Heavy Rain is already one of 2010's most talked about games; its brave new approach to the 'interactive movie' drawing as much pessimism as it has optimism. PSM3's Steve Hill caught up with David Cage, head of French developer Quantic Dream, to get the inside story...
How would you describe Heavy Rain to the uninitiated? Heavy Rain is a dark thriller telling the story of four characters whose lives are interlaced around the investigation of a serial killer. You don't have a gun, you don't jump, you don't drive cars, you don't solve puzzles. You make decisions, and those decisions have consequences on the way the story is told.
Is it game, or an interactive movie? When you talk about interactive movies, people think about the interactive movies of 15 years ago. So it's not an interactive movie in that sense.
But, yes it's definitely a game; it's fully interactive second to second. So it's not watching cut scenes, it's not pressing buttons here and there, it's really about controlling characters, interacting with your environment, deciding what you want to say, what you want to do, seeing how it's going to affect the story.
Generally, games don't make you feel emotion. Have you've captured it with Heavy Rain? That's definitely the goal. In most games you've got adrenaline, stress, tension, frustration, competition: very simple emotions. With Heavy Rain we try to make you feel an empathy, make you smile, and make you cry. We try to make you feel what the characters feel, even if it's discomfort.
Does Heavy Rain represent a move towards realistic game narrative? It's just real people in real life confronting real situations. I think games have had to do over the top things - save the planet, fight against zombies - because the medium didn't have this level of granularity that allows you to try other things.
Now the situation has changed. Games can tell any type of story, even more subtle ones. I don't believe you need monsters and aliens now.
Do you also think gamers have matured in general; people that have grown up with games? I'm 40 years old this year and I've played games pretty much since they've existed. I was born and raised with games. There's a point where you say I've done that before - what else?
I think there is a place for games that have more content, more depth, and bring some meaning; getting closer to movies - not in the sense they will become linear and non-interactive but rather in the sense that they will try to trigger more complex emotions.
Do you think it's a risk for Sony, because it's not Shooter Number Ten? Of course. They hope to get people on board who don't have a PlayStation 3 right now but will look at Heavy Rain and say 'This is a game I want to play.'
How do you think it sits in the rest of their catalogue? Is it a special title? Oh yeah, and I don't say it in an arrogant way. I'm just saying it's different. It's always a big shock for me when we go on show floors at E3 or GamesCom and look at the games this industry is producing. We feel like aliens. Our approach is different.
Heavy Rain is set in America. Is that to pander to the American market or is it a conveniently obvious place to set the game? We tried to create a dark thriller - our references were Seven and Silence Of The Lambs. It was an obvious choice because it was the easiest entry point for everybody. And we wanted to tell a story about America.
Everyone's talking about the sex scenes... There are a couple, but it's definitely not porn. We don't intend to push the boundaries and be ultrarealistic in every detail. It's about real characters having emotions and doing what adults do when they fall in love.
There are three men and one woman. Do you think getting them in a sex scene together would be too much? Would you get away with it? No, I don't think so. We would definitely end up on Fox News...
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
)
