Heavy Rain PS3: First Impressions

I'm just getting my grubby hands on Heavy Rain for the PS3 for the first time. I have been personally avoiding any media about the game to come at it fresh without any expectations. All I do know is that your trying to catch a serial killer called the Origami killer and you play as 4 different characters in a psychological thriller type story line. Well that's at least what the Gamefly game description has told me.

So the term play here is where I'm going to focus on right away. Within the first 5 minutes of the game (while waiting for game to install you get instructed to, you guessed it make Origami) its pretty clear that this game is a little different. You begin by waking up in bed on a bright sunny morning as a male character and your instructed to push up on the right analog stick to get out of bed. Right off I noticed that this guy got quite thebulge going on in his underpants. Your then quickly prompted to test how fast to get out of bed by pushing the right analog stick at your desired speed. The character will react according to your input. Then your instructed to walk around by holding down the R2 button and face the direction your walking with the left analog. A little different sure, but fine none the less. So now what? Oh yeah you need to listen to your characters thoughts to hear what they are thinking. I'm instructed to take a shower. Cool, sure I'll do that. As I start searching for the bathroom more boxes with directional arrows appear on objects in the room and as I explore the rest of the house I'm in. I check out the bird in it's cage chirping in the morning sunlight. Speaking of light the game sports some nice lighting effects and graphics. Finally I see a toilet and enter to take a leak, once I'm done watching the character take a leak I leavepromptly, but wait I forgot to flush the toilet. So I go back and flush. Phew close call, don't want to make the wife mad. Good things she's picking up the kids later.

Next I enter the bathroom where the shower is and instead of taking a shower I check out the counter space and decide to brush my teeth. To my surprise they are using the six axis for maximum immersion action, joy (ugh). Then I decided to have a shave and now need to master once again pushing the analog stick at the correct speed. Too fast now kids and your going to get a bad shave. So I have to re-shave a few spots I missed. Silly me, I must be tired this morning.

Finally the moment has come. I get to the shower and whoom! Off comes the underwear. My ass looks better than I remembered and it puts a smile on my face. Damn I look good. So I watch my new avatar take a shower, get a couple more looks at that perfect ass and dry off with some good ol' six axis controller shaking.

I must say so far this is an interesting game indeed and have no idea what angle this game is going to take, but with so much detail with the mundane nuances of life incorporated, I'm mildly intrigued. I feel like I'm part of some voyeuristic puppet side show or something. I'm not so sure about the gameplay mechanics I've see so far and how they'll be applied to the rest of the game. I'll report back soon. But now I think its time for my character to take another shower.