Heavy rain: how i learned to trust the designer

Heavy Rain is a videogame developed by Quantic Dream and originally released for the Playstation 3 platform in 2010. The game, the brainchild of its d irector David Cage, was described in promotional materials as an interactive drama. The game feature s four main playable characters who are all involve d, in some way or another, in the mystery of the Origa mi killer: a serial killer whose modus operandi is to kidnap a child during the rainy season and trap the m such that they’ll drown due to the continued accumulation of rainfall. The children are later fo und in a remote location with an origami figure in their hands and an orchid on their chest. Heavy Rain first came to my attention after hearing about how its technological breakthroughs, such as highly realistic facial animation and modeling, wou ld be used to provide an “adult emotional thriller” told “not through cutscenes but directly through the cha racter’s actions: you don’t watch the story, you actually play it” (David Cage as quoted in Edge 200 8). According to Cage, in Heavy Rain you play “with a story almost in the physical sense, changing it, twisting it, discovering it, making it unique, maki ng it yours” (David Cage as quoted in Chester 2009). I co nfess I was both excited and skeptical. The game industry is no stranger to marketing and hype, and Cage’s earlier games, Omikron:The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit, 1 only briefly caught my attention as they seemed to have received a mixture of praise and derision from the press. The idea of a fully realiz ed interactive storyworld represents a sort of holy grail of gaming (e.g. Murray 1997; Crawford 2004) and it is something that David Cage, the game’s director, has arguably been interested in for some time. Fahrenheit (Quantic Dream 2005), was noted “for its inventive storytelling and immersive techniques” (S heffield 2008), and was an attempt to push the boundaries of the medium of videogames by “remaining true to its still-young traditions and sometimes by breaking away from them” (Cage 2006). Fahrenheit experimented with new directions for the integration of narratives and interaction previousl y explored in the now-infamous game genre referred to as interactive movies (Lessard 2009). Fahrenheit was a bold experiment hampered, in part, due to the immature implementation of its action sequences and poor story (Cage 2006). Would things be different this time around? Mateas and Stern’s Facade (2005) had been released recently to much critical acclaim providing an example of what could be achieved on a shoestring budget. What could be done with a budget and team orders of magnitude greater? Could a fully realized interactive storyworld with mature themes and high production values finally be realiz ed? Heavy Rain sounded like an answer to that question. My nervousness, as I began playing, was unusual. I’ ve certainly been excited, even thrilled, about pla ying a new game. Never before had I been nervous. Was I complicit in the hype, wanting to believe this game would “blow my mind”? Had I set myself up for an ultimate disappointment? Or, perhaps the worst outcome of them all, would I find the experience un remarkable?