In a conference at GDC given by Quantic Dream’s David Cage, the man behind Heavy Rain, Cage revealed that 72% of gamers who started Heavy Rain actually finished it. To put this into context, the industry average completion rate is between 20% to 25%. That’s triple the average. When compared to another popular game of last year, and a staff favorite, BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 was completed by 50% of gamers who started it. Still impressive but short of Heavy Rain’s impressive number.

While the stats don’t point to one game being better than the other, it is interesting to note that two games that are driven more by narrative than shooting have such high completion rates. One could argue that Heavy Rain‘s gameplay style is also more conducive to completing the game than a traditional shooter. Hopefully, with numbers like these, we will see more games that have a focus on narrative rather than just blowing things up. On that note, be sure to check out our Bulletstorm review which will be up shortly.

For being a mysterious murder mystery game, Heavy Rain was actually pretty straight forward, with the exception of one very perplexing scene. It was so bad that it infuriated Fish to the point of madness. Seriously, go back and listen to the spoiler cast. However, a new making-of Heavy Rain video has popped up online and kind of sort of explains that the scene in question was tied to a deleted sub-plot. I warn you the video that was posted by Joystiq is filled with spoilers for Heavy Rain, so be warned before clicking play.

Confirmation came from the pages of Chief, a Belgian gaming magazine due in shops on Tuesday (translated and scooped by Gamer.nl)…Gesture controls would fit neatly into Heavy Rain’s existing template, which requires thumbsticks to be pushed in certain directions or patterns, and the pad shaken in various ways.

As we mentioned on the Reviewcast, Playstation Move support would drive us — and through the power of suggestion, you — to play through Heavy Rain again.

The reason I ask is because of that “specific set of circumstances” I said I was enjoying the game under. You see, I’m not actually playing the game a second time. I’m watching my wife play it. Although it’s beside the point of this article, I will let you know why I chose to be a spectator the second time around. I wanted to see another completely honest and natural play-through of the game. I wanted to see how our experiences differed without me intentionally “gaming the game” as Alex put it in his article. So what does this have to do with your mom? There has got to be more than a couple jokes here that a gent less classy than myself would make.

The correlation is simple. Your mom probably has just about as much experience with video games as my wife does, and unless you have some alien mom from Planet Awesome, that amount of experience isn’t very much. Heavy Rain operates on an assumption that I feel actually limits its ability to reach an audience that doesn’t already have a fairly competent set of gaming skills.

The assumption is an easy one. The game assumes you have the Dualshock 3 button layout memorized. Ok, now go ask your mom to draw the shapes of the four face-button layout in the correct arrangement. She can’t do it can she? Not having that little bit of information stored in your bean is a pretty huge detriment to a game that uses a pant load of Quick Time Events. What I found most interesting about this aspect of the game is that when choosing the difficulty level for the game, it actually asks you to base your decision on how well acquainted you are with the controller. I can’t believe that they actually had this issue in mind and didn’t think to completely exclude any sort of fast paced QTEs when playing on the easiest setting. For the record, my wife is in fact playing on easy, but the QTEs seem to come at the same pace. It seems like there might be fewer prompts, but there still isn’t enough time for her to look down and locate the button each time one pops up so she misses a few almost each time.

After seeing a few of her scenes play out the same way as mine, even with her missing some presses, I began to wonder how malleable the beginning of the story really is. Is that Quantic Dreams answer to this problem? Do they make the beginning play out more or less the same no matter what in order to give newer players time to learn the controller? While that may seem like an option, it somehow seems dishonest to me. They’ve sold us a game with the promise of pretty much everything we do having an effect on the outcome, and then they possibly limit that to only the end sequences. Doesn’t that make the early QTEs meaningless and pretty much contradict the point of the game? Why even do them then?

My wife actually does play the occasional Wii and DS game, is getting quite proficient at all the Bands and Heroes, and just recently got hooked on Plants Vs. Zombies on her iPhone. Even with that level of experience, most of which would be considered casual, she still has trouble wielding a traditional controller and, therefore, trouble playing Heavy Rain. Your mom could bowl a 300 in Wii Sports, and I would bet my life savings that putting a 360 controller in her hands would still scare the pants right off her. Again, definitely a pants coming off your mom joke here somewhere, but far be it from me to make it.

Let’s get one last thing straight here. I loved Heavy Rain. Loved. It. I would love for this type of game to become its own entertainment form and narrative medium. That’s the reason I’m so eager to have everyone I know try it. And not to just watch it, but to experience it and live it the same way I did, which means having to actually play it with the foreign object that is the traditional gaming controller. Nintendo wasn’t crazy when they simplified things control-wise with the Wii. Was there something Quantic Dream could have done differently to make this game more accessible to non-gamers? It has been suggested by a few people that complete motion control could be the way, but until Sony releases their magic glow wand, the Six Axis just isn’t powerful enough.

Heavy Rain is a fantastic experience. Even with the difficulties in control, my wife still had trouble setting the controller down every evening. It’s just that good. Maybe that is the magic. Maybe it’s the game that will teach everyone to use a game pad by the shear quality of its story and the feelings it creates in the player. Whatever it is, we can’t just hog all the fun. It’s time we share. Which brings us to your homework assignment. Find a friend or relative that doesn’t play games, but loves a good story, and let them play Heavy Rain. See how they handle it, and report back. I’d love to hear how it goes. Hopefully it will go well, and this won’t be the last we hear about interactive drama. As for your mom, don’t worry; I’ll let her borrow my copy when I see her.

Intro Music: Madonna – Rain
Outro Music: Peter Gabriel – Red Rain

Speaking of spoilers, next week we will be releasing the “Directors Cut” version of this Reviewcast with the spoilers intact because the discussion was really good. Finish up the game so you can enjoy it!

One of our UK readers, Jamie says he found this outside of his girlfriend’s “letterbox” which we think is the Queen’s English for mailbox. It was just sitting there on the ground. It’s significant because today Heavy Rain comes out in the UK. Those of us here in America who have been playing the game know that this origami crane is the calling card of the serial killer in the game. Jamie thinks it’s possible that people who are signed up on Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s mailing list were the recipients of these cranes, either that or someone played a cruel joke on him this morning. Either way, he has a bad ass paper crane to commemorate the release of Heavy Rain. Did anyone else in the UK find one of these outside of their letterbox?

Bad news everyone. Heavy Rain Chronicles Chapter 1 has been delayed!! Yeah, I know. However, it’s only been delayed by a week, so relax Heavy Rain pre-orderers your Heavy Rain Chronicles are coming, you’re just going to have to wait a little bit longer. We know you wanted your “OMG DAY1 DLC!!!” on Day 1, but maybe you could imagine that this is the consequence for making a bad decision in Heavy Rain. No? Then I got nothing.

According to VG247 the delay only affects North America.

According to David Cage the mastermind behind Heavy Rain, the game was originally intended to make use of Sony’s motion controller coming this Fall. Well, it’s curious that the motion controller was originally intended for this Spring which is about the same time the game is coming out. Cage told MTV Multiplayer last week “I have a lot of interest in Sony’s motion device and there is a good chance that we announce something about it in the coming weeks,”. Could the code for motion controller use still be in the game? Could it be compatible when the controllers are released this Fall? Looks like we’ll have to wait a few weeks to find out the answer, but I could see myself playing the game multiple times with both control schemes.

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.