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For once we can predict with absolute certainty the weather in February. It is the month of Rain, Heavy Rain, well, if Quantic Dream have anything to do with it then it certainly is. Their epic is due for release at the end of the month, and its been a long time coming, little wonder that the PlayStation community is gearing up for such a massive event, few titles have managed to create the fever surrounding this game, even fewer have kept the buzz around them so electric for so long.
Work was started on the game way back in February 2006; the first glimpses given to the public at E3 in the form of a casting demo (check our 'First Impressions' for the video that was shown at the time) and four long years later we're going to be able to get our hands on the full version and experience the Rain for ourselves.
Quantic Dream describe the game as being about normal people that have found themselves in extraordinary situations, the main theme surrounding the game is about a fathers love for his son, certainly not a game concept that's been seen many times before. The story revolves around four main characters; An FBI profiler, Norman Jayden, a retired private detective going by the name of Scott Shelby, an architect named Ethan Mars, and Madison Paige, a photo journalist. The characters are all looking for a killer known as The Origami Killer and along there journey each character will encounter many "moral choices" as described by the games Director, David Cage, indeed the games strap line "How far would you go to save someone you love" raises the kind of question you're going to be asking yourself on a regular basis as you experience the game.
To realise their dream of a totally immersive experience - Quantic Dream have spent a long time in creating new graphical techniques that bring the characters to life in a way never before seen in a console adventure, real time tears and wrinkles can be generated on the characters face and allow complex animations to bring the smaller details to life such as pupil dilation, the tongue and the hair is all dynamically generated. The control system has also been optimised to bring the player closer to the characters, it may sound a little pedantic to say when you're in control of a character you have to perform most actions, from getting up and out of a chair to opening a car door, you must hold the controller in place until the action is completed meaning that you can't simply press up on the analogue stick and expect the character to rise, instead you've to hold the stick in place until the motion is complete; all this we're told enables us to experience the characters on a whole new emotional level. The whole movement of the character takes advantage of the analogue controls of the Dual Shock 3 controller, you control the characters head using the left analogue stick and the movement of the body is based upon this direction, you use a trigger button to control the speed of the characters movements, a light press will move you slowly through the game world, gaining speed as you press harder. Other parts of the game adjust according to your situation; different environments will enable different actions. Players are also allowed a peek inside the characters heads, pressing the L2 button will bring up the current thoughts of the character and you're able to act on these or have the character say something that's on their mind, at times these will blur which will cause the character to get something wrong, either with their actions or they might say something wrong which will trigger a response from another character. For the fight and chase sequences within the game then the player will be using Quick Time Events, for those not familiar with the concept then a button graphic will appear on screen and the button must be pressed as soon as possible, think of it as a kind of a "simon says" control method.
There is no doubt that this game isn't going to be a nice fluffy bunny kind of game, it is dark and it is mean, the moral choices element of the game will no doubt bring about all kinds of quandaries for you to get your head around. David Cage has gone on record to say that he's made the game he wanted to make and not bowed down to pressure when it comes to the games content, when he wanted gore moments or sex scenes in the game he included them, there's already a lot of talk in the internet communities of the scene where Madison is seen topless in a night club, we're pretty sure talk of that alone has convinced some people to pre-order the title. This isn't a game where you can expect a happy ending, if at any point one of the playable character dies then the game simply adapts and moves on, leaving you to mourn your loss with the rest of the characters, it's a staggering achievement to have this level of story telling with so many possibilities open to you at any one time. Of course, should all of your characters die then it is game over and time to try again, but even that comes with its own outcome and proper conclusion to the player experience.
For those who've had the pleasure of playing through the previous games from David Cage and his Quantic Dream studios, Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit (Known as Indigo Prophecy in North America), then you'll have some idea of what you can expect from this title, for those that haven't then you're going to have to put aside your preconceptions of what a game should be and what a game could be and pull yourself along for the ride, where the previous games started the journey from a video game to interactive cinema experience Heavy Rain is expected to bring another few miles to that voyage, we wish we could tell you more about the story and what to expect but thus far the game is still shrouded in secrecy, even to the point where every single one of the PlayStation Trophies that have the game is secret, known only to the people who unlock them, well, we can guess one, the Platinum one, but we can only guess as to what you have to do to get that far.
The game is released for the PlayStation 3 at the end of February, there's a special edition being released which contains an Official Soundtrack, an exclusive dynamic XMB theme and PlayStation Network voucher which will allow you to download the first in a series of Heavy Rain Chronicles, chillingly named "The Taxidermist".
Get your umbrellas ready people, Heavy Rain is almost here and we can see a lot of people getting wet this February, we'll all see how far we would go to save somebody we love...
