February 17, 2010

• Heavy Rain demo, a review

  Recently, the demo for Heavy Rain cropped up on the Playstation Network. I decided to give it a spin if only to justify all of the free time I have being unemployed. I didn't really pay much attention to the game until that point. The only reason I remember the title is because I heard it had good graphics. While that is true, it does offer a bit more.

  Let me just say that I have a hard time calling this a game. I think it is going out with the intention of being a game that plays like a movie, but I'm not buying it. This software is more like a movie trying to be a choose-your-adventure book. You move from scene to scene while most of the action is played out to the tune of your button presses. They could probably change the title to Quick Time Events: The Game and it would be more fitting.

  The demo for the "game" revolves around two scenes with two characters. The first is an overweight asthmatic detective who can turn into a Batman-like powerhouse whenever the software hands the fight controls to me. The first order of business is to buy some time with a local hooker (for questioning, of course) then beat the stuffing out of an ex-customer. At least, that's the path I took. I only played through once, so there may've been more options, such as not questioning her and just taking advantage of her services or leaving the room so the ex-customer and beat the stuffing out of her.

  The next scene involved a FBI investigator with a slight New Yorker accent and sunglasses that make him look like a complete wussy. Your job is to walk around a crime scene and act like you know what you're doing while the computer in your glasses does all of the actual investigating. The demo ends after this scene and I find myself disappointed with the brevity.

  The demo did endear itself to me, though. I'm not a hater of QTEs and the visual novel-like approach triggers a subconscious expectation of sex at the game's conclusion (like all good visual novels). Plus, there will be more characters presented that I could potentially latch myself on to like an obsessive lamprey. I might pick it up, assuming I can scrounge up enough dosh to actually purchase anything.

  

  • 8:08 am
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