Got the demo, beat it, first impressions now.
Heavy Rain is…well, it’s hard to describe. One side of me wants to explode my intestinal track at the mere thought of playing an “Interactive Movie.” (Hey, remember all those “Interactive Movies” we had in the 90s? Yeah, I repressed those memories, too.) At the same time, however, the sample I played is…good. It’s actually impressive how they managed to take the worst gameplay mechanic in recent memory and actually make something playable, intriguing, and sometimes exciting out of it. Not to say it didn’t have flaws.
-Whoever came up with “Press X to move,” would you kindly come to me so I can dig your brains out with a garden trowel? Seriously, that’s the only part of the controls I have to complain about, but it’s a major pain in the ass.
-A few of the prompts are hard to read. Maybe it’s my TV, but the constant slanting and shaking gets annoying at times. Although, considering how failing most of them will still let you continue (you won’t die by taking too long to drink your coffee in this game), maybe that was intentional?
-The dialogue system borrows heavily from Mass Effect…only if instead of a radial menu, they had the topics floating about your character’s head. Once again, the prompt issue comes into play; it can seriously be hard to tell a circle from a square at that distance.
Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised. This might not suck. Granted, it will still be a commercial bomb and will finally end Quantic Dream (a feat even Indigo Prophecy couldn’t pull off), but it’ll probably go on to be a cult classic or something else. I would like to reiterate, it made Quick Time Events fun. Make of that what you will.