Thanks to the currently running Heavy Rain ARG I got a chance to play next week’s demo, today. Heavy Rain is a game I am “heavily” anticipating and while originally I wasn’t going to play the demo to keep myself pure I figured since I’m getting it early I might as well play it and tell you guys about it.
The demo starts with you playing as private detective Scott Shelby. The camera zooms in on an alleyway, Mr. Shelby is standing in it. You then enter the tutorial part of the demo as you must learn to guide your character down the alleyway. Unfortunately much like Quantic Dream’s previous game Indigo Prophecy controlling your character is a pain in the ass. I assume this is purposeful and to ratchet up the tension in tense moments. You will never, ever be able to make your character walk in a straight line. I don’t think it’s even possible.
Walking is mapped to R2 the harder you hold it down the faster your character walks. You then use the left stick to aim your character in the direction you want him to go. It’s not a fine control and you don’t hold the stick in the direction you want to move, you just sort of flick it forward if you want your character to go forward. You can flick it to the right to make them sort of go to the right. The demo is definitely not enough time to get used to this, but hopefully over the course of the game it becomes more natural.
Once the tutorial part was over I entered a seedy motel looking to question a known prostitute. I asked about her at the front desk and the guy said he didn’t know who she was. I was then prompted to use the right stick to make a motion like I was reaching for my wallet. With that motion complete I bribed the guy at the counter and he told me what room she was in. Making my way to her room Shelby begins to have an asthma attack. After making proper right stick motions he retrieves an inhaler from his jacket pocket. You shake the controller up and down to prime the inhaler and then use R1 to take a hit from it. Quantic Dream said there was going to be innovative uses of the Sixaxis, I guess this is better than aiming the arc of a grenade.
Reaching the woman’s room I began questioning her about the Origami Killer, her son was a victim. To question her, words begin to circle around your head each attached to one of the Dual Shock 3′s face buttons. If I wanted to ask about her son I had to hit X, ask about the boy’s father hit O and so on. Eventually the questioning begins to upset the woman, I leave my card on the table and tell her to call me if she can think of anything. On my way out a big burly man enters the room, presumably he’s a customer. As you start to walk away you hear the prostitute scream. I decided to turn around and investigate. After knocking on the door twice the man answers, in the background you can see the woman is on the floor.
You then engage in a fight with the man, which is one long quick time event. Requiring you to hit buttons on the controller and flick the right stick in patterns shown on the screen. This is more difficult and quicker than say God of War’s boss finishing QTEs. At times I felt like I was going to lose the fight, and knowing the game’s penchant for killing off characters I thought this might be a real possibility. However in the end I got control and fought the man off. I then spent the rest of my time with Mr. Shelby questioning the prostitute about the man who attacked her.
The second character you control in the demo is FBI agent Norman Jayden. You drive up to a crime scene and exit your car. Two cops tell you, you aren’t allowed past the yellow line, but you flash your FBI badge and you get clearance. You start asking around for the person who is in charge of the crime scene and once you find him you walk beside him touring the crime scene and asking questions in the same way Shelby asked the prostitute questions.
With that out-of-the-way you slip on a pair of sunglasses and put a glove on your right hand. By tapping R1 a field of green ripples across the ground and if it finds any evidence it pops up augmented reality style. You can then go over to the evidence and analyze it using a computer built into the glasses. After finding as much evidence as I could and analyzing the body I returned to the officer in charge and told him what I found. After this conversation I got back in my car and drove away, ending the demo.
I couldn’t write about this demo without at least devoting a paragraph to comparing this game to Indigo Prophecy, because it really does feel like Indigo 2.0. Both scenes in the demo began with what day it was, what time it was, and how many inches of ran has fallen. Similar to Indigo Prophecy’s date, time, and temperature being displayed at the beginning of its scenes. The button presses and decisions have to be made within about a second and feel even faster and more frenetic than the decisions you had to make in Indigo Prophecy. Like I mentioned earlier the characters are a little hard to control and I felt the characters in Indigo were also hard to control. I’m thinking it’s purposeful.
Heavy Rain feels like it was built around the Dual Shock 3 controller, and I feel like there are going to be events in the game where you look at your controller and think what the hell am I doing? Is this game going to be for everyone? Absolutely not, and I highly recommend you try out the demo when it hits on February 11th. I don’t think it even scratches the surface of the innovations the game might be capable of, but it seems like a pretty good indicator of what players are in for.
If you’re concerned that it contains spoilers it really doesn’t feel like it. Going into the game you know it’s about the origami killer and you really don’t know much more by the end of the demo. Players are in for a wild ride when Heavy Rain hits stores on February 23rd for the Playstation 3.