E3 Impressions – Heavy Rain
By Jamie Love - June 9th, 2009
I spent most of the Nintendo Press Conference slurping a coffee, given how early Nintendo had insisted on getting us all out of our comfy borrowed beds. The immediate emphasis afterward was on blogging about the many splendidly inappropriate things one could do with the Wii Vitality Sensor. But what’s remained sharp on my mind is the approach to capturing, or capitalizing on new gaming markets, not by what was said, but by what was insinuated by the software announced. Nintendo’s overarching approach is in offering a more accessible means to games, period. But what I firmly believe is lost in this equation is that people have a habit of responding to content that respects their intelligence. While Wii Sports Resort will undoubtedly bring more gamers into the medium, murder mystery novels on the DS leave me feeling awkward.
Perhaps there’s a level of adult oriented entertainment we shouldn’t expect Nintendo to ever offer. Did we ever have an assurance that they would both raise us as a generation of gamers and then sustain us into our maturing years? And I’m not talking about a simple matter of blood and gore, but that level of adult oriented entertainment that keeps people tuning into their favorite late night dramas and mysteries every week.
Watching a demonstration of Sony’s Heavy Rain, I believe the game potentially offers the ability to approach a wider audience by different means, linked via the use of mature content to exactly what people are watching late at night while the Wii rests up for weekend visits from friends.
Prior to the E3 demonstration, I’d only known Heavy Rain from the few bits of video available online. I’d imagined the game was something resembling an interactive film with quicktime event prompts – an adult oriented Dragon’s Lair for a new generation. As it turns out, I was greatly misinformed. Before sitting down I was asked if I knew anything about the title. Being a part-time smart ass I said that I knew it had been in development for sometime and looked very expensive. The response from Sony was that I had plenty to learn, and I certainly agree.
The scenario I watched involved an investigator who was following leads at a junkyard. Immediately I realized there was more gameplay than I’d expected, the player able to move the character freely around the environment. At anytime, a list of thoughts from the character could be called upon – which in this case revealed some personal addiction issues with the protagonist. That list of thoughts also mapped each mental note to a button on the controller, allowing the player to explore the idea further.
Pursuing the investigation, a special glove and pair of glasses were activated, enabling the player to see potential clues that were invisible to the naked eye – potential clues because not every thing made visible was directly related to the investigation. This act revealed hidden stains and tire tracks that led back to an acid bath where the remains of a body were still visible. At this point a rather large and looming figure decided to intervene and take the game to another level of interaction with the established button mapping system.
A fight immediately ensued, and as seen in earlier videos, quicktime-like cues began to occur – but it wasn’t as simple as I’d imagined. Each sequence of action offers multiple possibilities that are then mapped to the controller buttons – including interrogation options. There was the impression that some might prove more successful than others. Unlike other games, there wasn’t an absolute wrong answer, or mistimed reaction that forced the player to begin again – consequences instead influence the narrative directly. Each attempt, successful or not, led to another action, offering an ability to make direct choices on how the sequence played out. If you miss the cue to block a punch, expect to get knocked down – but also expect a chance to regain the advantage should your fingers pick up the pace. The idea is that the player has direct influence on how both minor and major story elements develop. During a fight for instance, I was reminded that killing the suspect would of course make it impossible to question him.
Of course the player always determines the action of gameplay, but here there was a more direct recognition of that idea. The attempt is seeking to involve the player every bit as much as a Wii-mote, from a different perspective. The player might strike with an object on the ground, only to be knocked back and forced to find another option from those available. There were so many possibilities just in this quick sequence of events that it was hard to size it all up. I was told that there were numerous possibilities as to how the narrative ultimately ends.
Again I thought of those DS crime novels, and imagined a series of ads in women’s magazines offering some faux sense of gaming to those new to the medium. While I’m not certain that I’ll be proven right, Sony’s shiny exclusive feels like a more solid attempt at capturing the attention of a wider audience accustomed to this type of CSI influenced narrative – and it’s about time more emphasis in the pursuit of that market was placed on the content rather than the delivery.
Since I didn’t get to handle the controls myself, I’m still in the dark about just how involving the actions I watched will feel to the player. So conclusions will have to wait for the final release, or hands on preview time. But Heavy Rain might find the means to open up gameplay without numbing the experience. It certainly promises to increase appeal with simplified play mechanics that seemingly avoid compromising the subject matter while requiring a mixture of mental and physical dexterity to develop a personalized experience.
