So I live in a house with about 50ish other people. We share meals, kitchen, the entertainment center, bathrooms and living area (everyone has their own one room apartment). We have a lot of money lying around with which to buy items for the house, I along with another house member proposed we get a PS3 (almost as a joke assuming it would be turned down) turns out we got enough votes and today in came the PS3 with a copy of SF4 (which I find kinda boring, but anyway....)
So being a slight connoisseur of gaming I decided to DL a bunch of demos for the house to try (we have to vote to buy anything for the house including new games)...I threw in Katamari, Lost Planet 2, Naruto, Yakuza, and...Heavy Rain.
So I boot up the demo, there are about ten other people watching I handed the controller over to someone else. They go through the tutorial struggling with the quarter circles and the strange controls (the tv was also set ridiculously dark so we had to adjust it), a few wtfisthisshits were heard, then we got into the "Sleazy Demo"...first thing I hear is "Wow that looks real"...general consensus all around as Shelby walks into the motel.
Someone finally says, "wow this game is very cool" as Shelby walked around knocking on doors. Tired with the controls, but wanting to see what happens the controller gets past to me, I spent a few minutes running into walls trying to get a hang of the game. But holy shit is this a FANTASTIC game to play in crowd, when the options for what to say popped up, people were shouting the prompts wanting to see what would happen. More people filtered in asking what we were playing. The room was silent as the "interviewee" talked, unless a prompt came up. Some laughed as I bumbled my way through the apartment, but people were yelling "comfort her" or "whats that over there?"
We got the "crying" exit... many people were actually sad to see that we hadnt gotten the information, whatever it was. Once we thought the demo was over (myself included) the "fight scene began. People were literally out of their seats screaming out the prompts as Shelby dashed around the room. People were hooten and hollerin when I missed a prompt or got one. The whole room was into it. One of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
All I heard from people was "wows" "what if we did it again, but instead.." "that was moody as hell" no one complained about the fact that our big screen wasnt running in 720p (1080i ish) or that the screen tore every once in a while, people were absorbed in the story and the characters. I handed off the controller for the detective scene, more oohs and ahhs. Sometimes when going through these threads I wonder why people scream "weird controls" or "screen tearing this" or not "full HD that." Fuck that. Gamers have lost contact with the purpose of games: to engross, to entertain, not to beat or to optimize or to scrutinize. People are worried that "Heavy Rain" wont appeal to the masses, I worry that the "true gamers" are going to be the ones to rip it to shreds.
Anyway, I have no doubt Heavy Rain will be one of the best games ever made. Finally turned my favorite medium into something more adult, but still fun and engrossing. Thanks Quantic Dream wish you guys the best of luck.
Side Note:
Playing Katamari Forever and Heavy Rain, one after the other has really increased my faith in the future of games. This is the golden age of gaming. Period.
