Well, after getting my hands on the demo, I can safely say it definitely is unique and that the game is quite QTE heavy, but in a brilliant way, and after playing the demo I would like to add my own quote to the mix.  So what’s it all about? Well, Heavy Rain is a noir thriller created by Quantic Dream exclusively for the PS3. You may remember Quantic Dream for creating the sci-fi thriller Fahrenheit, or Indigo Prophecy, depending on where you are in the world. The story revolves around four characters who are trying to catch the origami killer, someone who kidnaps and murders little boys. So, definitely one for the adults.  As you progress you are told about a few of the prompts that you may come across during the game and before long you are at the end of an alleyway and the demo moves on to the next scene.  The Sleazy Room  This is the first example of a branching section. You can either follow the on screen prompt to pay the receptionist, which results in more information, or you can just head upstairs and knock on random doors until you find who you are looking for. Either way, you find the person you are looking for and upon entering the apartment you begin the conversation side of things. Several one word descriptions start floating around your head and you need to pick one by pressing the corresponding button. Depending on your approach, the conversation will vary as will what information you get. You can either get kicked out and learn nothing of value or you can persuade them to open up and tell you the information you need to know. If you manage to do that, then the screen splits into two, with one focusing on you as you freely walk around the room, whilst the other focuses on the other character. This is a rather nice gimmick as it allows you to interact with different things whilst the conversation carries on, resulting in no boredom as you are not forced to watch the scene unfold in a static cut scene style.  Either way, you end up leaving the apartment. Upon heading to the stairs you are struck down by an asthma attack. After a few button presses you pull out your inhaler and have a quick puff. This scene shows off another cool gimmick: the prompts react to different scenarios. If all is calm, then the prompts are static. If it is an intense, stressful situation, then the prompts shake. I have heard that these can become blurred or even upside down, depending on the situation. Which inevitably results in panicking and failure. You now have a choice to make. Do you leave the building or do you go and investigate? If you leave, then you leave the motel and the demo moves on to the next scene, but if you investigate, you enter into one of the best things about the demo, the fight scenes. The fight scene is fully choreographed and could be viewed as a cut scene. You effect the outcome by pressing the precise button combinations, but the prompts are fired at you in such a quick fashion that you are bound to miss some. It is brilliant to see how the fight turns out depending on what buttons you miss and also makes you wonder what would happen if you missed that button press, or if you made that button press. Once the fight scene ends, a few words are exchanged and you leave, allowing the demo to move on to the last section, The Crime Scene.  The Crime Scene: After another conversation with the detective on the case, you find out that the body in the crime scene was likely to have been killed by the origami killer. You are now allowed free reign of the crime scene to do your investigating. You do this with your ARI goggles and glove.  The best way to describe the ARI system is to compare it to the Detective Mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum. After examining the crime scene and the body you are then able to leave. You don’t have to scan the entire scene, but the one thing you have to do is check and investigate the body, otherwise you will not be able to enter your car and leave. This gives you an intriguing dilemma. Do you scan the entire scene making sure you get all the information possible?  Or do you get the minimal amount and go on that? How that interferes with the story is yet to be known.  Thoughts Obviously, the first thing that I noticed when playing through the demo is how beautiful this game is. I was amazed at the graphics in Uncharted 2, but in Heavy Rain I was blown away. The detail on the character models and surroundings has to be seen to be believed. The control scheme is inventive and actually relates to what you are doing. Jerking the controller in a downward motion could mean a head butt and turning the right analogue stick slowly could mean applying a bandage. It is completely different to anything else out at the moment. The game is atmospheric and the music is perfectly played out in the background to create that all round film noir setting. I had planned to go through this demo at least four times to try and explain how different actions create different outcomes. Unfortunately, after three playthroughs I had basically exhausted all the options with very little difference in the outcome. The biggest change is if you win or lose the fight scene. Saying that, it doesn’t mean that what I had done wouldn’t impact later on in the game. It’s just that you don’t notice them in the demo.  I am very intrigued about how the final game spaces out the detective, conversation and fight scenes. Without the fight scenes there is a lot of walking around. This is where I come to my biggest bug bear about the game. There is no run button. This is really, and I mean really, annoying. There is nothing more annoying than walking to the end of a field to find that there are no clues to investigate and you have to walk all the way back, slowly.  But they are few and far between and are generally things that the character would do in that situation. For example, when you have the asthma attack, you cannot leave it so you die of the attack because it is something that he wouldn’t do. He would use the inhaler. Everything else, though, is up to you.  Sure, you can talk about graphics, controls, etc, but I don’t know how they can put all of the game in perspective, how the changes you make effect the game, and talk about the story without giving anything away.  The demo does a very good job of showing you how the control scheme works but, apart from that, it tells you nothing else about the game, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, it is a good thing, as it keeps the rest of the game a mystery. Which is perfect for a noir action/thriller game.