Heavy Rain, the latest offering from Quantic Dream, was released as a PS3 exclusive this week, and has been receiving largely positive reviews from the gaming press. A demo was made available a couple of weeks ago in the Playstation Store, however I only managed to get around to playing it last night, largely because I wanted my wife to experience the game as well and our schedules have been out of sync.

Despite it's enormous budget, Heavy Rain is not your average blockbuster title. Fast paced action, deep strategy, and number crunching are all eschewed in favor of creating interactive entertainment in which the player has some control over the outcome of the murder mystery/thriller that unfolds. The result, if the demo is any indication, is a strange beast that blurs the line between video game and cinema.

Scott Shelby - click to enlarge

Graphically, Heavy Rain is a masterpiece. The artists have taken an incredible amount of care in crafting a world that looks and feels utterly realistic. Character models are fantastic both in how they look and also in how they move. Most games still have a difficult time animating human motion, and while this title has a few glitches (for example, when Shelby uses his asthma puffer) it is far tighter than the competition.

Another nice touch is the way clothing reacts to the environment. Agent Jayden starts out his sequence dry, but quickly appears soaked as he is forced to survey a crime scene. If he falls down while investigating then his clothing is muddied, and falling in different ways convincingly dirties Jayden's pants and jacket. Likewise, the graphical results of losing a fight are incredible - Investigator Shelby looks like hell after his encounter like a thug if you perform poorly.

Norman Jayden - click to enlarge

Game play, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. At its core, Heavy Rain is nothing but a prolonged series of quick time events in which the player may choose to execute a series of gestures to interact with the environment, or in some cases is forced to do so.

If Scott Shelby starts having an asthma attack then you need to push your thumb stick to the right, and then roll to the bottom. If Norman Jayden wants to investigate a scrap of cloth on the ground you need to push down on your stick. If you want to speak to an NPC then you need to push the button corresponding to one of the thought actions that will spiral around a character. If you get in a fight then you will be forced to waltz through a God of War-style series of clicks and stick motions.

While I still dislike quick time events, Heavy Rain's do not annoy me nearly as much as those found in other games. When used as the main game play mechanic, QTEs are not nearly as disjointed and immersion-breaking as when they are wedged into a brawler, and after a while some of the common events even started to feel natural. It also helps that the QTE prompts are unobtrusive white overlays and are positioned near the object or place that a player is meant to interact with; this design choice allows the player to continue to focus on the main portion of the screen, and not constantly divert their attention away from the gorgeous graphics.

Summary
Both my wife and I were suitably impressed with Heavy Rain and we have agreed to rent it one weekend when we have nothing else planned. It should be a nice experience to snuggle up together on the couch and experience a good murder mystery first hand.

Demo parameters: Two scenes (30m of game play)
Release date: Now
Cost: $59.99

Update: The Brainy Gamer shares his thoughts on the full game. I usually agree with about fifty percent of his opinions/gaming tastes, so taking his negativity with a grain of salt is recommended.