Heavy Rain

[Meowster]

Heavy Rain is an upcoming PlayStation 3 video game being developed by French studio, Quantic Dream. The game is being directed by Quantic Dream's founder and CEO David Cage, who also wrote and directed the studio's two previous games, Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit. David Cage has confirmed a demo, but the Quantic Dream team is still choosing what "Scene" of the game shall be used for the demo.

 

"Heavy Rain is about normal people who have landed in extraordinary situations. I wanted a much more personal story. The first thing that came to my mind, as a father of two little boys, was that the main theme should simply be a father's love for his son. This is not a game about saving the princess or the world. Its [sic] purely about a father's love. The main story will revolve around four different characters, and we're putting the spotlight on their perceptions. The question 'what is good and what is evil' is the key here, that will be just a matter of viewpoint...I believe heavily in moral choices, I'm going to use them A LOT. They're not about being good or bad, but about finding the right balance."

 

A trigger button on the PlayStation 3 controller will move the character forward. It will take advantage of the button's analogue function, allowing the user to control the speed of the character's movement by pressing harder or softer on the button. The left analogue stick will control the movement of the character's head and the direction the character moves in relation to where the character is looking. David Cage explains that this frees the movement of the character from the perspective of the camera. The rest of the game is played using a series of context sensitive actions such as picking up a bottle in a grocery store and hitting a robber on the head with it, and quick time events, normally for chase and combat sequences.Action sequences, such as when the player is being attacked, play out as quick time events. Players will be presented with various symbols, requiring them to either press buttons, move the right analogue stick in a certain way, or shake or tilt the controller. Failure to execute these commands take the story along a different path, and certain mistakes will lead to a character's death.

 

If a character dies, the game does not end, and play control switches to another character, with the events of the previous character's death affecting the story.

From Wikipedia.

 

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKPPdgBK3r8

Gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnck2oXdxMo

Another example of a fight scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bVhommaf_M

 

Anyone heard of it? It looks by far to be one of the best games this year... and with the big list of exclusives, I am finally glad to say that I bought a PS3. The gameplay is so.. bizarre yet intuitive. It is like one big movie that you direct each and every action of the story going on- and every action supposedly effects the story. It's made by Quantom Dream, and is similar to an older game they made known as Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit. The game is due to come out February 23rd, North America.

 

also, it's nice to be back. Haven't posted in awhile.

[swphreak]

I'm intrigued by the game, but I'm unsure of how much I'd actually like it. I hope they release a demo on PSN.

 

I'm not a big fan of quick time events, and it looks like the whole game is nothing but quick time events.

[Lynk Former]

Jeebus, it really does look like just a big string of quick time events from that gameplay trailer...

[True_Avery]

This game cannot decide whether to look fantastic, or like a Source game. I'm very impressed with just how much is in this game, but then again it's causing some lag and the animations sometimes drop heavily in quality scene to scene.

 

If its smoothed out even a little by release this should be one hell of a... game? movie?

[Lynk Former]

One of the biggest aspects it needs improvement on is the facial animation. They have the models of the characters down pretty well, but when the camera gets too close to their face the illusion of reality is shattered simply because the eyes of the characters are looking lifeless and there are key facial animations that just aren't there.

[Meowster]

Yeah, I definitely get what you mean when you say that. Model wise, I would say it is on par with Uncharted or Final Fantasy XIII, but the faces are a bit.. meh. The ever-changing storyline and the quick nature of many scenes will more than likely make up for it (to me at least). Normally, I do not like quick time events, but with this game.. it just works. I really hope the final product lives up to it. I am loving that even if you die, the story continues to go on.

 

edit: StarWarsPhreak- apparently there is a demo in the works judging by the article on Wikipedia.

[Mav]

Jeff is buying a PS3 for this game.

[Lynk Former]

Jeff better be pretty damn sure this game is worth the effort.

[Mav]

Jeff is sure about everything he does.

[Lynk Former]

Jeff can be as sure as he wants, but we'll see where reality leads us.

[Mav]

Jeff bends reality to his will, be grateful he finds you entertaining enough to keep around.

[Lynk Former]

Jeff can't do that, otherwise if that were so, then all of the negative points of Heavy Rain spoken of so far would not exist.

[Mav]

Jeff leaves small aspects of negativity in the game, because he feels no game should be perfect.

[Lynk Former]

Jeff should at least use his reality bending powers to fix the facial animation problems which is a pretty big problem. He also needs to fix those really old skool camera issues I've seen in other videos.

[Mav]

Jeff would like to point out that it's not even out yet, nor has it even gone gold, so for all you know these issues could have been addressed.

[Jeff]

Jeff bends reality to his will, be grateful he finds you entertaining enough to keep around.

This.

[Lynk Former]

@ Mav: I wish that were so... so many games of the past could've been saved if that were so...

[swphreak]

The demo dropped on PSN if anyone missed it. I didn't know until someone mentioned it.

 

It was an interesting experience. I played the first level twice, and both times I made different choices and had different outcomes.

 

I still don't think I'll rush out and get the game the moment it hits stores, but I'll definitely pick it up eventually.

[Mav]

Seeing as how I've exhausted Mass Effect 2 for now, having just finished a tiring Insanity play-through to boot... Anyway where was I? Oh yeah, I'll probably either pick up Heavy Rain shortly after release or go place a pre-order somewhere, so that I'll have something to play.

 

It's been getting pretty favorable reviews overall and I can't say I've played a game like it before (it's like a point-and-click/action adventure hybrid, with some Phoenix Wright-esque sleuthing thrown in) so I don't think I'll even try out the demo, I'll just get the game and see what it's like.

[Lynk Former]

Reviews I've seen have been saying that it's just okay and nothing special.

[Mav]

Blargh

 

It looks more favorable than meh (same overall as Bioshock 2), but the downer ones seem to say that they didn't like the story, but then a lot of the more favorable ones liked the story, so I guess it's hit or miss, who knows. I'll play it for myself.

[Lynk Former]

Funnily enough I read Destructoid's review... I'll play Heavy Rain myself but I've agreed with Destructoid's reviews for practically all of the past games .

[Bob Lion54]

I can't tell if this game is super awesome or super terrible.

[Lynk Former]

I can't tell if this game is super awesome or super terrible.

Exactly why I have to get this game and see for myself.

[Mav]

Have it, played it.

 

It is neither super awesome nor super terrible, but I would say it would be much closer to the super awesome side of the scale than it would be to the super terrible side.