البـــــوابـــة
There has been a lot of talk surrounding Quantic Dream's innovative approach to video game storytelling in Heavy Rain; we've already heard about the four main characters, the 2,000-page script, and the unbelievable amount of player freedom concerning choices and decisions.
But at the same time, everyone is wondering if the team is already thinking about downloadable content that would expand on the original adventure. And according to VideoGamer, Quantic Dream founder David Cage wanted to clarify that, above all else, Heavy Rain will be complete out of the box. None of this paying for extra stuff that should've been in the original production in the first place. He did, however, add that they're considering branching storylines in the form of "prequels or sequels." Said Cage:
"It's a self-contained experience. We won't release the end of the game as DLC that you need to pay for. The game has all the scenes it's supposed to have. It's a complete story. But we are talking with Sony at the moment about having maybe extra downloadable content, maybe with prequels or sequels about the characters. I'm sure people will get attached to some of them and will want to know them even better."
Also, even though this doesn't appear to be the type of game that would have any online segments, Cage confirmed there would be some form of online content. "It won't be of course multiplayer," he said. "It's a single-player experience." As for the length of the game, Cage is on the fence; while he doesn't want it to be too long because it's tough to create and maintain intense emotion "through 40 hours," but you can still go back through it for an entirely new experience.
"I didn't want the game to be too long, to be honest. I'm telling a story and I want to create a very intense journey. It's difficult to create this emotion through 40 hours. So depending on how you play, I think that one typical walk through would be between eight and ten hours depending on how much you want to explore. It's really up to you."
That's all four characters. Their destinies are interlaced, so you play one scene with one and another scene with another, so it's not like you pick up one at the beginning and you play all the way through. Everything is interlaced. So I would say eight to ten hours would be a typical walk through, but of course you can replay scenes. There is a big replayability value."
At some point, we're going to have Heavy Rain in our hands and when that day comes, we're gonna be very happy campers. We don't yet have an official release date, but the most recent guess puts this hotly anticipated PS3 exclusive on February 1.
