I dunno. If this is anywhere near as heart racingly thrilling as Heavy Rain sometimes was I will buy a hat and then eat it. Possibly two. I don't think there's any reason to think this'll have anything in common with a game that single mindedly devotes itself to a unified control language and then building nothing but suspense.

I wager this'll have much more in common with Team Bondi's own The Getaway games than people seem prone to believe.

Sure, yeah. I think The Getaway and Mafia are more or less identical, though, apart from Mafia actually being pretty fantastic when that came out and The Getaway being a great deal less than fantastic. You've got period cars though obviously so if by slower paced you mean slower cars then sure. Also, the narrative of this is noir/thrillery and not actiony like The Getaway, so in that regard I can certainly see this having a calmer groove similar to Mafia.

This is gonna be less linear than Mafia and The Getaway both though, we know that much.



As for Heavy Rain having illusion of choice, I reckon it's more about consequence than choice. It's such a reaction based game with reflex/spontanious actions it's kind of this game that wraps around who you are and your genuine reaction to things. It doesn't slow down to let you make conscious, calculated decisions. When those on the fly choices then have consequences - that are very dynamic in how much/little they allow you to screw up, to boot - it puts immense pressure on your performance and that's what creates the suspense. When you know you're constantly causing butterfly effects that may well get people killed or alter your path - and the fact that those effects are initally ambiguous - there's actually a sense of investment there. I don't really feel like I ever consciously "chose my adventure" or anything. I was just reacting to things and holding on to my butt, sweating bullets. Oh and I *actually grit my teeth* when slamming down on a pair of scissors to cut my finger off. I.. yeah. Don't ask me why I thought using scissors was a good idea. :P


AAaaannnnNNNyyhooOOOoo. My point about being like The Getaway was mainly that it's still a game where you're driving around to mission markers and shooting dudes in the face. Possibly-but-not-definitely with a somewhat questionable cover mechanic ala The Getaway. Heavy Rain is more akin to a point and click adventure, but instead of clicking on things you walk up to them and do contextual button presses. Button presses and interactions based on a unified language enabling the game to throw absolutely anything at you instead of needing to fall back on mechanics. That way it's allowed to evolve constantly in terms of your interactions, circumventing the crux that - for instance - narrative heavy shooters have of *being forced* to alternate between story and shooting a bazillion dudes no matter how narratively unsound the shooting is.