We got our hands on the latest preview build of Quantic Dream's upcoming story-driven thriller.
Heavy Rain is a game that defies definition. Combining a thrilling storyline with a heavily cinematic feel, it aims to conjure up the kinds of emotions elicited by a great film or one's own life experiences. Developer Quantic Dream has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that you aren't merely playing a game, but instead are participating in an absorbing emotional experience. That may sound a little contrived, perhaps even a little unbelievable, but from our latest hands-on, it's clear that Heavy Rain is unlike anything you will have played before.
The focus of the game is on character interaction and behavioral choices, rather than all-out action. How you act towards others and the choices you make can dramatically affect the outcome of the game. It's even possible that one of the playable characters will die and you'll continue on the story without that character. We encountered many different characters in Heavy Rain, though only four of them are playable. The main characters are the backbone of the game's story, and all of them will meet or interact at intersecting points. The story is adult, dealing with murder, kidnapping, and even rape. It's told via cinematic visuals, which make it feel as though you are at the heart of a dramatic movie. Camera angles are carefully chosen to reflect the mood of a scene, with out-of-focus shots and wide-angle pans sprinkled liberally throughout. Most of the scenes look like they were filmed with a handheld camera, giving the game a gritty crime-thriller feel. There are also moments when the screen splits into several portions, showing multiple views of characters.
The control scheme is unique to the game, mostly involving a series of simple button presses and quick-time events. These are overlaid as white graphical instructions indicating which button or analogue stick movement is required to perform an action. For example, opening a door requires moving the analogue stick up and then to the right, as if you are using a door handle. The speed at which you make some movements can directly affect how a scene plays out, and how characters react to you. If you quickly move the analogue stick to shut a door, it will slam, giving the impression of anger. Thoughts also play an important part, and by holding down L2 you can see them swirling around your character's head, with an icon to indicate which button to push to activate them. They can give clues as to what you should be doing or insight into the game's story.
We were lucky enough to play through the first 11 scenes of the game in the latest preview build. Please note that because of the story-driven nature of the game, the following contains spoilers.
Heavy Rain kicks off with a prologue-cum-tutorial, where we took on the role of Ethan Mars, an architect with a wife, two children, and a house that seems to be designed entirely by Ikea. The opening scene sees him sprawled out on the bed, with the screen splitting into six sections, showing various angles of the sleeping protagonist in the sun-drenched room. We were also introduced to the main musical theme that runs throughout the game--a piano-led piece that holds plenty of sadness within its chords. After getting Ethan up, showered, and dressed, we walked downstairs; our thoughts told us we should probably get on with some work, though another thought wanted us to hang out in the garden. Ethan either indulges in some architectural drawing or simply lies down in the garden until his wife arrives home.
Upon her arrival, we found out that it was our son Jason's 10th birthday, and she was preparing for his birthday party. We helped bring in the shopping and lay the table, and we even gave Mrs. Mars a passionate kiss. We also played games with the kids out in the garden, spinning them around, carrying them on our shoulders, and even engaging in toy swordfights with them. Though these actions are seemingly mundane, they help to build up an emotional attachment to the characters.
The next scene saw us in a busy shopping mall, where we were looking after Jason. He nags his father to buy him a balloon, and Ethan inevitably gives in. This leads to the first heart-wrenching scene in the game, because while paying for the balloon, Jason wanders off into the crowd. With the camera focused on Ethan, you see Jason slowly wander off into the periphery, with the red balloon slowly fading away. As we started to look for him, the music picked up, getting more dramatic as the scene played out.
We pushed Ethan through the crowds, just looking for any sign of the red balloon as we shouted out Jason's name repeatedly. The crowd got thicker and thicker and it got more difficult to push through. We suddenly found ourselves on the edge of our seats, anxious that we may not find him. Eventually, we found Jason outside the mall, on the opposite side of the road. As Ethan called out to him, a car approached, and Jason ran into the road. Ethan leaped out to try to save him from the oncoming car, but they both got hit, and his wife screamed out in agony as she saw them both hurt. The red balloon slowly rises into the sky and the scene finishes.
The tone of the game then changes dramatically as the intro credits roll, with developer and voice actors names interspersed across the now rain-soaked city. A series of wet faces are shown throughout, showcasing the immense amount of detail that has gone into the facial animations. When it was over, we took control of Ethan once again, this time looking like a broken man, unshaven, living in a dingy house, and with a look of immense pain and unhappiness on his face. We found ourselves trying to rebuild Ethan's relationship with his remaining son, Shaun, more of which you can read about in our previous preview.
We then took control of Detective Shelby, a private investigator researching the Origami Killer. His car pulls up next to a run-down inner-city motel, where he's aiming to question Lauren Winter, a prostitute who has lost her son to the murderer. Though she was reluctant to talk about her son's murder, we were presented with various conversational options with which to convince her. We could sympathise with her, send her on a guilt trip by mentioning other children who had disappeared, or simply try to force the information out of her. We chose to send her on a guilt trip. She eventually gave in, and we were able to choose from a set of questions to ask. However, we weren't able to ask her everything, as questions must be chosen quickly during conversations.
At the end of the questioning, Lauren asked Shelby to leave. Upon entering the hallway outside her room, Detective Shelby suffered an asthma attack. We had to quickly pull out an inhaler from our pocket. The quick-time button icons were blurry, disappearing in and out of view, indicating the distress that Shelby was in. After recovering, we heard screams from Lauren's room and broke the door in to find her being beaten up by an old client. This brought us to the first fight scene in the game. Combat is also handled by quick-time events, and the speed at which commands had to be entered gave us a sense of fear and urgency as we fought off our attacker. Missing a button press gave our opponent the upper hand, allowing him to land a few punches. The camera cuts rapidly during the fight, much like a scene from a classic action film. We were thrown around the motel, smashed into glass, and had to use household objects as weapons. We eventually dispatched our assailant, after which Lauren thanked us and we left the building
The third character in the game is Norman Jayden, an FBI agent with a drug addiction. We were at a crime scene where the Origami Killer had struck again, killing another young boy. The scene had already been infiltrated by the press, with journalists scattered around commenting on the murder. It's here that we were first able to use the Added Reality Interface. The ARI is a pair of glasses that adds a heads-up display to Jayden's surroundings, allowing him to detect and analyse evidence. Walking around the crime scene, we found blood traces, footprints, tyre tracks, and pollen from an orchid plant--a calling card for the Origami Killer. We also chatted to Lieutenant Blake, the police officer in charge of the investigation. He seemed less than happy to be speaking to us, but he did furnish us with information on the case and past evidence the police had gathered.
The next scene put us back in control of Ethan. We were in the park with an unhappy-looking Shaun and tried to cheer him up by playing on the merry-go-round, the swings, and the seesaw. Shaun asks to ride the carousel, and whilst on it, Ethan blacks out. When he comes around he is alone in the middle of a road. We got him up and proceeded to look for Shaun. After frantically running around looking for him, it dawns on Ethan that his son is gone. He falls to his knees, crying in anguish and soaked in rain as he finds that an origami figure has been placed in his hand.
At this point the game cuts back to Jayden. We were in the police station awaiting an appointment with Captain Perry. We found out he had assigned us to the Origami Killer case, citing pressure from the media as his reason for getting the FBI involved. Perry's secretary, Charlene, introduced us to our office, which was effectively just a large cupboard. It was here that we saw more of the ARI's functions. We were able to virtually convert the room into a Martian planet or a location under the sea, which helped Jayden to concentrate on analysing case files and using virtual maps to find out where evidence had originated from.
Jayden's drug addiction rears its ugly head as he suddenly starts shaking uncontrollably. You have the option to take a drug called Trip To or try to resist and get a drink of water to calm your nerves. The button actions are also blurred and shaking, and if you try to make it to the watercooler, they get harder and harder to see, indicating Jayden's deteriorating condition. Ethan also makes an appearance in the police station, reporting his son missing. The following scene sees Mrs. Mars in tears, knowing that she has now lost both her sons, and she lashes out at Ethan in her grief.
The final scene put us in the shoes of the forth character, Madison Paige, a journalist researching the Origami Killer. Madison suffers from insomnia, and after she woke up in her apartment, we tried to get her to nod back off to sleep by taking a hot shower. When we emerged from the shower--which left little to the imagination--it was clear that something was amiss. A creepy figure kept darting around the screen, which Madison first dismisses as her imagination. After we tried to get back into bed, a masked assailant attacked us, leading to another dramatic fight scene. As soon as we'd fought off our attacker, another appeared, and we were left helpless as to how we could fight him off.
With that, our time with Heavy Rain drew to a close. The game is shaping up to be an incredibly emotional experience. Though many actions are controlled by quick-time events, you never feel as though you are anything but fully in control of the characters. The decisions that you make are reflected through the course of the game, and the focus on story is certainly refreshing. The game is also graphically stunning. Facial animations reach levels of realism that were once just the subject of PlayStation 3 tech demos. We've yet to see much of how the characters cross paths, or exactly how linear the gameplay will be. There are many great ideas on show, and the storyline and cinematics are so rich that it's easier to compare the game to movies such as Seven and L.A. Confidential than to other video games. Heavy Rain is scheduled for release in early 2010 on the PlayStation 3.
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