One of the four playable characters, Scott Shelby.

The “Four Days Challenge,” a cleverly concocted viral marketing campaign, went public on the 26^th of January. The challenge played out as a wild, internet goose chase, where eager followers of the upcoming interactive murder-mystery Heavy Rain scouted various social media websites for a taste of “killer” goodness. The mysterious “Origami Killer” as well as the game’s haunting tagline persisting “What would you do for love?” had me, a doomed lemming of game designer David Cage, enamored from the get-go. Quantic Dream recently surprised loyal detectives with a bit of early glee—a split-segment demo introducing two of the four playable characters in Heavy Rain,  accent-equipped “Nahmen Jeyden” (FBI agent Norman Jayden) and a very burly P.I., Scott Shelby. I’m no longer terrified to admit that I’ve recently made a quick turn-around from being a regretful PS3 owner; exclusives like Heavy Rain, Demon’s Souls, and Uncharted 2 are finally legitimizing my purchase. Very early-on in the development process, Cage stated that he couldn’t fathom translating Heavy Rain for any other platform aside from the PS3, the only console he felt could superbly handle his expectations visually. For this reason, including Sony’s role as publisher, I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting a multi-platform release anywhere down the line.

I can’t remember the last time I failed to properly classify game by it’s genre. Indigo Prophecy wasn’t a simple “adventure” game and “interactive movie,” as grandeur as it sounds, didn’t do this game’s originality any justice. Like its predecessor, the concept of Heavy Rain is what grabs ahold of me; its premise is extremely dark and serious. In an earlier interview regarding the type of audience Heavy Rain will cater to, Cage let it be known that the video-game industry suffers from a lack of “adult” appeal and his team strived to provide more mature audiences, even pessimistic “non-gamers,” a chance to enter a world they’d feel compelled to return to. The demo revealed Heavy Rain to be another unrivaled brainchild of Quantic Dream, except this time its awe-inspiring visuals will most likely equate to a darker, sexier, and more titillating experience.

Norman Jayden.

While starting off as Private Investigator Scott Shelby, the player acquaints themselves with the slightly unnatural, almost clunky controls. I say “clunky” because I don’t exactly understand the need to strain my index finger to “R2″ in order to simply set my character in motion; This may seem like a snarky complaint, but as a gamer who’s accustomed myself to many archetypical “adventure” titles, it’s weird to attribute anything but the joystick to walking and switching camera angles. Instead, the joystick is simply used to change the character’s literal direction and the camera angle may be manually changed at any time, enabling players to look at a scene from a different and perhaps, more revealing, perspective. Initially, I felt as if Quantic Dream wanted to challenge our “comfort zone” by manipulating how we utilize the PS3 controller. The core of Heavy Rain is clearly it’s interactivity and the player is constantly reminded of this one-of-a-kind feature during gameplay. In fact, I cannot get over the clever integration of the PS3 controller’s motion sensor. I specifically remember an instance from Indigo Prophecy when detective Carla Valenti was suffering from claustrophobia; the PC keyboard had limitations, so button mashing was our only option for keeping Carla calm. This time around however, the “quick time events” are paired with a more interactive feel and a variety of button sequences. Honestly, I felt more on-edge brawling with buttons than committing Grand Theft Auto and running over grannies to eighties music.

In many, if not most games, we’re always anxious for the next bit of info, usually wrapped-up in a pretty cutscene. In Heavy Rain however, we’re interacting with scenes we’d normally watch and instead of anticipating the outcome, Heavy Rain appoints players in-charge of the end result. Unlike Indigo Prophecy however, Heavy Rain is more suspenseful because it is more forgiving; whereas the previous title left little room for “game-over” mistakes, Heavy Rain makes use of a more realistic approach towards danger. If players screw-up and take a couple punches to the gut, the penalty is nowhere near as aggravating. Since the storyline will still progress regardless of death, I’m really excited by the thought of meaningful replayability as well. Lastly, Heavy Rain does offer a nicely integrated “hints system,” which is basically a series of personal thoughts swarming around the characters head; this neat tidbit aids players in their next task.

In the second segment of the demo, we’re introduced to the main elements of gameplay such as investigation and of course, interrogation. Although not demonstrated in the demo, I’m not quite sure if Heavy Rain will be devoid of time-sensitive responses; While probing other characters for relevant information, any questions missed cannot be asked again. It looks as if Heavy Rain more-so encourages players to ask the “right” questions, regardless of efficiency, but this is only an observation. Personally, I prefer the psychological approach.

In an interview with GameDaily, Executive Producer Guillaume de Fondaumière stressed that the characters are not simply “characters,” but actors capable of realistic and intense emotion; Clearly, both Cage and Guillaume knew exactly what they were talking about. The potential to develop a strong, personal connection with the cast of Indigo Prophecy was a compelling component inter-weaved in it’s gameplay; Unfortunately, many excellent characteristics embedded in this game suffered at the hands of it’s sub-par visuals and flat, blocky textures.  This time around however, it feels like Quantic Dream accomplished everything I’ve believed them to be capable of. The environments are dark, rich, and uninviting. I can hear Shelby breathing and I can see his breath. I can honestly say Heavy Rain is in a league of it’s own as far as our eyes go and as trivial as it sounds, even rummaging through Shelby’s pants during his miniature asthma attack is an adventure. Ultimately, the graphical presentation of Heavy Rain is arguably the most important connection between the game and the player; it’s what truly blurs the line between a Hollywood film and an interactive ‘Film-Noir thriller,” so to speak.

Aside from the “just O.K.” voice acting, it’s safe to say that this game already has a spot on my “buy” list. I’m totally ready to play something refreshing after hours upon hours of all-night RPG stints. For all the PS3less people, watch me play the demo in HD…and suffer.