Two things happened regarding this game as of late: The game reached gold development status and another is that a demo just came out. In this level, you play as Conner; the guy whom we've seen plenty of times from gameplay showcases in YouTube. The demo was slated to be available in the 24th, I managed to get a hold of it much earlier probably because I live in the third world close to the rising sun ;) . It took me only few minutes to download since the filesize is 3GB, that's less than what I expected and I think it's decent enough for anybody to download. How it plays out is a different thing and I want to talk about that with my initial impressions.

Before I start, a Prefix. This will be the third of the fifth Quantic Dream game that I will play once it comes out. Besides Omnikron(or as I call it, the game with David Bowie's voice. R.I.P sweet prince) and Beyond Two Souls, my experience with their titles have been subversive. You've played Telltales interactive drama games but those were warm-ups compared to the big guys like QD. However, for a lot of good there's always a few issues here and there. Dilapidation regarding certain gameplay mechanics.

The demo begins with Conner, an advanced android sent by the police as a hostage negotiator against a particular rogue house-servant android holding a little girl at the edge of the balcony. It's your job to choose the outcome after investigating the crime scene and finding different pathways of completing the mission.

Investigating the scene

You're given the option to look at the family photo both parents and their child in portrait. Though the father looks like Chris O'Donnellsomehow which is really killing the vibe here. This however gives a node of who they were and in what condition they were in before the situation occurred. Offering context before the present.

Stereotypical mistreatment by his peers of course because he's a robot doing their job and he also has some misplaced sense of doubt(or does he?). Demo didn't tell me much, but the blueprint is just there.

Oh man I missed detective games, kind of reminds me of the good times when Monolith did Condemned: Criminal Origins. It's because of the new detective mode, am getting nostalgic over the moments. Yes, this is complex. After analyzing bullet wounds, skin damages, objects of interests and such; You compartmentalize all the info and restructure the crime scene as they've occurred before as they were. Sometimes tricky scenes require you to have a keen eye and a good aptitude for perception.

That right analog control scheme from Heavy Rain is also back and a bit funkier than ever. You can also move the camera with your characters while accidentally prompting the interaction with an object nearby because you move the analog in a certain axis. Yeah that's just tricky to get around with, I really never did like the control schemes in some of Sony's exclusives and in this case, Quantic Dreams other games. I hope they rectify this before release. Maybe mitigating by letting me hold a button before using the analog for prompt?

Heavy Rain was a game about choices, exploring your freedom under limited circumstances. While the stakes are high, you can make or break on how the outcome goes. It's the same here and as am speculating, they'll create butterfly effects for the later chapters of the game.

Also here's a few screenshots as well, there are some really gut wrenching and surprising set pieces in this sequence.

Was it good?

Demo was short like 15-20 minutes short, this was the scene you play. That's it. However for a demo like this am quite surprised the replay value is good. I had three playthroughs and managed to get only two different endings to it. It's not as easy as opening a pickle jar either(figuratively speaking).

Yeah, I could say great foundations were laid for the full release of the game. Though am not too keen on going through with the right analog thingamajig. Heavy Rain's movements controls were really clunky and got on my nerves, good to see that isn't present here. I really did like this demo. Guess I'll pop in the antacid, lighten up the mood before I entrench myself in some serious in-game drama. Don't let us down David Cage, in May, 25th this year. I can't wait.