Heavy Rain: The Demo

Got my greedy little hands on a copy of the Heavy Rain demo a couple days ago and I must say, I’m impressed (the demo is available for everyone to download on February 11). Even my wife who is decidedly uninterested in video games that aren’t Bejeweled-style puzzle games or something with the word Katamari in the title was enthralled with the experience. I take that to be a very good sign. And, judging by the amount of conversation happening on the GameFAQs.com Heavy Rain board, it’s already pretty popular with over 14,000 posts and the game is still two weeks away.

As with most of the posts regarding individual games, here there be BIG spoilers as far as the demo is concerned. Screenshots, clips and more after the jump.

I want to discuss whether or not this is truly a “game.” There has already been some complaints over the amount of Quick Time Events (QTEs). I’d like to point out that in the demo there is one. It’s also the best QTE I’ve ever run across. As you can see in the demo videos below the button-press prompts are actually where your eye should be naturally falling so you’re not missing the great action on the screen. If all the QTEs in Heavy Rain are on par it will only add to the gameplay rather than detract from it, as so many are quick to assume. It reminds me somewhat of the Fallen Angels chapter of Indigo Prophecy due to the direction but thankfully Heavy Rain leaves out the congratulatory messages and uses both the analog sticks and buttons. Here’s the scene from Indigo Prophecy so you can see how Quantic Dream has evolved since its publication.

It really was a great game (aside from the plot twist; it was just a stretch).

There have also been some complaints about the voice acting in the Heavy Rain demo but I found it to be just fine. Shelby, in particular, is wonderful. Lauren also has her moments of good work. Jayden could’ve used some more coaching on the accent, but otherwise did just fine. Some of the cops… not so much. Apparently the voice acting in some of the other languages (there are more than five different voice tracks available and even more subtitle sets) is better, though I can’t confirm this. Maybe I’ll listen to it in French. Should be interesting. Certainly has potential for use in CALL (computer-assisted language learning) environments (for university-age students, of course).

Now for some fun stuff.

Here’s the entire demo in HD. Remember that the events in this demo are only one possible way it can play out. The first time I played it I didn’t get to ask Lauren any questions about her son because I failed to convince her to talk to me. I was also pretty bloodied up after the fight with Troy. Remember to select 720p to see it in the glory that is HD.

It’s pretty amazing, huh?

Here are some more screenshots. Remember that these are all taken from gameplay. Nothing is pre-rendered (with the exception of the title screen). This becomes most impressive when you see the last screenshot.  First, though, said title screen.

Lauren Winter: a prostitute and mother of one of the victims of the Origami killer.

Scott Shelby, a private detective, has an asthma attack outside Lauren’s hotel room.

Shelby hears Lauren scream after a man enters her room. Shelby returns and gets into a brawl. We have our first QTE. You can see the arrow pointing down indicating the right analog stick needs to be pushed that direction.

An action shot of one of the QTE prompts. In this one you have to shake the controller up and down to force Troy off of Shelby.

Of course there’s a lot of hoohah going on about the mature content in the game. I’m not going to deal with that as the game is blatantly labeled as Mature and my feelings about parents, their children, and their children’s game-playing behavior are already known. I must say, however, that in an era of ultravoilent video games there’s something about the partially obscured victim of the Origami killer concealed in the tent that’s much more disturbing than anything in a Grand Theft Auto game. The HUD is a crime scene investigation tool called ARI (added reality interface). It allows Jayden to interact with the crime scene in ways otherwise unavailable. The icons are self explanatory, really. Each tells you which way to press the right analog stick. The left analog stick turns Jayden’s head and thus allows you to view more of the scene.

Click the image for a higher resolution shot (though it’s still not full resolution).

Here’s a closer shot of what the ARI can do. That’s pollen he’s examining.

These screenshots are considerably smaller than the full resolution this game offers. The banner at the top is taken from the following image. Click on it to see the actual full-screen shot. Warning: it’s 10 megs.

So, there’s a lot to talk about with this game. Obviously it has the most potential in the realms of narrative, character analysis, character relationship analysis and ethics. Also, as I said, with the multitude of language options (both voice tracks and subtitles) it has great potential to be used in an ESL classroom. If the demo is any indication there’s probably a lot that could be analyzed from a cinematographic angle, too.

Much, much more to come.