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Heavy Rain has been billed by director David Cage as an “interactive movie” rather than a game, where through quick time events and moving the right stick precisely, you can hope to find out who the Origami Killer is. So how is it? Click the jump to find out...
Heavy Rain (PS3)
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: 24th February 2010
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: 24th February 2010
Heavy Rain features four main characters, who in their own ways are all linked to the story of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who abducts children. There’s Ethan Mars, who’s trying to save his son from being the killer’s next victim, Norman Jayden, an FBI agent with fancy technology and a drug addiction, Madison Page, an investigative journalist, and Scott Shelby, a private investigator.
Anyone who played Quantic Dream’s previous game Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in some countries) will see the evolution of the gameplay functions where most of the controls are context sensitive. In Heavy Rain, you’ll turn your character with the left stick as you’d expect, but propel them forward with R2 which takes a bit of getting used to but surprisingly becomes very comfortable. You’ll also use the right stick by moving it in certain ways according to on-screen prompts to do most of a character’s actions, and moving it slowly when the situation demands it. Other situations will require you to follow the prompts and hold down certain buttons, and depending on the difficulty of the situation, you’ll start playing twister with your fingers, facing difficulty and frustration as your character is. Scenes where Norman is fighting his drug addiction (should you want to fight it) are the best examples of these sequences, where your vision is blurred, and you can’t fully control your own actions.
Other times the controls become annoying, like when you’ve got to apply mascara as slowly as possible, feed a baby and put it into a pram as slowly as possible, set the table as slowly as possible, and other confusing and pointless things. Even a slight increase in speed in these scenes will see you jab yourself in the eye, choke a baby then hurl it into a pram, and crash the plates on the table which I left until last because if Ethan’s aggressive wife is to be believed it’s the worst thing anyone can EVER do.
The various situations the game asks you to find your way out of can become confusing too, because when you need to repeatedly tap a button, the symbol shakes, but if your character is nervous or scared, the whole box shakes, so there are points in the game where you’ve got no clue whether the game wants you to tap the button or just press it down.
The game starts off slowly, with you playing as Ethan where you have to get up, shower, get dressed, and do work, all the while being able to press a button and hear his thoughts, and there are lots of other scenes like that, most of which seem strange and unnecessary like looking after a baby.
That’s not to say that the game is slow – scenes like that are often balanced out by a much more fast-paced demanding level, often involving fights, where you have to respond to quick time events in order to keep your character out of harm’s way. This is where the game is interesting, as depending on how well you perform in these sequences, you’ll get a different immediate outcome. For example, the first scene with Scott involves a fight, and he can escape unscathed, get some bruises, or be bleeding with a broken nose – all resulting in different character dialogue. As the game goes on the characters get into real danger, and the pacing of these sequences brings out a great thrill from playing them.
Sadly, as great as the choices and outcomes seem at the time, they make no difference at all to how the game goes on. A character can get shot and in the next scene it won’t even be an issue. There are bigger plot points that will completely change how the game turns out , and there’s a lot of trickery to make it look like your input always matters, but a lot of the time it doesn’t and even putting the controller down during dialogue choices or quick time events will still see the game plodding along by itself.
Calling Heavy Rain an interactive movie is a huge mistake. The features I’ve described above make playing the game a really exciting and enjoyable experience for a lot of the scenes, but there are parts of the game that can’t be ignored. First, the voice acting – the characters look incrediblel, but it’s a real shame that it doesn’t carry on into their voices which are mostly emotionless and dull. In addition to their voices, the characters don’t have much substance and go through no real change over the whole experience if you discount the horrible forced relationship between Ethan and Madison.
A bigger problem I had with the game is the story. If it’s to be called a movie – and a dramatic one at that – the story is key. The premise is unusual and very interesting, but there are chunks of the story that just get forgotten as soon as they become inconvenient, and glaring plot holes (it’s impossible to be specific without spoilers) and red herrings. There’s also a huge twist in the story that above anything else reveals that the game has been lying to you for hours and lots of scenes are retconned to accommodate for an unnecessary plot twist. A similar plot twist mistake happened halfway through Fahrenheit, and it’s a shame to see that they didn’t learn from their last mistake (although at least Heavy Rain doesn’t take a ridiculous paranormal leap).
The idea of the interactive movie is an interesting one, and it’s great to see Quantic Dream pushing forward with the genre. The gameplay is definitely engaging and exciting at times (and boring as hell at other times – feeding a baby, drinking orange juice, applying mascara) and a lot of great elements are there, but the voice acting lets a lot of the scenes down, and as the game is trying to build a great story up it completely demolishes everything with a horrible twist. I had a great time playing Heavy Rain, and there are times when it’ll have you on the edge of your seat, but to make the game more enjoyable you have to ignore a lot of the plot and in a story based game that isn’t a good thing.
7 - Good (There could be a few roadblocks, but the overall game will be enjoyable. Maybe not keepers or ones to replay, but definitely worth a try)
7 - Good (There could be a few roadblocks, but the overall game will be enjoyable. Maybe not keepers or ones to replay, but definitely worth a try)
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