Wow, this is heavy

OK, so I've played the Heavy Rain demo, and honest to god, for the first time ever, I'm still completely unsure as to whether or not the final product is worth playing. Normally when I play demos, I get a distinct sense of whether or not I'd want to play the full game. I played the Folklore demo, not knowing a thing about the game, and knew instantly I wanted the full game, and on the flipside, I played FEAR 2's demo and decided I couldn't be arsed with it.

But Heavy Rain? Well, the demo barely gets going. It feels like the opening cut scene and nothing else. What's more, my initial suspicion that the whole game is little more than an interactive movie akin to those old CD-ROM releases in the early 90s still stands. It felt like Quick Time Events without a game. Sure, there was walking around (which, it turns out, weren't as awkward to control as I feared), but it was on pre-determined paths, and therefore still didn't make it feel like a "game". Sure, it's original, but originality without a game seems a bit pointless.

But then again, the thing did seem to have a compelling plot, and I suppose I would be willing to play through the whole thing to see said plot unfold. I'm a film lover as much as a gamer, so I'd go through for that. But that's the whole problem. It appeals to the film lover in me, not the gamer. And for a "game" (I'm still using that term really loosely), that's actually not a good thing.

Sure, games have gotten more cinematic this generation (you only need to look at Uncharted, for example, to see this), but perhaps this is a step too far? I just get the feeling the producers would have been better off just making a film and be done with it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting every game to be action-packed and full of shooting and explosions. I'm happy with slow-paced games. I used to love point and click games back in the day, but this doesn't even feel like that. I'd have been happy for a variation on the point and click genre, which I feel would suit this, but like I said, it's just QT Events strung together over a CG movie from what I can see.

Needless to say, I'm going to rent it. It seems like it'd be worth playing through the whole thing, but I wouldn't want to own it. And I never rent games these days, that's how divided this "game" has made me. To be honest, it seems like the kind of thing I'd look at once and then shelve. Why spend £40 for that?

Sure, it's a nice idea, and I applaud Sony for trying something so daring, but...is it worth it? I honestly can't say. Again, I'll give a better opinion one day when I eventually get round to renting it.