything about or that it even exists (I’m guessing, but could change if Sony does some huge marketing – but I highly doubt it), and this is one of the main reasons why I was looking forward to it so much. I really enjoy playing immersive games (pls bring back Shenmue!) that are off-the-beaten path to the average gamer. And after playing the demo for 30 minutes, I can definitely say that Heavy Rain is something different.

Is Heavy Rain the interactive movie of the future? Looks like it’s trying to be.

The demo gives you a glimpse of what type of immersion you’ll have in the game. It seems to be an interesting mix of user-selected dialogue and quick time event action scenes, mixed with the mundane actions of real life. I mean, you know it’s an odd game when you actually have to perform the actions of pouring a cup of coffee (rotate the right analog stick in a half circle motion and then push up slowly towards the face), or shake the controller like an asthma inhaler — which does happen in the demo. The developers Quantic Dream describe the game as an ‘interactive narrative’, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this game plays out.

The most interesting aspect to this experience (I’m hoping anyways), is the branching storylines. This is as much as I’m willing to write before I play the actual game (official release date is next week).

I’m really hoping that more people take a chance and try this game. It’s different, and that’s a good thing. I’m hoping that the world is ready for more than just your standard CoD:MW shooters.

Below I’ve included another preview, with video clips of the game… take a look:

And because I can, here’s some Tay Zonday for you. I can’t help but sing the chorus in my head whenever I read the title Heavy Rain.