
	Platform PlayStation 3 Genre Adventure Publisher SCEA Developer Quantic Dream ETA Q1 2010
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Heavy Rain

A few years back, Quantic Dream put out a very nice adventure game called Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America). The game was an interesting mix of murder mystery, quick time events, and mechanics that made players think about the consequences of their actions. Now the studio has a new adventure game in the works for the PS3 with what they hope will be an equally engaging story, while combining the narrative and gameplay in such a way that they hope will help to draw in the player.

Information about the game’s plot is sparse, but we do know that the game focuses on four main characters who are trying to solve a string of murders being committed by someone dubbed the Origami Killer. Heavy Rain’s producer, David Cage, hasn’t really gone into much more detail about the game’s story, but given how central the plot is to the whole play experience here, it does make sense to stay mum about it.

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One thing that the developers really want to create in this game is a sense of empathy from the players. Usually there is a barrier between the player and the game experience. As intense as a scenario may be on-screen, part of us is still fully aware that it is a game. The game will try to break down this wall as best as it can. Some of this will be

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accomplished by players getting in precarious positions in terms of the situations their on-screen alter egos find themselves in, awhile making the controls as intuitive as possible. A lot of the commands that players can give are simplistic in their execution, but feel like a natural translation of what is going on in the game.

While a great deal of effort is being put into fusing gameplay with narrative, Quantic Dream is also putting a lot of time into the game’s aesthetics. A significant amount of motion capture has been put into the game to ensure that characters’ movements are as lifelike as possible.

As in Indigo Prophecy, players will be asked to make difficult decisions on a regular basis. Cage likes to challenge his audience in this way, putting them in situations where they need to think about the consequences of their actions in the game. In Heavy Rain, he wants to push players even further in this direction. Other games have claimed to do the same in the past, but come up short, whereas Indigo Prophecy was one of the few to successfully accomplish this. If this new venture can take this sort of experience even further, so much the better.

Mr. Nash
June 10, 2009