Game
looks good, and for all the shittiness of Fahrenheit, it did have a few good ideas (mostly early on) - time actually being important, an attempt at including believable reactions to your decisions (first scene probably did this best, though still didn't go far enough), playing from different perspectives.
Heavy Rain definitely has QTEs, and they're not just for dialogue. As in Fahrenheit dialogues are timed and QTEs are plentiful - though they apparently do not all rely as much on speed as previously, and the first action sequence does not occur till after an hour into the game; it's even optional. Most interestingly, failing QTEs will not result in automatic failure (at least not always, uncertain of how far this is taken), but in different game consequences. Still, QTEs are the main reason the game will probably suck.
David Gage on QTEs said:
"From what you've seen, you're in control second to second, so please help with me this because some people on the internet just make me crazy," he said at the end of a demonstration in a hotel in Cologne.
"No! We don't make Dragon's Lair! This is not Dragon's Lair - do you think I'm crazy? I'm not stupid. Do you think I develop on PlayStation 3 to do Dragon's Lair again? It would be absurd. Of course it's not.
"So we work on this thing, it's fully controllable, you do what you want. When there is an action sequence, yes we integrate this QTE sequences. We've done it really in a new way, we really started from a blank page again to try to take the best out of this type of interface and find the thrill and excitement and make you feel at the heart of the action.
"Out of four scenes, this is one third of one, so that's the kind of balance we have in the game."
Umm, hey Dave, you did make Fahrenheit, remember? Its QTEs were just like Dragon's Lair, in fact they were even worse, given some were so long. Just because we can move freely outside of QTEs, does not make them okay.
more Dave Gage on QTEs said:
Asked to respond to the game's critics at gamescom last week Cage said: "Bullshit! Just bullshit! I mean what's the question? We released Fahrenheit before. People know very well what the kind of balance we're looking for is. The balance is quite similar in Heavy Rain.
Oops... just the same as Fahrenheit? Well, then it sucks Dave. You need to find a new way to make your games exciting. Though, from what I've read they are actually implemented better than in Fahrenheit.
1UP Preview said:
No. 5 -- You can't die...
In the first 11 chapters, that is. The preview disc contains three big fights, and each uses a loophole so if you take your hands off the controller and fail every single input the game asks of you, you'll still get more or less the same result. Some dialogue differences and some animation changes -- and possibly some story repercussions down the line -- but no death.
See Dave, this sounds better than Fahrenheit, which made you repeat every failed QTE. Still a shitty mechanic though.
Anyway, if it expands greatly on the reactions found in Fahrenheit and on their importance, the game could be worth playing despite QTEs.
Previews suggest that they're at least attempting to do this. They've certainly impressed some console reviewers with this amazing "innovation" - the guy in the linked preview even refers to the game as an RPG and lauds the reactions to your actions or inactions as "never before seen in a video game".
The idea is to make player choices and the tension of performing sometimes very simple actions interesting in the context of an overall story, without racing, fighting, or shooting mechanics that you would normally find in games classified as "thrillers."
This is the route Adventures need to take to remain relevant. It's perfectly logical for a genre low on interactivity - much more so than abstracted action play like QTEs, as it builds on story, which is one of the genre's mainstays. It's highly unlikely that Heavy Rain will take a serious step in this direction, but if it does, I'll definitely be giving it a play.
A hands on preview of the first 11 chapters.
