Is anyone playing this game at the moment?
Would really like to hear if any Boomers are playing or have played it what they think.
It looks really good.
Heres the link to the game Heavy Rain

Sadly no ps3 hopefully my brother in law is getting this game. Too bad it's only out on ps3 :-(

I am not a play station type of gamer but this game looks good enough to give play station a try. Thanks for the link and I must say it looks intense.

I'm on my third playthrough already, actually! This game is right up my alley, and I loved every single minute of it. Waiting for the first downloadable prequel episode to drop anytime now.

If it weren't for the "action" sequences (all of which are resolved via quicktime-esque button prompts), I'd very much hesitate to call this a Darkside game; Quantic Dream calls it an "interactive drama" and that's about as apt a description as any. The focus is definitely on the experience and on the story, with an emphasis on making snap decisions under stress - which can't be changed with a convenient quick-load. Your actions really do have a "tangible impact" on how each scene plays out - even if they don't necessarily affect the bigger picture (though, of course, many times they do).

As a result, each choice you make seems so much more meaningful, the dangers you face so much more threatening. The context-sensitive control scheme (the prompts may seem random at a glance, but in reality the buttons are mapped in such a way as to mimic the character's movements, and to reflect the difficulty of the action) does a great job of creating tension, too. It's one of those games that you have to play yourself to see how it works, but it undoubtedly does.

Heavy Rain makes you genuinely feel for the characters. The devs use a lot of psychological tricks to plant you as firmly as possible into the characters' shoes and mindset; you'll feel at risk; you'll feel culpable. Their mistakes are your mistakes, their losses are your losses - and that connection and investment is perhaps the strongest I've ever felt in a game.

Shameless gushing aside, it isn't for everyone. It's a very dark, bleak, even depressing game at times, and comparable to an R-rated flick in terms of mature content. The voice acting is also a little hit or miss, which is surprising considering the topnotch production values at work elsewhere. Some users are experiencing various technical hiccups as well; I, myself, had a single crash my first time through, but otherwise no probs.

In short, though, it's a unique, engaging, heart-pounding, emotionally harrowing rollercoaster ride - and well worth the toll it'll take on you.

I, myself, am about 3/4 of the way through. I agree with everything said above including the depression one can feel during the game. The fact that one experiences such intense emotions is a testament to the quality of the game. I'm playing on easy mode. The "action sequences" are very easy and forgiving. You don't have to do everything. As an example, if I have to slide down a hill smoothly by hitting a button and I don't, the consequence maybe dirty pants. Your lack of quick response just plays into the game but the game moves on. I'm very hard press to call this an action game on any level because you’re not compelled to complete the actions. As in real life, we can't all duck at the right time or stop at the right time. The drama itself has action for sure and the story, wow, what a story so far. It is my understanding that there are 22 different endings to the game and the one that does play out is based on all your choices. There are a lot of choices to make. Interactive drama is the best description. Great game.

Well with all this praise I have ordered my copy Thanks everyone.

You'll have to let us know what you think

Up to now I have only played shooters and other heavy action games in the PS3. I am not sure I like not being able to change decisions, it sounds to close to life . I guess you can replay under the name of another user though.

I am downloading the demo, this should give me a better idea if I like it or not.

And we'll all have to compare stories.

Mordack,
Regarding endings, it turns out that there are 22 or so distinct epilogues, with 17 of them divvied up among the main characters. You'll see a handful of these each time depending on your choices in certain, key scenes (obviously, a major deciding factor is whether each of the characters makes it to the endgame, and survives - but they take other things into account, as well). You can see all of them in as "few" as seven playthroughs - which still isn't too shabby at all, especially when you throw in all the tiny variations in the individual scenes throughout the game. A handy chapter select option allows you to begin play at any point in the story, so you won't strictly have to play through the entire game too many times.
But you'll want to.

mcc,
Well, if you wanna get technical, you could theoretically pause the game, exit to the main menu, and replay the chapter - but doing so would completely defeat the point. As Mordack said, there's really no "right" or "wrong" way to do something, only a result. (Which isn't to say that things can't go badly - very badly - for our heroes, if you aren't careful. But if that's the case, it's all part of your story.)

The demo isn't 100% representative of the game, IMO. It'll give you some idea of what to expect, of course, but hardly any of the plot is featured, and only two of the four protagonists make an appearance (and the central character, Ethan, isn't among these).

And by the way! The first DLC (which, I didn't realize, is only currently available - as a freebie - to those who pre-ordered the game, which naturally I did ) is quite good - it's actually creepier (and a little bloodier) than the main game, more of an outright "horror movie" vibe. My sole complaint is that it's pretty short - still, there's a good four or five possible outcomes to the thing, and it plays out in a variety of ways, just like the game. $5 an ep doesn't seem too much to part with once they start pumping them out on PSN in the coming months!

I played the Demo, too short to appreciate the game. I don't like the way they use the controls though, it reminds me of Indigo Prophesy that even when I really liked the game I hated the controls. One gets used after a while but it would be a lot easier with normal controls, for me anyway.

Movement is a bit wonky, that's for sure. It helps if, rather than keeping your thumb on the stick and steering as you would in another game, you instead gently flick it in the desired direction, while keeping the walk button pressed.

I thought the action prompts did an excellent job meshing with what was happening onscreen, though, and they're far, far better integrated into the environment than in Indigo Prophecy (no Simon sessions - always a plus!).

I finished Heavy Rain Saturday morning. Loved every moment of the game. Even though I like a good story mixed with devious puzzles, I found that making decisions that affected the story outcome was fun and stressful. All my choice where made on the theme of “what’s right”. For that, I received a Hollywood ending. I couldn’t image a better outcome.
I experienced no difficulty with walking, maybe because I don’t play PS3/action games. It felt similar to a mouse for me. Click/hold to walk and flick the stick for direction.

I couldn't see the need of having to press anything else than the left stick to walk but the movements I found more awkward were the ones related to actions - to have to wiggle the sticks in certain way instead of just pressing an action key.
I will still buy the game when a pre-owned game reaches my nearest GameStop.

Walking itself wasn't really the issue, but changing your facing, especially in tight quarters or from a standstill, was sluggish and awkward sometimes; characters would occasionally do an abrupt about-face and start moving in the opposite direction than I'd intended. Thankfully you're seldom in direct control when things get heated, so it didn't hurt the game too much.

There's meant to be a correlation between the stick gestures and the in-game movements. The range of actions - or how they're presented, subtly differently each time - is so diverse that limiting your input to simple, generic button presses (one button for this type of action, another for that, everytime) would have ruined the sense of "being there," I think, and killed the dynamic, dramatic feel they were striving for. But I can see how they aren't for everyone.

Since I don't have a PS3, nor am I planning on getting one, I've been watching lots of videos of playthroughs of the game.

It looks very interesting, but I don't think I would've gotten it - all those sequences where you can die would make me too nervous.

I would love to play a game like it, though, where everything you do changes the game somehow.

By the way, I saw both the best ending and the worst ending (I think), and I was wondering something (relatively safe spoiler):

Another recent title with a similar philosophy to Heavy Rain is Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but it's also console exclusive (Wii, PS2/PSP). The game builds a psychological profile of you, the player, by analyzing your in-game actions and adjusts itself accordingly. While it's very story-driven and there's no combat, there are chase sequences in which you flee and hide from enemies.

Back to Heavy Rain:

Thanks!

Getting into specific spoilers, now:

It seems I have lost some information - how does Madison know about the existence of the Doc and an apartment in Marble St.?

She mentions that Mendez is the guy who rented the apartment, also - I have to be careful, he may be the killer.

I don't remember anything happening before the Doc chapter that would make her aware of that.

It's explained briefly at the beginning of the chapter; her buddy/contact, Sam, did some digging into the apartments for her and located the owner, the good doctor. They're discussing it as she's riding her motorcycle. "Mad? It's Sam, I got your information..."

The apartment in question is the one she followed Ethan to, where he faced his third trial, The Lizard (you know - chop-chop! ::wince:: ).

Thanks Feeb88, yes, I heard that but somehow I had forgotten about it.

The Lizard ouch!

I just saw the title of the game & related it to being one being released as a similar game to Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit. I've read through all of the posts - it seems to be a game that has only been released on PS3? - is that right? If so, I am just lucky enough to have one by default!

Anyway, more importantly! what I would like to know is how does it compare to IP/Fahrenheit? - i.e. If I liked that game (which I did because it had a compelling story but found controls very difficult!) how would I find Heavy Rain?

chrissie, it compares very much to Indigo Prophesy, unfortunately. IMO the controls are not as bad, however I find them extremely frustrating. There are sequences when I feel I need a third hand to be able to press all the buttons at once, particularly because one does not know in which order they will appear.

There is a Demo in PS3, very short though, when I played it I thought about Indigo Prophesy but I didn't know it was from the same people. In this Demo one cannot appreciate neither the good things the game offers nor the full complication of the controls but it gives an idea.

The main difference with IP is that you don't have to pass the most difficult sequences to "advance" in the game but this is at a cost - letting one of the characters down or even get him/her killed because of ones own "clumsiness".

All in all a very good game, very absorbing, but with some nasty scenes and IMO awful controls.

Yep, there's no mistaking Heavy Rain for anything other than a Quantic/David Cage game; it's essentially a refined and streamlined spiritual successor to IP. In other words, exactly what I was expecting.

The story is greatly improved, I thought; it isn't perfect, but they didn't needlessly tack on the mystical elements (or the crazy superhero hijinks) that nearly ruined Indigo Prophecy's. This is much more of a pure psychological thriller, though a few of the set pieces tread into action-movie territory.

The controls weren't terrible to me, but they're certainly anything but standard. The stick motions, as previously mentioned, are back in full force, but rather than the Simon minigame, HR utilizes the face and shoulder buttons of the controller; the prompts are cleverly placed into the scene, now, and they're fully animated, adapting to character movements and camera angles as needed. So if, for example, a character throws a punch, the "X" button might appear on the fist, and follow the arc of the swing. It's all very slick and you're never taken out of the action as you were in IP. Some sequences do involve holding down a number of buttons at a time, but these are supposed to be tricky and frustrating; they certainly are for the characters! The unpredictability of it all added to the tension, for me, though there is a weird sort of logic to every button press. I haven't tried anything other than the default difficulty, but I'd assume Easy mode has less prompts and/or you're given more time to complete them.

Thank you mcc & also Feeb88 for the very informative feedback! I'm very tempted now to buy the game but I will almost certainly be playing on 'Easy'!

I finished the game yesterday. My all impression is the same I had

I would no recommend the game though to particularly sensitive people since it is very depressing.

I could not complete the driving at all, I am used to driving vehicles in games including against time but it is always as in this world stirring the car but not having to worry about pressing other buttons. I realized that since I was too far from reaching the goal I wouldn't be able to make it even if I "cheated" and restarted the chapter. Even when I knew the game would carry on no matter how I did in the trials I almost gave up playing it. I had heard it was a game of choices but if couldn't do what I wanted to do it meant I was not really making choices but my fingers did

I decided to give it one more chance and I am glad I did. That trial was far worse for me than the rest of the game. Later on I pressed the wrong buttons and one character died, but even when I left it this way I knew I could make it if I decided to replay the game for a different ending.

To be able to be ready for the sequences I had to miss a lot of the action itself though , but I managed to save all the other characters and reach a "good" ending.

The game freezed more than once but I could go from the same point even when having to quit and go out sometimes.

I found also some inconsistencies but to point them it would be too big spoiler. Maybe someone opens a BIG SPOILER post where there could be open discussions about the endings.

MCC, feel free to start one--just put Big Spoilers in the title so folks don't learn more than they want to know

I noted the dark tone, too, in an earlier post, but I wouldn't want people to think it's all dreary and dismal. It's designed to provoke a whole range of responses from you; there are some moments of happy relief, too, when things actually go well. But, yes, definitely, anyone who doesn't enjoy having their emotions tested by their games should steer clear!

You know, it's funny. I had no problems with Heavy Rain's controls, but there's a similar quick time event sequence in the new Resident Evil 5 DLC where you have to play the piano - don't ask - which annoyed me to no end at first - and it required only two possible buttons! Talk about irony.

There are a few genuine plot holes, unfortunately, mostly minor; but others do have plausible explanations, they just aren't explicitly mentioned in the game.

I had problems for a while, when I bought the PS3 a year ago, with the right stick of the controller with the cursor flying all over the place , fortunately this didn't last.

Many games require pressing buttons in a quick response, but in this one at times I though I would need an extra hand

I played Resident Evil 5 and loved it. Do you download the DLC from the PS3? I haven't played it.

PlayStation has been my console of choice for as long as they've been around, so I don't know what it was about that sequence. In HR the quick time events felt appropriate, though I can't say why; but lazy developers clumsily tossing them into their games left and right, for the sake of it, is getting old.

I miss the old style of survival horror - evade, conserve, survive! - but as an action game RE5 is great.

Yep, it's all done from the console. I'll shoot you a PM as I fear I've gotten us a tad off-topic.

I'm still disappointed this was not also made for the PC. I loved Fahrenheit and would have liked to see how this turned out.

Thaks Feeb88, I am not in a hurry since I'll be out of town and out of PS3 for about 10 days. I should be able to find the way to download it from the PS Store anyway.