The French Studio Quantic Dream is scheduled to release an ambitious mystery game called "Heavy Rain" in February 2010.
Seriously, if you haven't seen the trailer for Heavy Rain, you've been missing out. The visuals are beautiful enough to give "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" a run for its money. The facial expressions are so detailed that you'll be able to tell the difference between a character being constipated or frustrated.
The premise of Heavy Rain, as quoted from director David Cage, is "a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes". He explains this further by stating that the game will not involve any "supernatural elements". The main theme of the game is "about how far you're willing to go to save someone's life". Clearly, Heavy Rain will involve a lot of drama, suspense and thrills.
Based on the premise and theme, Heavy Rain is an intense game that features real-life characters filled with raw emotion that will undoubtedly involve the gamer emotionally. Gamers will have to be alert of every event happening around them because it'll lead to capture of the serial killer known as the “Origami Killer”.
An interesting feature in Heavy Rain is the power to control the different characters central to the story. If the character you are controlling dies because of what is thought of “unnecessary circumstances” (or in short killed by the Origami Killer), you take control of another character. The death of the aforementioned character will affect the outcome of the story.
Think of Heavy Rain as a slasher movie that causes you to scream at the characters on the screen for not opting to stay together or deciding to enter a dark room knowing that there is a killer on the loose. The only difference is you have control over the cast of characters and decide on what their next action is.
There's an option to display what your character is thinking. This is probably to see a glimpse of his or her state of mind in certain situations. Character's change their body language to signal danger in the environment. For example, you’ll notice your character folding his arms and tightening his shoulders while walking nervously because he feels danger is just around the corner – danger that can possibly lead to death.
There are four playable characters – Norman Jayden (FBI), Scott Shelby (detective), Ethan Mars (architect) and Madison Paige (journalist). All of them are looking for the Origami Killer.
Wouldn’t it be semi-stereotypical if one of the playable characters was the Origami Killer? That would be a major letdown for gamers really looking forward to Heavy Rain.
I guess we will have to wait until February 2010 to solve the mystery of the Origami Killer.