Heavy Rain

[Huw Dawson]

All right, I'm surprised this hasn't popped up yet but here goes.

Heavy Rain. Opinions? Is this the first great adventure game of the new decade or just a throw back to the Interactive Fiction games of the nineties?

I'm personally loving it, but I'd like to see what the hardcore AGS crowd think. 

[xenogia]

I really want to play this game as I enjoyed Fahrenheit.  Now I just have to get my hands on a PS3 to play it.

[Grim]

I am so excited about this game!
As an owner of PS3 I put a lot of faith in this title.

I've pre-ordered it. Just few more hours and I can pick it up from the shop!!! Yeah!!!

[Anian]

- no ps3
- hate quick time events, seriously feeling tense during cutscenes, just don't need that kind of stress. seems the whole game is quicktime events
- watched a few minutes of let's play (Benzaie's, while he is a bit too harsh at times, I kinda got what he was trying to say)) video and "shake your controller to dry your hair"? think that kind of stuff needs getting used to

[Bulbapuck]

I'm currently watching Benzaie's "Let's play" of Heavy Rain. And it looks reeeeeeaaaally boring... The only thing that keeps me watching those videos is Benzaie filling in Ethan's lines and acting like a complete asshole

Of course, he has only played for like an hour or so, but still. It seems like such a downer.

[Domino]

I played the demo this past weekend. I thought the graphics looked good, but I had a hard time getting used to the walking.

I really didn't like Indigo Prophecy, so I don't know if I would really enjoy this game.

I had some fun playing the Demo, until it crashed big time.  Down the line I might pick it up, but for now I will pass.

geez, how many times did I say I?? 

[Mr Flibble]

I watched a gameplay video which consisted wholly of quicktime events. No thank you.

[Grim]

It seems like this thread turns into Heavy Rain bashing... I'm surprised with so many negative comments. After all, it's an adventure game, only a bit different. I might change my mind after I've played it tomorrow though:)

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Is this another Simon simulator like Fahrenheit?  If so, whoever developed it needs to bite down on a lit stick of TNT.

[Anian]

Is this another Simon simulator like Fahrenheit?  If so, whoever developed it needs to bite down on a lit stick of TNT.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/benzaie/blp/17531-lets-play-heavy-rain-01
Short anwser - yes, yes it is. Perhaps even worse cause you have the motion sensitive controller and boy does the game make you use it.

Apparently first 30 minutes of gameplay (which is just an intro) is a tv movie...not a very good one. Only everything is 3d rendered. It seems to me that somewhere along the way the "fun" part got completly replaced by the "art" part. But it seems the art part isn't so good to take the wieght of it all.
I mean, there's less actions to take in Sims than in this and in Sims the "simulation of real life" is the whole point. Yes, it's cool to interact and to be able to do lots of stuff...but you don't always want to.

Sorry Michalski, hope you enjoy the game.  

p.s. yeah, the graphics look good

[Domino]

Spoiler

One of the characters in the demo has asthma, so when he has an attack you have to do the proper button responses so he can use his inhaler.

[close]

Is that what we call fun.

Spoiler

Also having to hold R2 and using the left analog stick to walk really sucks.

[close]

But like I said, Graphics were good, until my Demo crashed.

Thank goodness they don't  masterbate in this game.   I'd be shaking the controller for hours....

[Snarky]

I think it looks great. Fahrenheit had some truly visionary ideas in it, even if the gameplay was padded with repetitive elements, and this seems to expand on all the stuff I loved about that game (e.g. the way it was able to make banal activities fun, like just going to the fridge and drinking some milk). Complaining about quicktime events seems besides the point; it's just like how in adventure games every single meaningful action you take is specially scripted (slowtime events, if you will).

I wish I had a PS3 so I could play this.

[LimpingFish]

I'm picking it up tomorrow.

I liked Fahrenheit, too.

Go me.

[Grundislav]

Finished it last night.

First impressions: intense, stressful (I had trouble sleeping last night because of it), emotionally draining.

Story was good, not ridiculous like Fahrenheit, and while there were a couple of plot holes, overall it was enjoyable.

The QTEs were much better implemented than Fahrenheit, letting you focus on the action and feel like you actually had some control, not like watching a cutscene and pressing buttons on Simon pretending you have control.

I'm looking forward to replays to see how much control over the story you really have.

[Snake]

I've got mixed feelings. I don't own a PS3, don't need one for anything anyway, so I will probably never play this game.

What I find that I like about it after watching a handful of videos on YouTube is that it's different. I've never actually seen anything like it before.
The graphics are good, but, whatever. I'm finding out more as days go by (or I should say, as games go by) that the graphics in games today piss me off. It seems that's the main focus of the industry today. But that's a whole other topic.
I hated how it boasted "cutting-edge" graphics, but yet, the animation of the lip syncing sucked. I actually felt oddly wierd and uncomfortable watching it (and distracted from what they were saying). It was no different from watching the people in RE2 & RE3 CGI cutscenes speaking. It worked just fine in Resident Evil, but here, I guess it's different because of the graphics being very life-like.
Like most of you have already mentioned, I don't like it being mainly QTE driven. Maybe for a few specific scenes where it would work out well, but not an entire game.
I also got the impression that it is very depressing. Another reason I would stay away from it. I was depressed for many years and it's not a good feeling - I don't need a game brewing up old emotions that don't exist anymore.

So anyway, I'm sorry if this adds to the "bashing", I really am not trying to. I was curious about what this game was, it looked interesting, I checked it out and here I am with my two cents.

[Igor Hardy]

I really enjoyed The Nomad Soul, but completely disliked Fahrenheit's random button tapping and very quickly got too bored to keep playing it.

So in general I don't like the direction in which David Cage is going, but I did like some of the Heavy Rain trailers and wouldn't mind giving it a go if only it was for the PC.

[Grim]

Played it for a few hours now and....

It's probably the best game ever made...

You have to play it, to be able to feel the strange satisfaction pressing those buttons gives you. It's hard to explain. When you watch a youtube trailer with dropped framerate and low resolution it just doesn't cut it. When you play it, you actually participate.You might not believe me, but Heavy Rain provides more interaction than most other games I've played....just in a different way.

[m0ds]

It looks good! I want to play it! I loved Condemened for the 360, this looks like it follows suit to a degree. But alas, I agree - PC version is the only way I'd be able to.

[Technocrat]

*Leaps in on the pro-Heavy Rain side*

I've just spent the last 12 hours going through it. Granted, it only took 8 on the first playthrough, but the sheer permutations of endings, and experimenting with who survives is something that's going to keep me going through until tomorrow.

I'm surprised at AGS people being so vehemently opposed to it though! It seems like it'd be right up this place's street. It certainly doesn't feel like a choreto play, the way the "unconventional" controls are built into the flow of the game feels somewhat natural, helping to keep the story going in an unobtrusive way. It may look oddly arbitrary, and seem when you're watching it to look like "quicktime" events, but it feels more like an unconscious influence on the scene when you're in it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to replay it with him as a terrible terrible father.

[hedgefield]

You have to play it, to be able to feel the strange satisfaction pressing those buttons gives you. It's hard to explain.

I agree, there's something oddly hypnotizing about the constant tiny interactions that you're doing.

I'm a few hours in, and as has been said, it takes a toll on your emotions. The scenes with Ethan (his kid died) are some of the most uncomfortable and heart-wrenching I've seen in a game. The part in the mall is very well done in making you feel some genuine panic.

And the part

Spoiler

in the police station after Shaun is taken, where you have to answer the questions about what he was wearing and what time it was, I was like "oh shit, I didn't pay attention to any of that!"

[close]

I felt like a bad father.

The walking is indeed a bit of a downside, because the camera is semi-fixed most of the time so I keep bumping into walls and table edges.

But even just those augmented reality glasses the FBI agent has are reason enough to play this game. They are seriously awesome. You could build an entire game around those.

[EDIT] Man, I just played some more, and the part where

Spoiler

the FBI agent has the religious nut at gunpoint

[close]

is maybe the coolest thing I've ever done in a videogame.