Heavy Rain previewed by the numbers

by Ross Miller { Dec 11th 2008 at 2:45PM }

A handful of new Heavy Rain previews hit the interwebs today (Eurogamer, 1UP) and are definitely worth a gander for those curious about this enigmatic adventurer. However, we're especially fond of Eurogamers' supplementary vital statistics piece, chock-full of numbers our blogging-robot hybrid brains can more easily digest.

Some of our favorite stats: The script used for the game was about 2,000 pages long and features about 60 scenes, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes apiece (given the nonlinear nature of the game, you won't be seeing all of those during any play-through). All motion capture was done on-location at Quantic Dreams' Paris studio over a span of 9 months. Over 70 actors and stuntmen were involved and had their faces scanned in for use in the game.

What neither preview mentions is anything related to the story, which Quantic Dreams is keeping very quiet. Heavy Rain is expected to hit retail sometime late 2009.*

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

*Aren't you proud of us? We went a whole post on Heavy Rain without making any water puns!

Tags: heavy-rain, quantic-dreams

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

nonpareil @ Dec 11th 2008 2:50PM

Let's have a release date, you bastiges.

koehler83 @ Dec 11th 2008 2:54PM

I think we've come to a point where it would be best for everyone, if Sony could keep their release dates to themselves until the game has gone gold.

Hyams @ Dec 11th 2008 3:07PM

Sometime in 2009. Probably in the second half of the year, would be my guess.

jorojoserojas @ Dec 11th 2008 2:50PM

Definitely keeping my eyes on this one.

Alex @ Dec 11th 2008 6:04PM

Me too.
Is there such a service where I can rent consoles? Like Blockbuster, but with less DVD-age and more hardware-age. I really want this game but not the PS3-sized price tag I have to clear in order to play it.

jorojoserojas @ Dec 11th 2008 6:10PM

Actually, at one point Blockbuster DID rent out consoles. But last I remember them doing that was the N64 era. Don't know about now.

Don't have a friend with a PS3? Maybe you can do a console swap - let them borrow your console, and you borrow their PS3. If you have a PS3 friend, of course.

quasebrasileiro @ Dec 11th 2008 6:29PM

Best Buy has a "no questions asked" return policy within 90 days, I believe. I have a friend that bought an Xbox 360 and returned it later, did the same thing with an HDTV, and intends to do it again with a PS3 soon. You could buy it, play the game, then return the system...

Dave @ Dec 11th 2008 2:52PM

mmmmmm....

getofast @ Dec 11th 2008 2:53PM

ohhh nooo. heavy rain, story intensive and cutscene intensive. now replace the female protagonist with a rapidly aging male protagnist and what do you get?
a cookie for the correct answer!!

Haggard @ Dec 11th 2008 3:01PM

Hmm, I have hope for this one but frankly Indigo Prophecy was absolutely terrible.

In A World (XBL) @ Dec 11th 2008 3:05PM

Haggard, no cookie for you.

Hyams @ Dec 11th 2008 3:06PM

Except Heavy Rain has very few cut scenes.

Haggard @ Dec 11th 2008 3:08PM

Sorry, that wasn't meant as a response but it doesn't matter, nobody will see it in a few mins after all the downvotes ^^

Haggard @ Dec 11th 2008 5:29PM

I don't see why popular opinion is that Indigo Prophecy is good (note the 0.5 hearts up there).

Sure it has an alright story.. ok, half of it has an alright story. And sure, the gameplay is alright.. ok, the first twenty minutes is alright.

But why the fuck is a game which literally becomes one long QTE seqence (matching simon says buttons for long and uninteresting cutscenes - with reasons for these poorly worked into the script). Godawful stealth sections and generally crappy design. Don't even get me started on the puzzles.

Seriously, if a team displayed this level of non-competence when making an FPS, it would be worse than Hour of Victory.

Noshino @ Dec 11th 2008 7:27PM

"Seriously, if a team displayed this level of non-competence when making an FPS, it would be worse than Hour of Victory."

But...Fahrenheit was an adventure game, and if you review it AS an adventure game, well, it was pretty good...

jumpshot @ Dec 12th 2008 10:54AM

I remember being so interested in Indigo Prophecy that I bought it on recommendation from everyone here a while back.

The story was intriguing, but the incessant QTE just turned me off to it after an hour. It's a cool concept, but it could have been carried out better.

Downvotes away!

Haggard @ Dec 12th 2008 11:22AM

Well, maybe that's more a problem with the adventure game genre than my opinion-forming process.

Hyams @ Dec 11th 2008 3:04PM

I'm really interested in this game. Can't wait for it to come out.

DarrenHollywood @ Dec 11th 2008 3:07PM

Maybe it's just me, but I can't get excited just because the game has tons of dialog and tons of cut scenes. So they talk alot, who cares. Give me some of the voice actors or tell me about how they are going to bring their characters to life better than other games. "Our game is going to be TALKY!!" does not get me excited.

http://www.joystiq.com/photos/heavy-rain/988701/
Also, looking at the above screen shot, the characters look like they'll move about as smoothly as an elven dentist in a Christmas movie.

Hyams @ Dec 11th 2008 3:09PM

It's a story game, not a shooty/drivey/sporty game. Personally, I find this to be a lovely breath of fresh air.

Also, it has very few cut scenes, as the story *is* the game; you literally play the story.

Fx.Dr @ Dec 11th 2008 3:14PM

"Also, looking at the above screen shot, the characters look like they'll move about as smoothly as an elven dentist in a Christmas movie."

That was taken from an extremely early engine build, developed, IIRC, in just a few months. The latest footage blows that away, the animation is gorgeous.

DarrenHollywood @ Dec 11th 2008 3:24PM

I know the genre and I'm happy to hear cut scenes will be limited. I misunderstood what they meant by 'scenes'.

I still can't jump to calling this game a breath of fresh air. I enjoy a good adventure game, but most of those articles talk about motion capture and graphics. Neither of which are all that important to an adventure game.

I hope it's good, but I don't think they've shown anything to prove that yet.

DarrenHollywood @ Dec 11th 2008 3:28PM

@Fx.Dr
From the video on 1up I get the same feeling. I think it's more the eyes than anything. The uncanny valley affect since their eyes aren't moving naturally.

David @ Dec 11th 2008 4:00PM

It isn't an actiony/platformy, or much any kind of game either. Were you trying to belittle the tastes of someone who actually wants a degree of control over the actions in the game and not control over choices of canned action? It's a glorified QTE. Considering game stories of such a lower quality than comparable film and literature, there isn't much reason to be excited a story only game. If the game's new mechanic involving multiple choices during a single scene is realized to a relevant level then there will definitely a lot of promise, but they haven't shown much of anything yet so I'm still waiting for a meaningful demo or presentation.

Levi @ Dec 11th 2008 4:28PM

Yeah, I've leaned towards the not-so-excited side since this was announced. There really should be a limit for how close these adventures come to movies before they stop calling them games. If this game has as much game play in it as a Silent Hill (notice I didn't say action), then it could be great. If it's a bunch of running around with some QTE's for all of the game's action, you can count me out.

I'll just wait and see.

Noshino @ Dec 11th 2008 7:33PM

Levi, the thing is, this game belongs to the adventure genre, and well, it is just like a regular point and click adventure games but with a smooth transition, no stops. That IS indeed a breath of fresh air, or have you seen an adventure game ever come close to that? I mean, Fahrenheit was pretty good as well (for the most part), but it doesn't come anywhere close to what Heavy Rain has shown thus far.

Graham Wellington (formerly tyrone washington, or marsha goldberg) @ Dec 11th 2008 3:07PM

"*Aren't you proud of us? We went a whole post on Heavy Rain without making any water puns!"

that's because ludwig didn't write this post.

zing!

Erluti @ Dec 11th 2008 3:15PM

"*Aren't you proud of us? We went a whole post on Heavy Rain without making any water puns!"

Or am I terribly, terribly disappointed?

Evan @ Dec 11th 2008 3:24PM

70 actors... 9 months... and it still suffers from the Uncanny Valley.

Enderjsv @ Dec 11th 2008 3:47PM

Did anybody watch the video? There's button-time events in the scene where she's fighting the knife dude. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

getofast @ Dec 11th 2008 3:39PM

oh hi again. how are you? heavy rain looks meh. but i will give it a try like all of you good fanboys and girls should. let me set the example. oh yea btw i hope your ps3 doesnt get a disc read error. heavy rain hmm? looks like that lady is going to get quite wet....maybe even soaked and drenched.

ducttapeBigSexy @ Dec 11th 2008 3:57PM

"oh yea btw i hope your ps3 doesnt get a disc read error."

That's the best troll you could come up with?

LordVesper007 @ Dec 11th 2008 3:55PM

Yeah I don't want to encorage the spammer but he does raise a point...this game seems a lot like MGS4 in a general view of things.

Lots of cutscenes it appears. Lots of dialogue....very little gameplay?

Maybe it's just me but if this is supposed to be a huge game for the ps3 I'm not feeling it.

Anyways I just want to see more Final Fantasy XIII stuff. That's a series where it's okay to have a lot of cutscenes. You expect it.

el serpiente @ Dec 11th 2008 4:26PM

This game seems nothing like MGS4. Try again.

getofast @ Dec 11th 2008 4:02PM

Lord Vesper I love your support for me. Makes me feel special.... Lord Vesper....what a manly name.....

LordVesper007 @ Dec 11th 2008 4:11PM

Dude you need to chill out. I mean it's one thing to be a fanboy. I honestly don't mind fanboys of any system so long as they admit it.

However you're just being obnoxious and annoying. I mean you're really not saying anything about any of the articles. Nor are your criticisms really coming thru. It seems like your intent is rather to just spam than discuss or even do any valid criticism.

So in short stop or continue and probably get banned.

And I know I'm dead sexy but I'm taken so it wouldn't work.

WiNG LifeInAGame.com @ Dec 11th 2008 4:09PM

This game will rock. Makes me wish I had a PS3.

Let's hope Alan Wake actually comes to pass and lives up to expectations.

aj @ Dec 11th 2008 4:51PM

Every time you hear more about what goes into the game than what the game is actually about it usually ends up being kind of...well...bad.

Admittedly, this looks interesting. But I'd like to know what it's about. Is it a murder mystery? Is it loosely based on "Dude, Where's My Car?", is it a gripping portrayal of the sexual revolution in Rat's Ass, Missouri? What?