PSN Good Demo/Bad Demo for the week of Feb 8th
There's only one demo that made a big splash on the PSN, and that is Heavy Rain. If you think that adventure games, detective noir, and quick time events are like a thousand ants crawling on your leg, this is not the game for you.
Still, I would say that even if you are cautious about playing a game that is not constantly full of excitement, you should still take a chance on the demo.
Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain's spiritual ancestor, was about uncovering a larger mystery, with occasional quick time events. Heavy Rain takes it even further, where you can access the characters thoughts, trigger certain lines of questioning and, at times, do some character specific actions. So there is a lot more to do, but it's still pretty slow paced in comparison to games of other genres.
There are many characters to play as, and in the demo you get to play a PI and an FBI agent. Playing the Private Investigator gives you an inkling of how this game differs from Indigo Prophecy, and the FBI portion shows you how far this type of gameplay has come.
When you play as the FBI agent, you get to use the ARI system, a pair of glasses and a glove that allow you to analyze a crime scene, access records and follow trails (like pollen or footprints). Your glove is what lights up the area and exposes potential clues for you, but it only exposes a certain area. If you don't look around enough, you could miss some important clues. Even during conversations, options will pop up that you might miss, and you will never be able to ask them again.
Heavy Rain will be very challenging, and I will admit I had slight frustration. Sometimes doing the right command (especially circular motions with the analog stick) is tricky, and having time limits will freak you out!
As long as I'm talking negatives, let's talk the voice talent. In the PI segment, you meet a "lady of the night" whose son was murdered. Her acting is on the edge of being downright terrible. It also sounds like English is not her first language. It's the same with the FBI agent, who doesn't sound like an American. His acting is all over the place. At most, he's mediocre. We do have the PI, who is a really good actor and felt like a great fit for this game. I hope that we are in for more acting of his caliber, and not like the rest.
Heavy Rain is practically a buy for me, but I'll be starting with a rental. With so many good games that I have yet to play, I don't want another one sitting on my shelf.
This is my good demo, and the only new demo for this week.
