Indigo Prophecy – Didn’t Play it? – What to Expect from Heavy Rain

Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy) was the start of a whole new gaming experience and what an awesome experience it was! Take a look back at Indigo Prophecy and see why you should be very excited for Heavy Rain…or not.
By Michael Ogunnubi - August 28, 2009
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The term 'Interactive Movie' is usually one that doesn't come with too much anticipation, but from the moment Fahrenheit was first previewed in the media it created a lot of talk and excitement. The trailers (and demo) promised a truly cinematic experience that contained drama, murder, romance and an extremely odd plot. When it finally hit stores, copies flew off shelves. Everyone wanted to see this original concept in action, and most weren't disappointed; I for one wasn’t. The game delivered pretty much everything it had promised. A truly gripping plot, stunning action scenes and a mile-long array of choices to be made were all components of this masterpiece. Boy oh boy, this was surely just the beginning of a whole new gaming style!

The story stared Lucas Kane with an additional two other playable characters. Lucas was just an ordinary, middle-aged guy who worked in a bank, lived in a small apartment in New York and suffered from severe depression (probably caused by the pre-ten-yearly deaths of his parents). From the start, the player really doesn't know much about this guy at all. But after being thrown almost instantly into a gruesome and unexplained murder, the player has no choice but to pick up where this murderous stranger left off.



The opening setting is an east-end diner in New York. Lucas Kane sits alone inside a small toilet stall, slicing his wrists with a knife. This is a gruesome start to the game and is only a glimpse of what is to come a mere few seconds away. At first, Lucas seems psycho. He shakes violently as he works this self-harm on his forearms. Another man stands at the urinal, emptying his coffee tank. Lucas Kane then proceeds to rise to his feet and walk gradually (almost robotically) over to the urinating man, bloody knife in hand. Well any moron can predict what happens next. SHANK SHANK prison style! Lucas commits a terrible crime. After the murder Lucas awakes from his trance-like state, horrified at what he has done. He cannot remember anything before or during the murder, and he has absolutely no idea why he has done this horrid deed. Confused, depressed and overcome with a tone of guilt, as Lucas Kane you must escape the diner without being caught. This is where QuanticDream’s fantastic new gameplay style comes into part. As seen in the video above, you are thrown into a variety of choices you can make to affect the outcome of this scene. For example, you could have either chose to leave the body as it is and just run out and end up getting caught by the cops with a game over, or go a little bit deeper and hide the body, wash your hands, mops the floor, then smoothly walk right out of that diner.

And this is just the beginning. After successfully escaping the scene of the crime, Lucas must proceed to go on with his life and avoid raising suspicions. Meanwhile, Detective Carla Valenti and her partner - Tyler Miles must track him down and put him behind bars. Lucas Kane still has no clue what made him commit the murder and he sets out to discover the truth. Yup, a dramatic and thrilling plot to say the least. And it only gets better as the story unfolds, ending in a completely unreal and unpredicted epilogue. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything if you haven’t played the game yet (shame on you) but just know that the story can end in a number of different ways (three are confirmed by myself and many others).



This is the type of gameplay QuanticDream introduced in Indigo Prophecy and gives you an idea of what kind of game Heavy Rain players will be in for. Most of the game plays out just like a movie, with the player interacting and choosing how the story plays out. The left analogue stick is used to move whilst the right stick is used to interact with the environment and characters etc. The game also features many cool 'Action Sequences', which can basically appear out of nowhere. Two colorful circles appear on screen and the player must repeat the sequence as it flashes on screen, using both the left and right sticks. Due to the complete out-of-nowhereness of these sequences, you find yourself gripping the dualshock non-stop, ready for anything. You'll never put the controller down for fear of missing a fast sequence. These sequences can be pretty tricky at first. But they're dead easy to get used to. As time goes on, you'll grow to really enjoy them. You'll find yourself fixed to the screen, hitting every direction as it flashes on screen. When the sequence has ended, you'll be waiting hopefully for the next one.
 
Now on to QuanticDream’s current Project, Heavy Rain.



Details about the plot of Heavy Rain remain scarce. Director David Cage (same guy who wrote that game above) has stated that Heavy Rain would be "a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes", without any supernatural elements, and that "the real message [of the game] is about how far you're willing to go to save someone you love.” So what does that all mean? One kick ass game is what!  Heavy Rain is about normal people that have landed in extraordinary situations (similar to Indigo Prophecy’s Lucan Kane). This is not a game about saving the princess or the world. It’s purely about a father's love for his child. The main story will revolve around 4 different characters (again, similar to Indigo Prophecy’s multiple characters), and the spotlight will be put on their perceptions. Similar yet again tp Indigo Prophecy (see where I’m going with this?), Heavy Rain won’t be a big free-roaming city like GTA but instead have big sets with  sometimes large and live crowds; heavy populated areas like a mall and a subway are going to be in the game to give you an idea. There are four playable characters mentioned above are an FBI profiler named Norman Jayden, a private detective named Scott Shelby, an architect named Ethan Mars, and journalist named Madison Paige. All playable characters are said to be looking for a serial killer known as "The Origami Killer" and all four characters will ultimately, come together in the end for sure.



But how is the gameplay? Well that is what this article is all about. If you played Indigo Prophecy or at least attempted to read this very boring article (hehe), you should have developed a sense of what to expect. Shown by gameplay videos and developer walkthroughs, Heavy Rain will use a very unique control scheme. At the time of writing, R2 will move the character forward. Taking advantage of the analog function, the game allows the user to control the speed of the character's movement by pressing harder or softer on the button. The left analogue stick will control the movement of the character's head and the direction the character moves in relation to where the character is looking. David Cage explains that this frees the movement of the character from the perspective of the camera. The rest of the game is played using a series of context sensitive actions and quick time events. This is where the heat of Indigo Prophecy came from and is once again coming to with Heavy Rain from the slightly less informed. Is this game nothing but a lot of QTEs? In a sense…yes, yes it is. But you have to understand it is more than that, something of which David Cage is angrily stressing out to the media.



Some who played Indigo Prophecy felt that the QTEs ruined the game. But when you think about it, they actually made the game. Without them it would pretty much be one extremely long cut-scene, with short breaks to walk around and interact with things to cue the next part of the scene. This really wouldn’t have worked, even as a lame DVD game. Yeah, if you ask any skilled gamer, you'll be told these sequences are great fun (and damn challenging at times). Sometimes, these sequences will be replaced with a different mechanics; a rapid-press L1, R1 system to the face buttons and moving the analog sticks in certain directions. Button-bashing gamers will love this. What's interesting is how the mechanic changes from time to time. At certain points in the game you must tap in rhythm, rather than pounding the buttons psychotically.

Some, however, might find this to be the low-point of the game. It may also be quite annoying how you are never properly instructed on what you should do in the given situation. Should you tap like crazy? Time your presses? Take it slow? Most of the time it will likely be the first choice. All in all though, the challenge and tension only adds to the game's brilliance but to some, this may come of as a simple interactive movie game where the player doesn’t do much besides the things instructed to press.

Players are able to bring up a selection of their character's current thoughts by holding the L1 button and pressing corresponding buttons to say or do what they're thinking. These thoughts will sometimes blur, and selecting them at the wrong time will affect the character's reaction, causing them to say or do something in the wrong way.
Action sequences, such as when the player is being attacked, play out with these quick time events. Failure to execute these commands take the story along a different path (similar to Indigo Prophecy), and certain mistakes will lead to a character's death. For example, in one scene, Norman Jayden is interrogating a suspect named Mad Jack when he starts to suffer from withdrawal symptoms and button prompts will show up. If he fails to take his drugs, he will be taken to a scenario in which he will have to escape from a car before it is thrown into a crusher, killing him. In scenes like these, a 'timer' scene is shown at the bottom of the screen, indicating how long the player has to escape from his predicament.



If a character dies, the game does not end, and play control switches to another character, with the events of the previous character's death affecting the story. In the event that all four characters die, there is a proper conclusion to the story and the game ends.

Looking at Heavy Rain, of course the firs thing you notice are the graphics. Continuing on that amazement will of course be the soundtrack and overall atmosphere. Angelo Badalamenti composed the music in Indigo Prophecy (a terrific job at that) and he should be returning again to do the same for Heavy Rain. 

All in all, the entire game of Indigo Prophecy took just over ten hours to complete. Depending if you rush through or make bad choices it might take less time. Suspect the same for heavy Rain, not the 10 hour gameplay but expect to see numerous times from gamers on how long it took them to beat the game due to all the different events.  With all the endless decisions to be made, the re-play value is almost limitless. By the time you've finished for the first time and watched whichever ending you will get, you'll be dying to play through again and do things differently. I myself have played through Indigo Prophecy a total of 5 times and I'm still itching to play again and again until I'm sure I've seen pretty much every single outcome in every single chapter. You can rest assured to expect the same for Heavy Rain.

To conclude this article, I highly recommend anyone who is even slightly interested to pick up Indigo Prophecy now which should be just about dirt cheap. The game contains bloody gore, cinematic-style action scenes, a gripping and dramatic plot, romance and paranormal themes. Even if you end up disliking it, you'll be missing out if you don't play. After playing through that game you can’t help but to be excited for Heavy Rain…unless of course you didn’t like the game.

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