Anticipated Games - Heavy Rain

Touted as an evolving thriller where you shape the story, Heavy Rain is the latest game from French developers Quantic Dream. The studio are responsible for one of my favourite (and criminally underrated) games, Farenheit.

The exact specifics of the game are still incredibly vague, which is strange, given the fact that it's released next month. What's even more admirable, is that the studio have maintained a healthy level of curiosity since 2006, when they released the Heavy Rain: The Casting video at E3.



Running in real time, the video is a standalone story that illustrates the frankly insane graphical achievement within the game. The real time post processing is astounding. The facial features look incredibly true to life, and the whole thing is shot like a movie. I especially like the tears.

Jump forward 3 years, and to what we do know about the game. It follows 4 main protagonists, as they each search for the 'Origami Killer', named as such due to him leaving an origami figure in his victims hand. However, don't go in expecting an all guns blazing bloodfest ala Modern Warfare 2. Director of Quantic Dream, David Cage, has stated:

"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."

This one paragraph interests me greatly, as morality, and how far people will go to preserve that morality, is something that has intrigued me for a long time. Heavy Rain appears to be a more thoughtful type of game, and one that possesses a high amount of fluidity in its storytelling.

Another thing that intrigues me is how the characters and actions will be controlled. According to sources, movement will be controlled by a trigger button on the controller, and the analogue sticks will determine where the character will be looking, and where they are looking will determine where they move. The rest of the game will apparently be context sensitive, and failure to hit buttons at the correct time will result in the story taking a different path, or sometimes, death.

So far, so RPG. Hell, even the abysmal Wet included portions like this. But where the real innovation comes in, is that if a character dies the game doesn't automatically end. Instead, the game switches to one of the remaining characters, and the other character's death affects the flow of the story. This opens up a huge amount of replayability, and brings the feeling of playing a movie even closer.



As you can see from the above video, the controls are incredibly fluid, and depend on the player alternating the force and speed of the controls. Another thing the video illustrates is the adult nature of the game. As with the aforementioned Farenheit, the game doesn't appear to shy away from adult themes. Madison, the character in the above video, has her own striptease later on in the game. And yes, it's interactive.

All in all, this is one of my most anticipated games of this year.

Definitely getting this one.