I freely admit that I was incredibly impressed by the Heavy Rain demo. It was released last Thursday and I only got around to playing it yesterday (Sunday), but for as short as it was, it was sweet and captivating.



The demo starts out with a very film noir look and feel, which creates a very captivating atmosphere that never lets you go. As you start the demo, your detective character is driving down the street and parks infront of an alleyway. Having your plump and asthmatic detective walk through a very dreary and ominously rainy alley is your brief tutorial. Oddly enough, you don't use either controls sticks to walk, but instead you point your character in the direction you wish to go, and hold the R2 trigger to make him walk. The left stick is used for looking, and almost half of the actions you make involve use of using your right stick to make motions not dissimilar to Fight Night 3. Quarter circle movements control anything from opening car doors, to knocking on doors, to retrieving clues and even using your asthma inhaler. The remainder of Heavy Rain involves quick-time buttons ala God of War to defend yourself from attacks and climb objects. For once, use of the six-axis motion sensors are not a gimmick but a viable part of Heavy Rain and you use it to kick down doors and push away your assailant in a brutal fistfight that lasts nearly three minutes.

The atmosphere is intense, and the whole theme of Heavy Rain appears to be extremely cinematic (in a good, interactive way). You can pick up a lot about a character before you even get too far into Heavy Rain, which is an amazing and (again) often intense experience.



The second part of the Heavy Rain demo (after the alleyway tutorial) is again playing as the detective when you enter a sleazy apartment complex to talk to the mother of one of the serial murder victims of the 'Origami Killer'. You do everything from actively bribe the apartment manager for the woman's location, to a very interactive and almost gut-wrenching scene of interrogating/questioning the grieving mother. The mother is a prostitute and not a minute after you leave her apartment, one of her violent clients pays her an unexpected visit and you can choose to fight him to protect the woman, or you can simply ignore her screams and walk out of the apartment like it no longer concerns you. It is blatantly obvious what kind of a person you really are when YOU are put in charge of your character's actions to the letter. I for one couldn't ignore her screams and chose to intervene, kicking down the door and kicking the crap out of the asshole. Your reward for fighting off the abusive jerk is potentially a stronger lead to the identity of the Origami Killer and a connection to the mother.



The third and last part is the deepest, where you are a (rookie?) FBI agent sent to investigate the crime scene of the latest victim of the Origami Killer, a young boy found in a railroad yard. You exit his car and proceed to the crime scene. You can pause and listen to a news reporter giving her report to a Channel News network before you proceed to the crime scene. In an unexpected twist, you do a Men in Black by putting on a pair of high-tech sunglasses and a black glove that actually detect clues for you. you can press the R1 trigger and send out a sensor around you like a radar, which reveals everything from footprints to blood, to the pollen in the air from an orchid found on the boy's body. You can question cops, but most of the questioning is fruitless. You can go and drink coffee before you question the detective in charge, or you can even begin investigating the clues prior to talking to the detective just to piss him off. Again, what you do in Heavy Rain reflects on the kind of person you are. I began immediately searching for clues, and I searched high and low, rather than looking at the body and then quitting (which I know would bite me in the ass later in Heavy Rain).

I've honestly played the demo about 10 different times to see what sort of 'free-range' I have, and it is fairly impressive, but not as unlimited as one would like. Most of the time you are hand-held into a general direction, with little chance to deviate from a set path. But then again, it's because I haven't witnessed any changes in the outcome to make my seemingly small differences in play effect the outcome of Heavy Rain further down the line.

Overall, I have a great first impression of Heavy Rain, and I'm expecting great things from it.

If you don't think that my ravings of Heavy Rain being intense are validated, watch the video below:

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Oh my word! Why would you saw your finger off when you had the butcher knife available? Is the whole game this sadistic?

No, it's not a SAW video game. It is a sort of 'choose your own adventure' detective murder mystery game that follows four characters as they try to capture the Origami Killer. If you let a character die, then it plays into the rest of the game and effects the outcome. It looks pretty sweet overall.

DO WANT!

DUDE THAT IS OFF THE HOOK AWESOME!

I will most def be downloading the demo tonight to check this out, I've been following it for a while and really want to play it.

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I wanted to play it. I played it. Now I want to own it. It's extremely interesting IMO.
Add me to your friends list on your PS3. I'm looking for online gamers.

I just pre-ordered a copy from Amazon, a move I rarely do with video games. I did it because it turns out you get a free DLC episode ("The Taxidermist") if you pre-order. The DLC will be $5 when it comes out, so I saved a little money with the pre-order (for once).

I can't wait until Feb 23rd. The critics have been greatly pleased with Heavy Rain, though not on the same level as Uncharted 2, obviously:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... ot;title;1

So i have decided after playing the Demo, I am going to go put this game on Preorder tonight on the way home. Wayyyyy to F'n Cool.

Yeah, it'll be a sweet game.

I added you to my Friends list late last night. I think I'm the only person on earth who doesn't play Modern Warfare 2