Although many magazines and websites have already reviewed Heavy Rain, the rest of us declasse must wait until the game releases in North America on February 23rd. However, there’s a light in this dark tunnel of anticipation. As predicted, the Heavy Rain demo is now available on the Playstation Network. In case you’ve been out of the loop, Heavy Rain is a story-driven game concerning the search for a serial killer called the Origami Killer.
The demo provides the opportunity to play two scenes as two of the four characters you play during the game. In one of the scenes, you step into the shoes of private detective Scot Shelby. The scene finds Shelby seeking out for questioning a prostitute who’s son was killed by the Origami Killer. Because she’s already been questioned by the copes her and is justifiably upset by her son’s death, she’s not exactly cooperative. As a result, this scene provides a great example of how the conversation system works. As you speak with the prostitute, the text of various reaction options swirl around you with a corresponding button next to the description indicating what button push push to choose that reaction. In this case, the different reactions consisted of sympathizing, tricking, or paying.
The conversation system operates very much like the conversation scheme in the Mass Effect series, where you choose a general reaction as opposed to the specific response. Like the Mass Effect system, you can queue up responses while the other character is speaking, resulting in seamless cinematic sequences making you feel that you are more part of a movie in progress than a video game. I played the demo several times, attempting to console the prostitute one time and seeking to pay her off just to get the information another. It definitely allowed me to the see potential of playing through the game several times to see how characters react differently based on your choices. Hopefully, the choices you make, and the evidence you obtain or don’t obtain as a result, have a significant impact on how the game plays out to make the game worth playing through several times.
Although I won’t divulge the specific details, the scene with Shelby also allows a glimpse of the combat mechanic (although I will say that it does not involve you beating the prostitute GTA style!). Once you’re in a combat sequence, symbols prompt you to either press specific buttons or move your control stick or controller in a specific direction. If you don’t perform the specified action within the allotted time, you will either fail to dodge the punch or hit the opponent or do whatever the corresponding act is. The sequence was very intense and required a lot of focus and quick reaction time. Unlike the annoying sequences in some games (e.g. Resident Evil 4), you don’t fail and get a game over if you miss a single prompt. You get hit or fail to take action, and the tide of the fight is affected accordingly. In my playthroughs, I did not lose the fight, but presumably you could do so if you missed enough prompts. Although I have been skeptical of an entire game based on quick time responses, the fight sequence was satisfying and the developer, Quantic Dream, may just have created a system that works.
The second scene available in the demo casts you as Norman Jayden, an FBI agent, at the scene of a boy who purportedly was murdered by the Origami Killer. Unlike the Shelby scene, this scene felt much more directed. The conversation you have with the police investigator basically consists of questions about the scene with no variant reactions or attitude. Although the high-tech investigator glasses that allow you to see traces of blood or other particles provided an interesting visual effect, their use basically involved just pushing a button to scan the surrounding area and then moving to another area to continue scanning. Once you find anything of interest, you kneel down and magical computer databases tell you what you’ve found. Hopefully all of the investigative sequences in the game are not quite as straightforward.
The graphics in the demo were fairly impressive. There was a lot of detail in a lot of the textures, such as the police cars and wallpaper. And the rain and water effects in the puddles as the rain continued to fall felt realistic. However, the level of detail varied significantly, and certain objects and surfaces, such as the kitchen table in the prostitute’s room, lacked detail completely. Overall, however, the graphics created an environment and world that felt realistic. That, combined with the dark atmosphere with the rainstorm as backdrop, definitely made me feel as if I were playing through a movie over which I had some control. And made me all the more excited for Heavy Rain’s February 23rd release.