Heavy Rain is the long awaited title brought to us by developer Quantic Dream on the Playstation 3 console. Has the 4 plus year wait been worth it? Well, this past week when it came out we were all able to find out if it was able to live up to the hype. In my eyes, it has delivered on every front that it said it would, and I was extremely pleased with the way it came out.
That being said, what kind of game exactly is Heavy Rain? Well, to quote the game's director David Cage, Heavy Rain can be described as "A very dark film noir thriller with mature themes, and the real message is about how far you're willing to go to save someone you love." That still doesn't describe what type of game it is. There are very few games like this out there. It is a more of a "interactive movie" kind of genre, if one exists. Quantic Dream's previous game Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy) is also in the same category. Many other mainstream games include elements that are used in Heavy Rain, but not solely built around it. It incorporates action, drama, investigation, and many other themes, many of them very adult.
As a matter of fact, I really liked how adult this game was. It is by no means for children, so if you have any make sure they are not home, or in bed when you play this. There is a lot of violence, nudity, drug addiction, & foul language. It's not done in a cheesy sort of way. All of it felt very real, as many of the situations could happen to anybody. (If they were investigating a serial killing case I should add) At no one point did I ever think anything was overdone. It felt like just the right amount of aforementioned topics. I am willing to place money on certain news channels and anti-game enthusiasts will have a field day with this game trying to say that it promotes all these things, but we all know they are just out to make a name for themselves and do not know the product at all.
The story of Heavy Rain is a very good one, and as engrossing as creator David Cage said it would be. The game follows a series of events that unfold surrounding the Origami Killer, a criminal who is wanted for the murder of 8 children. It follows 4 main and playable characters, who are all somehow linked one way or another with the Origami Killer. The 4 characters are all very different, and each one plays out in a different style.
Ethan Mars, an architect, who is married with 2 children. Events suddenly unfold however, and he is soon on his own with his marriage in shambles, and looking to rescue one of his sons who was taken by the killer. Madison Paige is a journalist looking for her next big story, which just happens to be the Origami Killer. She suffers from insomnia and most times when looking to sleep, stays in various motels. Scott Shelby is a retired police officer who is currently a private investigator looking into the Origami Killings by the request of the families involved. Lastly there is Norman Jayden who is a member of the FBI looking into the serial murders. He is also a drug addict. There is also a heavy supporting cast who are all equally as well done as the main characters.
What Heavy Rain sets out to do is craft an engaging story where we care about the decisions that we make, and deal with the consequences of those decisions. I really felt throughout the entirety of Heavy Rain I could probably relate to them if I was in a similar situation. There were times in the game where I was literally sitting in my chair, wondering what choice to make. There really were some tough choices to make for the characters we are controlling. It really succeeds in immersing you in the story. While it is somewhat a short one, it is very powerful. There is one plot hole that I noticed dropped about 3/4's through the game, but it is still a fine story with that one inconsistency.
As far as the voices of the characters go, they are really hit or miss. Some of them are very convincing, while others like almost every child character just sounds unnatural. I really don't know what other way to put it. The kids sounds really weird at times. Other characters at times don't know how to properly pronounce certain words. One that immediately comes to mind is origami. Many characters pronounce it as 'origammy' which sounds terrible. Maybe they did this because different people say things other ways in everyday life. I think it was just looked over though. It could have benefited from a little more voice actor direction. One last thing I noticed is that a lot of the characters have this French-Canadian accent which at times can get annoying for characters that are all supposed to be in the US. With all this nitpicking, it makes it sound like I hated the voice acting, but as a whole I enjoyed it a lot. A lot of the work comes off very convincing and dramatic when it needs to be. The soundtrack is also very well done with a wide variety of music, depending on the given situation. During an intense scene, the music is as equally intense at some points giving you an almost frantic feeling. Other miscellaneous sounds are all good, with nothing sounding too fake or manufactured. The sound as a whole compliments the graphics very nicely.
Let's get this out of the way. Heavy Rain is one beautiful game. Probably one of the best looking that comes to mind in the past few months. All of the characters are very realistic looking with facial animations and body motions that all seem very natural. They seem to put in a good amount of work to the actors making sure there were not jerky movements or anything that looked too out of place. The scenes that the characters are in are equally impressive. A lot of the scenes are almost photo realistic. So much detail was put into everything to make it look as real as possible. Even character animations with items looks very good. Some games just have an item as a static object, whereas this game animates those objects giving the game life.
That being said however, there are some obvious shortcuts with certain things. Character interaction with clothing is still "hidden" in a clever way. I guess there is no real easy way to have a character put clothing on or taking it off without it looking too unnatural. It doesn't hinder the game in any way, just something I noticed. Another glaring problem with the graphics is the constant anti-aliasing. It is very noticeable on HDTV's, while it didn't make me enjoy the game any less, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if things didn't look like the were cut in half whenever the angle suddenly changed. If you're not looking for it, you probably won't notice it. I happen to be a bit of an audio/videophile so I tend to notice these things more than other people might. I know a lot of people that just ignore it completely. How lucky for them. Overall though it is easily one of the best looking games on the market and proves yet again we do not need another game system for many years with graphics like these.
Gameplay is where Heavy Rain becomes hard to describe. As I said earlier, it really is not similar to anything else on the market. You navigate your characters around the scene, and find clues that lead you to the next scene. It doesn't sound interesting on paper (or on a web page?) but it does work for the game. You move your characters using the R2 button and navigate them with the left analog stick. It's a bit awkward at first, but you get used to it very fast. Other actions are handled with a combination of movements on the right analog stick as well as the 4 shoulder buttons and 4 face buttons. At many times you must combine these movements and buttons making for some awkward finger placements, but it compliments with how tense the scene is.
Heavy Rain is really a game full of nothing but Quicktime Events or QTE's that Shenmue made famous, and seemingly every game since then has incorporated. Heavy Rain's QTE's are so well done though, it never feels gimmicky. I guess it would be in a lot of trouble if it did, as that is really the only thing you're doing the whole game. It may not be every body's cup of tea, and some people might get outright bored with it. Every scene in the game to me was fun. From playing with your children as Ethan in the beginning of the game, to having gunfights or escaping a burning car, pressing a series of buttons never felt as important to me in a game before Heavy Rain. At numerous times your characters lives literally hang in the balance depending on what buttons you push, which brings me to my next topic.
I think this is the first game I've seen where a main character can die, and the story can flow completely like nothing ever happened. Sure you might miss out on some scenes and information as that character who died, but you still get the feeling of a complete story even if you don't experience it. You can always go back and play through again trying out different options and ways through a scene to get a different ending. I believe Heavy Rain has 6 endings in all, some of them very different from others. Actually, I believe all of the main characters can die, and you'll still get a conclusion to the story. This is the kind of game that benefits without reloading though. Just play it out as if you couldn't stop it. Much like you can't change a movie's script. Just let it play out, and once you finish it go back again and try it a different way.
All in all, I would call Heavy Rain a big success in what it tried to accomplish. While the game is a bit on the short side (8-10 hours) it was well worth the money spent, and you'll certainly not have played anything like it yet. I'm sure if this game does well enough we'll see a string of clones as the market tends to follow with whatever sells, but Quantic Dream certainly has their format down pat. I hope we get another equally riveting game from them and we won't have to wait another 4 years to play it. They could easily take the engine they built, modify it and make a completely different game. We'll see I suppose.
Out of 10, I would give Heavy Rain a 9.5
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