Heavy Rain Review
Heavy Rain is tough to review, since it isn’t exactly a game in the normal sense of the word. The developers tout it as interactive drama, and for the most part that is exactly what it is. I felt I was more an influence for the characters decisions than I was actually playing them. Despite that, there really isn’t anything quite like this out there and it is a harrowing experience, but not in a bad way.
You’ll take the reins of mainly four different characters, all with their own motivations to tracking down the Origami Killer. You’ll play the devoted father Ethan who’s son has been kidnapped by the Origami Killer, the empowered journalist Madison Paige, FBI profiler Norman Jayden, and private investigator Scott Shelby. If you took the story on its own merits, not factoring in anything aside from the general plot and dialogue, it isn’t particularly mind blowing. But the way scenes are pieced together and the personal attachment with the characters, you will be pinned to the edge of your seat. Nothing is particularly predictable, until the somewhat disappointing ending. But here’s the thing, the odds of my ending being the same as your ending is low. Right from the beginning its clear that things can drastically change based on your decisions. After a play session, I always thought to myself “what if I did this instead?”. As the game progressed, I started to see how some earlier decisions could have drastically affected how things were going.
How the game immerses you in the story is like nothing else. When an opportunity arises to make a response or action, the character’s state of mind plays a factor. If the character is stressed or panicking the responses will float rapidly, appear blurry and pulsate. I felt just as confused as the character, and therefore felt far more a part of what was happening. Essentially, all your options are mapped to a controller button, a motion assigned to the right stick, or a six axis gesture. You could say that it’s all quick time events, but I wouldn’t consider that an accurate label. The action sequences definitely more closely resembled quick time events, but fortunately it was all rather forgiving and messing up a few times didn’t result in my character being killed.
Heavy Rain will place you in many distressing situations, where you will need to make difficult decisions quickly and live with the consequences. This really helps in shaping a unique story each time you play. There were scenes in Heavy Rain that I will likely never forget, and personally, it is rare for a game to have such an emotional effect on me like this has.
The biggest problem I had, which seems to be a popular complaint, is with the walking controls. You essentially control your character like a car, walking in whatever direction you are facing with the R2 button, and moving your head with the left stick. There were many times I had trouble getting the character to walk where I wanted, or get in a position to interact with objects like I expected. There is one scene that had me maneuvering a dark tunnel, where the unresponsive controls had me tearing my hair out! It isn’t a huge issue, but it hurt the experience for me since I had to occasionally fight with the controller.
Quantic Dream has crafted a beautiful looking game both visually and audibly. The dark moody music supports the brooding tone of the game throughout, with graphics that often look photo realistic. The character movement looks natural, with only some instances where they appeared robotic. One unfortunate aspect is the spotty voice acting. You can tell that some voice actors are French, as their accents trickle through the American characters. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it is a little off-putting.
Heavy Rain’s story can last anywhere from 5 hours to 10 hours, depending on the decisions you make. Any main character can die, and the story would continue, just some sequences couldn’t be played out and clues won’t be found leading to a different conclusion. It is an experience similar to their previous title Indigo Prophecy, yet far superior in every way. There are very few games that are this emotionally engaging and the immediacy of your decisions and their effect on the story will leave you glued to the screen as you unravel the mystery. Due to the branching story, there is tons of replayability here if you are interested to see how things could play out differently. I know I intend to revisit Heavy Rain again and again.
