Van Hemlock

I've played through the Heavy Rain demo now, so I have a better idea about how it tries to improve storytelling in games. It should be remembered that the demo consists of two short scenes and so may not be totally representative of the full game.

The first scene is the one that's been all over the media recently. You are trying to get information from an, um, lady of negotiable affection about the death of her son at the hands of a serial killer. Because the game is 100% plot driven I'll not spoil what happens but as a piece of storytelling I was very happy with it. The voice work was superb, and the animation was good enough to not get in the way of what they were trying to get across (which is a complement).

The second scene had an FBI agent investigating a crime scene (in 2011) using magic techno-glasses and a glove. It's one of the things that annoy me about shows such as CSI (um, you do know that by having that technically you're a sci-fi show now don't you?) but it works well enough as a way of getting round the problems of actually looking at a crime scene in real life being impossible to map onto a controller and screen. You hit a button and a circle pings out and anything interesting gets an icon floating in the air for you to investigate. You then amble around the crime scene pinging away and using your magic equipment to instantly match DNA to people on things that you find. It actually works OK as a mechanic and I certainly can't think of anything better, but since it's keyed to the special equipment that the FBI agent has I suspect that it's not a common mechanic from throughout the game.

Graphically the game is outstanding. The characters seem a little dead in the eyes, but since they do in every game I'll let that slide. The environments shown (small rooms and outside in the dark and rain) are all very good cases for going to town with the graphics, it'll be interesting to see how it handles large open spaces during the day and how that compares but from the demo there's certainly nothing to complain about or much that I thought they could do better.

The direction is outstanding too. Camera angles make it feel like a film in places, but I'd say that it actually feels more like a graphic novel with some of the angles. This is of course a very good thing.

The problem is I think they may have ruined the game with the controls. You move by pushing R2 and then steering with the stick, which is fine. You ping your magic crime-o-tron with R1, which is fine. The problem comes with wearing the glasses. You use the right stick to move to the right and then circle up to the top. Taking the off goes to the right and then circles around to the bottom. That sounds logical you say? Well it is. The problem is that it's taken to the extreme. Approaching a police tape barrier? Gesture down to get under it. Having an asthma attack? Gesture to get out you inhailer then press X to use it several times. It's not that the system doesn't work, it's the fact that you use it for mundane actions that would be better served by just happening. Every time I use the controller I'm pulled out of the scene slightly because I've had to be paying attention to it wanting me to react and not what is going on, so in fact the system is doing the opposite of what I believe it's intended to do which is to make me feel involved in every step of the character's progression through a scene. Choices are one thing, and fights are another (where the timing gets a lot more frantic and they do just become the dreaded Quick Time Events). I don't mind making choices, it's just that when I had the asthma attack I suspected it was because I'd forgotten to hit buttons all along to remember to breathe!

It's probably totally unfair to judge too much on the demo since it's too short, I'm certainly still interested in the game but I do wonder how many people will not like the constant "do this now for a reward of the next 2 seconds of story" gameplay.

In summary, it's a good story that maybe confuses narrative with interaction.