Heavy Rain creator David Cage has been hailed as a genius by Warren Spector, creator of Deus Ex, System Shock and Thief.
The praise came in an interview with MCV Pacific, in which Spector said “David Cage is a genius. If Tim [Schafer – a “really good friend”] isn’t the best writer in gaming, David is”.
“I’ve never met the guy – I’d love to sit down and talk to him. But, basically, Heavy Rain works because it’s five scripts all jammed together and meshing together and branching together. It’s like it’s the world’s biggest choose-your-own-adventure book, and I can admire the craftsmanship behind that, and the skill it takes. I mean, I’ve actually written choose-your-own-adventure books, and I know how hard writing those is.
“But I also know that in Heavy Rain, nothing surprising will ever happen. No player will ever see anything, do anything, discover anything that David (with his undeniable genius) didn’t create. I think that’s a shame. I can’t look at that and say ‘that’s the future of gaming’, because the flow charts I did for One Thing After Another and Thing in the Darkness and other choose-your-own-adventure books that I did 1984 and 1987 are exactly the same structure as Heavy Rain. Exactly.”
It seems Spector rarely plays a game to the end, and other than Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he only ever made it to the end of Heavy Rain.
“If I finish a game, there’s something really compelling in it for me,” explained Spector.
“I loved that game as an experience – it was unbelievable,” Spector said. “It made every day mundane things high drama.
“I mean, holy cow! I’m in awe of the talent of the guy who wrote it and his ability to tell a cinematic story.”
Spector is currently hard at work on Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
Published: Jul 4, 2012 09:09 am