Heavy Rain
| Heavy Rain (Working Title) | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Quantic Dream |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Engine | IAM |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP |
| Release | TBA |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
Heavy Rain is a tech demo presented by Quantic Dream for the PlayStation 3. It was shown at E3 2006 in the Sony booth. It builds on a game by the same name which Quantic Dream is making for the PlayStation 3.
Background
At first the Heavy Rain prototype only existed in a very premature form, created in a mere three months' time. Quantic Dream never thought about showing it in its actual form, but a few weeks before the E3 2006 expo started, Sony asked the team if they could show it at the Sony booth, to present what the new Playstation 3 can do with virtual actors in real time.
Quantic Dream's founder and CEO, David Cage, emphasized in an IGN interview that this is just a mere tech-demo, which showcases what they could do in a limited amount of time. Quality, animation and characters will gradually improve over time. The game will be expected to release in fall of 2008. It was stated that the game will have no science-fiction elements and will have a new system of gameplay, different than the one in Fahrenheit and Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Summary of the Tech Demo
Template:Spoiler In the demo, the sounds of a camcorder powering on are heard against a black screen, until a fuzzy picture is finally displayed showing the interior of a white room, with the camcorder's statistics along the top edge of the screen. Into this room comes a young woman (acted and voiced by French-American actress Aurelie Bancilhon) who is told by a man off-camera to take a seat, and to identify herself. Her name is Mary Smith, aged 24, and she has come to audition for a part in an upcoming Quantic Dream product tenatively titled Heavy Rain. Asked about her acting background, she admits that she has only had minor parts because she is often seen as unfit for major roles -- in her words, "Too tall, too short, wrong hair ... There's always something wrong with me!" The male speaker (now known to be the director) asks if she has her lines down, to which she says yes. A male assistant raises the clipboard for Heavy Rain to start filming Mary's audition.
When he lowers it again, the set has changed entirely to a small kitchen in which Mary begins a monologue. She talks to the cameraman and addresses him as being the character of her husband, with whom she once had an idealistic, romantic marriage. However, she started to notice little things about him that were indicators that he was cheating on her, but Mary would scoff at the idea, saying that such a thing would never happen to her. However, after he left his office, she followed him to be sure, and watched in shock as he stopped at a seedy hotel to meet with another woman. Crushed and heartbroken, Mary explains how she went home and cried in sorrow as she stands dejectedly over her kitchen sink, lightning bursting outside the window. Reaching into the sink, she monologues how she took their gun from the bedside table; on the set, she produces a revolver from inside the sink. Holding the gun to her head and shedding a tear, she says that life is cruel to make her cope with such horrors ... but she has a change of heart; she wasn't the one who was cheating. She sits back in her chair, saying how she waited patiently for her husband to come home. When he got there, she merely stood up and took aim in his direction (and has just stood and aimed at the cameraman). She playfully acknowledges that her husband likely believes she doesn't have the courage to pull the trigger, but her mind has been made up; she wants to make an example of him, and show that women refuse to tolerate such behavior. With a final goodbye, she pulls the trigger, accompanied by another great flash of lightning.
And suddenly, the viewer is once again seeing the demo where Mary stands back in the empty white set, holding her fingers in the shape of a gun. She smiles and asks how her performance was, happy that she has a chance. Upon Mary's exit, the male assistant expresses his interest in her acting abilities to the director; in a bit of irony, the director says that there was no point in auditioning her, as she is too tall for the role. Template:Endspoiler
Response
So far, the demo has elicited reactions of confusion for its unorthodox method of displaying the game's real-time engine, although it has been critically aplauded for the exact same reason, supporters saying that the audition angle is a superb way to increase interest in the final product. Detractors claim that the demo tells almost nothing about what the game's story or gameplay will be like, exchanging practicality for artistic merit.
The character of Mary Smith has been named as an example of the uncanny valley: her appearance is very realistic in several respects, but for some onlookers, this level of attempted naturalism makes discrepencies very jarring. The example most often cited is her lips, though her eyes also exhibit asymmetry.
Because this title is in its very early stages of development, there is a good chance its tech will improve dramatically.