• Posted March 11th, 2008 at 20:06 EDT by Eric Blattberg
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We must admit, we don't frequent Dutch magazines all that often. Apparently, we should begin to do so.

Dutch gaming magazine Chief recieved an exclusive preview on the upcoming mysterious PS3 title, Heavy Rain. The title, which was first unveiled via a tech demo at E3 2006, has generally gone under the radar throughout the early part of its development cycle. We've heard murmurs regarding toppling the Uncanny Valley from developer Quantic Dream, the company behind Fahrenheit and Indigo Prophecy, but little solid information has been released.

One foreign reader over at Kotaku translated some of the more intriguing statements made by David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream. They are as follows:

On Story:
"Heavy Rain is about normal people that have landed in extraordinary situations. I wanted a much more personal story. The first thing that came to my mind, as a father of two little boys, was that the main theme should simply be a father's love for his son. This is not a game about saving the princess or the world. Its purely about a father's love."

"The main story will revolve around 4 different characters, and we're putting the spotlight on their perceptions. The question 'what is good and what is evil' is the key here, that will be just a matter of viewpoint...I believe heavily in moral choices, I'm going to use them A LOT. They're not about being good or bad, but about finding the right balance."

On Locations:
"I don't want to do a big free-roaming city like GTA, because the flow of the story will then be hard to control. Nevertheless, I do want to incorporate big sets, with a crowd, heavy populated areas like a mall and a subway are going to be in there. Of course, the gameplay has got to make use of that aspect too."

On Graphics:
"People will be surprised. Internal (Sony's) feedback on graphics has been great. This is going to be a truly next-gen game. But still, we want to do something unique with the graphics, going beyond just making the most photorealistic world we can."

On Gameplay:
"With the release of Fahrenheit, we gave the adventure genre a new grammar. We brought new ways into the genre, new words if you want to see it like that, a new vocabulaire. With Heavy Rain, where going to expand on that same grammar."

The spotlight has been on story and realistic graphics thus far, so we're particularly fascinated by how Heavy Rain might play. We'll keep you updated.