Heavy Rain or the demo at least gave rise to something I haven’t felt in a long time whilst gaming and it took me awhile to place it, Alone in the Dark from the old PC days. Both titles have the same dark sinister environments, lighting effects and slow movements. What did immediately strike me was the parallels with Blade Runner the film. Lots of rain, dark apartment environments, main characters all seem to be detectives of one sort or another, even down to the use of origami as a clear identifier or symbol (I could go on).
Right from the opening credits you get a very clear impression that this is going to be a visually engrossing high-def experience. It plays more as a interactive movie than a third person platformer. You have to do all the movements for the character you are controlling (of which there are two in the demo). You have to move the right thumb stick in certain directions, a common one is sideways, then downwards in a circular motion. There is even swirling dialogue choices, designed to make it seems like there is loads of ideas swimming around in your brain. It’s certainly a unique control scheme, during game play you get an idea of the complexity of what Quantic Dream has tried to do and for large part I think they have succeeded. This all helps to draw you into the roll of your character and even worry about them, like the fight scene between the asthmatic private eye you are controlling and the thug beating on a prostitute. During the scene you have to be quick on the buttons and sticks as the indicators flash on screen, your obviously not supposed to get them all just like a real fight, but I very quickly became worried as the fight started to drag out that my man was going to have an asthmatic attack.
This game has the full potential to be a genre defining game on console market, I think it will have to go into my collection as one of those must haves, even just purely on the experience aspect of the game. Whilst it could be said to not be everyone’s cup of tea, there is a demo and yes you should try it, I eagerly await its release.
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