Quick Thoughts: Heavy Rain Demo

I have just finished playing the Heavy Rain Demo, which is available on PSN, and I have a few things that I would like to say about it.

Since its announcement Heavy Rain has been a title that I've been very interested in for multiple reasons. First, I am very interested to see what David Cage and his team at Quantic Dream are able to do on Sony's PS3 console, for a technology perspective. I also find the story, the little that I know about it, very interesting and I want to see the character development throughout Heavy Rain. Most importantly however, I want to experience this unique style of gameplay which blurs the lines between a movie and a video game.
Now that I have played through the Heavy Rain demo I can confidently say it is an experience you won't find anywhere else.
The premise of Heavy Rain is to try and solve a mystery murder case through the eyes of several different characters. In the demo you play as a private detective and an FBI agent, both of whom are in completely different parts of New York City where the story unfolds.
Heavy Rain's gameplay is a mix between an adventure game, and some quick-time events. Even for the most ordinary movements, such as opening a car door, you have to move the right analog stick in a way that matches the real life movement of the action.
You're able to move your character by holding down the R2 trigger and then move the left analog to steer him/her. At first it feels really weird, but you start to get used to it pretty fast. The genius part of this button layout is that it allows the player to use the right analog stick, along with all the "face-buttons", while the character is moving.
What really stood out to me was the seem-less flow which Heavy Rain moves at. Every action that you do on your controller feels so natural that I could have almost played through the entire demo without any button pop-ups, and I would have known what way I should move the analog sticks.
Since the demo was pretty short, about 30 minutes, I didn't get to see much character progression but I can tell you that the facial animations from each of these chracters are top-notch. Most of this game looks like a controllable cut-scene in a way that the graphics and character detail isn't usually this clear during actual gameplay.

I'll be sure to review the full game once it comes out, but until then I strongly suggest you all go and play the demo which is out now on Sony's PSN.

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