Heavy Rain

I had enjoyed, to a point, Quantic Dream's previous game, Fahrenheit, on the Xbox. My problem with it was that, while the story (other than the last third, when it got a bit silly) was decent, well-directed and acted, the gameplay was a bit lacking. At times it was more like a game of 'Simon' than a videogame.

So I approached Heavy Rain with some trepidation. However, I was very impressed with what I saw the demo at the Expo though.

Two scenarios were shown in the demo, one involving an FBI agent visiting a junkyard as part of an investigation and the other, more interesting, one showed a different, older, detective, Shelby, thwart a stick-up artist in a convenience store.

The former was more conventional - agent investigates yard (albeit with cool toys), questions suspect, rumbles suspect, fights. The latter, however, was far more interesting.

Shleby thought that the shopkeeper, Hassan, held information for his case, based on the murder of Hassan's own son some years before. The still grief-stricken Hassan wouldn't help initially and Shelby looks to depart but first goes to pick an asthma inhaler from the back of the store.

While he searches for the inhaler, Hassan is held up by a stick-up artist and will not give up his hard-earned cash. Shelby moves to the front of the store and his subsequent interactions with the robber can take a number of diverging paths depending on what responses are given. I played it once and saw others play it too and I witnessed a number of different paths through that scene based on the player's/Shelby's responses, making a refreshing change for a videogame. If this level of originality and depth can be carried through the rest of the game, I think it could be one of the best games on PS3.