The heaviest of all rains
Heavy Rain Review
Not much known about this game, it promises to be more of an interactive movie experience with a captivating story, will it be a new idea for other games for future years or will it follow the line of other movie/video game adaptations?
In the games Epilogue we see Ethan Mars in his old life, while getting used to this games unique style of controls. To move you point your head in a direction using the left analog and use the R2 trigger in order to move in that direction. Many may remember this kind of idea from the old Resident Evil games, it’s a little weird at first but it doesn’t take too long to get used to. We are also shown how we need to use the right analog for most of this game; almost everything that you interact with will usually be initiated by the right analog, but it’s not all easy there will be times when there are many options to choose in a very short time, or when you have your fingers twisted in such a way that you may need to call for help for that last button that you didn’t see coming. With the basic’s in mind we see Ethan’s life, good home, big yard, wife and kids, (pretty much what some could call the American dream) and how he loses it all. With the accidental death of his eldest son he slowly loses sight of everything until his only child left has been kidnapped by a killer and having only little time left until he is found dead it’s up to you to open his eyes again or not.
The story follows the lives of four characters during the time that Shaun Mars has been abducted by the infamous Origami Killer. While we are given four different characters to play as, and try to unveil the mystery of the Origami Killer and his ways, it’s good to see how each of them isn’t always doing the same thing. The FBI agent isn’t always gaining crime scene clues, and Ethan isn’t always running around for help, all of them have times when they need to take things slow or if they don’t get their act together and fast they will end up dead. Which is one of the games interesting ideas, even with the death of a main character the story will go on as if would have in real life, but because of this you may not learn something others wouldn’t have been able to find for whatever reason. You don’t just die because you lost in a fight, there are so many choices and actions that each character can make that there’s always an upside and a downside to it.
This game does an incredible job at getting you into the game and becoming interested in the characters and what their trying to do in order to stop these deaths from continuing. The mood, story and the atmosphere are all done very well for what their each trying to achieve. When there’s trouble you feel you need to get moving and when there’s a ray of sunshine you feel happy about it, and it’s all brought together beautifully with an excellent voice cast for all of the characters and amazing visuals that gives everyone and everything what it needs to be realistic in an unrealistic way. At times you will hear the actor’s true accents come out at times, especially with some of the female characters but it doesn’t do too much to ruin the overall experience.
With this game being more than a detective novel or a thriller movie there is so much for people to like in this and it always keeps you wanting to play just a little bit more until you eventually reach the end and have come to see what this game has to offer. While there will be many that think, and Quantic Dream would agree, that this game should be only played once, because you have already have seen your story and to keep it like a real life experience, but for those that wish to know every detail and possible ending there will be many hours to spend enjoying this game.
I give it an 8.5/10