The PlayStation 3-exclusive cinematic action title Heavy Rain came
out last month to strong sales and high levels of critical acclaim. While the
game has its share of vocal detractors (many of whom have valid criticisms)
there's no doubt that the game is bold, takes risks, and is connecting with an
audience.
To that end, Gamasutra spoke to the game's director, David
Cage, head of French development studio Quantic Dream. Quantic Dream made a critical
splash a few years ago with Indigo
Prophecy -- known also in Europe as Fahrenheit. Though critics and fans
generally agree that the game stumbles by the end, it showed the potential of
interactive, cinematic narrative in games. Many say that promise has come
closer to being fulfilled by Heavy Rain.
From the nature of interactivity to the game's
less-than-perfect English voice acting, this interview touches on different
facets of this interactive drama -- and includes a few spoilers, too, so be
warned.
Something that I've
been thinking about while I've been playing this game is that very often when
you're playing a game that's got a psychological component, it concentrates on
that. Say it has shooting mechanics; they're not as polished as a shooter, and
so the game gets evaluated against shooters and is found lacking.
I felt that
your decision to back away from traditional gameplay mechanics actually helped
ensure you don't get compared to other games by the players. Was that intentional?
David Cage: It was... not
intentional, but we became conscious that that would be the result in the end. In
fact, the initial idea was to say: there are some fantastic games out there
based on the rules that we've followed for twenty years. These games are
incredibly well-implemented, they look fantastic, and technology's great. They
follow, by the book, every single rule that this industry has defined for
twenty years.
And still, when you play them, you've got this strange feeling
that they lack something; they don't have this depth, this meaning, that you
would look for -- because they are based on mechanics, and basically it's doing
the same thing in different levels with different enemies; basically you do always
the same thing. Sometimes you just stop playing and say, "Why am I doing
this, by the way?" Yeah, it's fun, but, when I turn off my console, that's
it. There is nothing left in me when I stop playing.
When I stop watching a movie that I really like, the movie left
something in me that changes my vision, or the way I am, or how I think, or how
I see the world, or whatever. But when I stop playing this game, nothing's left.
We thought that, if it's not possible to use these rules and get better results
-- emotional results -- maybe it means that the rules are not reliable. Maybe
we should change them; maybe we should break them and invent new rules that
would allow us to go further. That was exactly how we thought of Heavy Rain.
You put the
button prompts in the game. With Fahrenheit
they were at the bottom of the screen, overlayed. Now they're in the
environment. Why do it that way?
DC: In Fahrenheit, you
had to look at the 3D world, what you want to interact with: look up and say,
"Okay, it's this movement", make the move and look down for the
result. Basically, it's really unfocusing. What we wanted to achieve is the
fact that you look at something, and you know at the same time you want to
interact with this. This is how I'm supposed to do it, and here I can see the
result. So your attention is focused only on the object, and you got all of the
information at the same time.
That was really a challenge; it was a change we made maybe a year
before the end, so it was a massive change. It really changes the entire look
and feel of the game. We were really scared that it would look strange with
symbols flashing here and there -- that people would just feel, "Oh, this
is a video game." It would remind you all the time that this is a video
game. And in fact, it didn't happen. We thought it was not that intrusive, and
after awhile you don't see them at all.
There is a balance --
there's a certain amount of "gaminess" in the game. Particularly, I'm
thinking about things like the power plant: you've got the maze through the
tunnel, and the challenge with the wires. How much do you want to stick to
gaminess in the design, and how much do you want to back away from it?
DC: I try to back away, but sometimes I feel bad about this and
get to feeling I need to do something a little bit more gamey. But I'm happy with the balance in Heavy Rain, because it's almost like a
reference to old games, and old adventure games especially. There is also the
scene with Manfred when you need to get rid of the fingerprints, which is
really --
Which, apparently, I screwed up, but I thought I had gotten it
right; but I found out I got into the police station.
DC: You forgot something. Yeah, and that's the kind of gameplay
mechanics [we use]. Having a little bit of this is fine when it supports the
story -- when it's not just something to keep you busy, when it really means
something and has its place in the narrative. That's fine.