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We've played this entire section, but not very successfully.
We've played this entire section, but not very successfully.We've played this entire section, but not very successfully.

Norman Jayden is a man with a problem. He’s a troubled detective on the hunt for the Origami Killer – a serial murderer who likes to leave little paper mementos in the hands of his victims. At this current moment in time he’s standing in a dilapidated junkyard, catching a cold in the drizzling rain. He’s also having problems walking in a straight line – but this has less to do with his secret drug addiction, and more to do with the fact that I’m a bit rubbish at controlling him.

Heavy Rain is a highly unusual experience, an oddity that occupies a space somewhere between the graphic adventure genre and an interactive movie. Its story – which still largely remains a mystery - is told through the exploits of four characters, each of them motivated by different goals and personality traits. The game is divided into open-ended scenes that can unfold in several different ways depending on your actions, and no one path can be considered to be the “right” one. There are clues to discover, people to interrogate and threats to be overcome, but the story will progress regardless of whether you succeed or fail in these actions. Not even death itself can stop the narrative from continuing, since the plot can continue even when only one of the main players is left alive. It might even carry on when everyone is dead and buried. Perhaps.

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This unconventional concept takes a lot of getting used to, but the truth is we still don’t know exactly how Heavy Rain will work. All we have to go on is a lot of mysterious chatter from developer Quantic Dream, that jaw-dropping demo from Leipzig last year… and now poor Mr Jayden, still standing in the rain. And since he’s the only part of the whole project that I’ve had hands-on experience with, it’s to him we’ll now turn.

As with most third-person games, Heavy Rain is controlled using twin analogue sticks. The left one is largely used to govern your movement, while the right, along with the face buttons, is for a vast number of contextual actions. You actually have to hold down R2 to start walking, and once you’re on the move your character will move in whichever direction you select with the left stick. All movement is conducted relative to your current view of the action – so in other words pushing up will cause you to walk towards whatever happens to occupying the top half of the screen. It seems odd at first but it’s absolutely necessary since your perspective frequently jumps about, much as it would do in a film or TV show. You’ve always got the option of at least two camera angles, switchable via one of the shoulder buttons, and you soon fall into the habit of adjusting to a perspective that feels comfortable for whatever you’re trying to do.

As you explore scenes you’ll frequently see little icons appearing by parts of your body or by objects in the gameworld. Each of these symbols denotes an action you can take by pushing the relevant button or making a specific stick movement. Some of these actions are relatively pedestrian – opening a car door, for example – while others allow quick reflex-responses to incoming threats. As with the camera and movement controls, these contextual actions seem a bit strange initially but soon become second nature – leaving you to get absorbed into the story at hand. And believe me, as a result of the stunning graphics, intelligent writing and top-class voice acting, you’ll probably get sucked in pretty quickly.

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