Fri, Sep 12, 2008 | 12:03 BST

Heavy Rain play target is “8-12 hours,” says Cage

heavyrain6.jpg

Speaking to VG247 at Games Convention, Quantic Dream boss David Cage said a single walk through of top drawer PS3 thriller Heavy Rain is likely to take no more than 12 hours.

“We’re still in the middle of production, so I can’t really tell you the exact time of the game, but we’re targeting a game between eight and 12 hours in gameplay for one walk through,” he said.

Seen for the first time in Germany last month, the game showed what appeared to be unparalleled plot-branching, a fact, Cage said, likely to keep the hardcore coming back for much more.

“It’s impossible in one walk through to see everything there is to see,” he added.

“And that’s going to be OK. For most gamers, they’re going to play it once, and really enjoy it and have a great journey, but some hardcore gamers will want to come back and see everything, and all possible options.”

Heavy Rain has been branded PS3′s “most important title for next year” by SCEE boss David Reeves.

19 comments

#1

No_PUDding
12/09/08, 12:08 pm

Heavy Rain has been branded PS3’s “most important title for next year” by SCEE boss David Reeves.

According to David Cage

Ofcourse it isn’t.

#2

mortiferus
12/09/08, 1:12 pm

8-12 hours …. ouch!

#3

DrDamn
12/09/08, 1:14 pm

@mortiferus
8-12 hours is about the norm these days for a game of this type, what were you expecting?

#4

mortiferus
12/09/08, 3:23 pm

@DrDamn for this type of game that is incredibly short. So essentially it’s as long as Indigo Prophecy. Where have all those 50GB’s gone to these days…

#5

Shatner
12/09/08, 3:25 pm

*cough* Bioshock wasn’t all that long really *cough*

And it really wasn’t THAT good either.

#6

epic_wanderer
12/09/08, 3:28 pm

I don’t know, the second half seemed to go on forever.

#7

mortiferus
12/09/08, 3:33 pm

@Shatner, ah yea,if you play like it’s Doom! To each his own, I feel it is one best games this generation period next to Gears, GTA IV.

#8

Shatner
12/09/08, 3:41 pm

Bioshock’s an ok game with a huge amount of effort put into distracting the player from the slim nature of its game design. For all its opulence and promise of involving gameplay every interaction in the game is as involved as Doom was: You attack it before it attacks you. The only time this doesn’t happen with characters is when the game takes control away from the player. Lots of lovely art-deco themed distractions have done their job very well. The game is average at best.

But, all in all, to pre-judge a game you’ve never played or don’t have much information on based purely on its projected play time is kinda short sighted.

#9

DrDamn
12/09/08, 3:49 pm

@mortiferus
A little more realism please. It will have about the same length as Bioshock, Halo 3, Gears, Haze, Fable 2 main story, MGS4, Uncharted + plenty of other titles.

#10

morriss
12/09/08, 4:05 pm

Bioshock was amazing. I’m actually prepared to physically fight anyone who disagrees. Come see me at the EG Expo and we can have some kind of Battle Royal. When I win, you have to admit Bioshock is probably the landmark game of this generation.

#11

wz
12/09/08, 4:13 pm

12h for an adventure-type game? Now c’mon!

#12

epic_wanderer
12/09/08, 4:13 pm

Bioshock was decent but I agree with Shatner’s criticisms. I would also add that the story was poorly paced (climax in the middle…?) and the pulled-punches in the endgame were unforgivable. And I’m not talking about the final boss battle, I hate all boss battles equally.

#13

ElfShotTheFood
12/09/08, 4:16 pm

When the developer says it’s “8 – 12 hours” in length, you can usually half that number for a more accurate figure.

#14

mortiferus
12/09/08, 4:24 pm

@Shatner, I base my comments solely on length, i’m not attacking the content nor story here jeez. And of course i have not played the game, the question is have you?

@DrDamn, what you don’t get is that the titles you mentioned all have a good degree of re-playability. And that is my point here, Rain looks to be a rental type affair TO ME. I mean seriously outside of the 3 mediocre endings in Indigo how much re-playabilty was there?

#15

mortiferus
12/09/08, 4:30 pm

@ wz, I bet you like to read LOST spoilers a week in advance and a search of your flat will produce a NES Game Action Replay and a Megadrive Game Genie by Galoob!

For the priceof todays games, hey 12+ should be a mandate, lol.

#16

DrDamn
12/09/08, 5:01 pm

@mortiferus
If you read about this game then replayability actually plays a huge part as mentioned by the developer. Anyone care to suggest an adventure game of this type which isn’t 8-12 hours long? In fact most I can think – point and click type – actually have no replayability whatsoever.

#17

DrDamn
12/09/08, 5:06 pm

@mortiferus
“For the priceof todays games, hey 12+ should be a mandate”

Thing is the type of content this is the cost of development is huge per hour of gameplay. If it’s the type of game you can play through and be done with then the cost comes down massively as you can then sell it on. £35 – 12 hours of enjoyment – sell on for £20+ – about £1 an hour and a pissed off David Braben ;)

#18

Freek
12/09/08, 8:52 pm

Gamelength != game quality

#19

phatb0y
15/09/08, 1:12 am

8-12 hours for a Dragon’s Lair wannabe isn’t that bad.

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