The Art of Heavy Rain (Part 2)

Cinematography

Heavy Rain uses a character-based interaction model. The camera model is context-sensitive, but the angle is switchable by the player. The character is shown from the camera angle most appropriate for his or her current location in the world. Characters also look and move their head around, which adds more variety to their natural walk cycle.

This lets the designer play the role of a cinematographer; and while this is often not a good model for fast-paced action games -- as it’s often disorienting to the player who needs to see obstacles and make educated inferences based on information presented -- this works well in Heavy Rain because of button mechanics involved in the action sequences.

Different camera techniques are also used during scenes. For example in The Mall scene where Ethan is searching for his lost son Jason the camera changes from a calm, steady view to a shakier handheld one.

The camera is also brought up to Ethan’s shoulder to allow the player to feel the agonizing claustrophobia of passing through hundreds of people. This is a method of using cinematography to build tension in a scene.

Scene 1 - Prologue

Happy Birthday

The aim of the prologue was to introduce the game’s interface with a scene all players are familiar with -- waking up in the morning and performing everyday actions. In the prologue, the player takes on the role of Ethan Mars in his everyday life.

Originally Heavy Rain started with an architectural drawing scene -- something that can be done by the player later -- to introduce the mechanics of the game, as this action includes all button controls that will be used in the gameplay.

Next: Prologue (Cont'd)

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