Heavy Rain, demo presentation

30 minute public presentation of the upcoming PS3 game Heavy Rain.

In this demo the player takes part in a young journalist’s investigation on several girls disappearance. Starting in a scene where the journalist investigates the home of a taxi-driver suspected for the murdering.

Video presentation
Video is found here.
The demo and presentation was played through and done at Micromania Games Show 2008 in Paris.

Parts of the gameplay and design

Taken from Gamekyo.

- Multiple view camera system, not always behind the girl.

- The demo is fully playable, no cut-scenes, the player can control the girl at any time.

- The Sixaxis motion sensor is used in the game to make different moves (open a window, raise or hit on an object, etc.).

- It is possible to hear what is happening in the mind of the character, so the player knows the different choices that are available.

- No loadings in the game!

- Backgrounds are fully interactive (all objects can be used, all doors can be opened, etc.).

- Very interesting Split Screen System to keep an eye on the murderer, control the character at the same time.

- The player has to maintain several buttons to stay hidden, uncomfortable situation for the player to reproduce the same stress in the game.

- Quick time events for some action scenes.

I must say this game looks very interesting, it’s so realistic and photographic. Just look at the way they’ve managed to capture feelings and expressions, it’s a extraordinary and not often seen feat in a game, feelings are one of the hardest human senses to visualize.

I like the split-screen system idea, having a live split-screen between the player and the target will surely add extra tension, use of the controller’s sixaxis function does also seem to work well and finally being properly baked into gameplay.

Looks like Sony are finally catching up in the next-gen game market, considering “exclusive” (Mind you, they say exclusive but there’s often just a time-limited exclusive, which does not really make it all that exclusive after all. It’s a mad world.). With highly anticipated games like God of War 3, Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 coming out over the next few months Heavy Rain will surely be a nice addition.