Facebook l Gallery l dA Portfolio l Watch Me l Note Me

I'm sure everyone has heard about the controversy surrounding Heavy Rain. It isn't the story, or any upset about gore or nudity. Since this game was released the question was: Can I really get into a game that is nothing but those cliche, boring, uninspired quick time events? Well in my experience with the game yes, yes you can. So much that I finished the game in two days (thought to be fair I took a two week break in between simply because I didn't like playing it when other people were around. I wish I hadn't though... I ended up forgetting a lot.) I ended up getting through around 90% of the game on the first day I played. Sure it was a short game, but the point was that the only reason I did stop was that I realized I was way past dinner time and my stomach was rebelling against me.

In short, Heavy Rain is incredibly engaging... as long as you don't mind a slow slog at the beginning.

The beginning of the game is pretty notorious and for good reason. It is boring and way over the top. You can take your time showing, juggling, ignoring your work, being too incompetent to pick up the groceries, being unable to find the plates which your wife tells you are in the living room when they are clearly in the dining room, and playing Star Wars with the kids. It is boring, though does allow you to get used to the controllers, and is so damn happy that it just ends up becoming cheesy and you can't help but start wonder who and how many are going to end up dead. As everyone knows, happy families lead to horrible emotional trauma some time down the line.

While the first bit of game is really quite dull it does let you get used to the controls and these are not controls you can just pick up and go with. My biggest complaint is everyone handles like a huge truck, no one moves fluently, and getting anyone to turn properly is a chore. I feels like they decided you have no idea what you're doing on occasion and it takes a few disrupting twirls before you can knock them back into their place. However after you get used to how they move and what each cue means the system becomes pretty involving. The cues jitter when your character is under stress too which can cause more stress in you too helping heighten the feeling of fear. The jittering cues are harder to read though making you miss more which might be part of it. Also the slow cues I almost always messed up because they occurred very infrequently and the smallest jitter of your thumb generally meant you messed it up but overall I found it to be a good system. However it would never stand up in any game except for Heavy Rain which is essentially less of a game and more of a narration.

Story is this games focus, which is by no means a bad thing. While the beginning is both slow and way over the top once you get through that the story becomes quite hefty. You switch between four characters and all are engaging, even the girl who I was worried was just there for fan service... and she partially was but she redeemed herself with some kick ass fights, and a fine intellect. You feel terror for these characters when they get in a jam, and I got teary eyed more than once on Ethan's parts. Poor guy goes through so much stuff. Between making sure your characters don't die and searching for clues the story does actually feel like you are contributing to the story. Characters learn more as you find clues, and will die if you don't take care of them and since the characters are well rounded and interesting you will care about saving them. I did find one of the big plot points to be a bit of a failure, mostly because I hadn't deduced it myself but that could be because of my couple week break, but I felt like some of the scene in the game didn't correlate with the twist. It seemed kinda haphazard.

Also I am going to take a moment to have a bit of a rant about something that happens early in the game, so early I don't think it's much of a spoiler but if you're going to be that fickle about your spoilers you have been warned.



Okay so in the second scene your at the mall with your kids and Jason decides to go run off. After managing to find the dummy he had somehow decided going outside was a good idea, and then crossed a massively busy street... somehow, because when you call him he decides to run back across the street without looking and is promptly hit by a car. Now the animation on this scene just ruins the whole thing for me. It's not bad quality, but rather how it is set up. Ethan dives out in front of the car, grabs Jason midair, and pulls him into his body, but away from the hood of the car. The car hits them but there is no roll over the top, or dent in the front or breaking of glass. You just kinda fall off and the car stops on a dime. So I'm sitting here watching the scene and everyone is freaking out about Jason when ETHAN was clearly the one hit by the car and all I can wonder is why are they freaking out? Well yes, the kid did die by being hit by a car that didn't hit him and Ethan fell into a coma by being hit by a car going slow enough to stop on a dime. Yes I understand you want to be tasteful when a child's death is included but the audio cues could have been better. There was a short screech and a stop. Not very impactful. I might be nitpicking but it made no sense! At all!


Rant Over.


So as my finishing words I would advise anyone who likes a good story to play this game. Especially anyone who likes mysteries or psychological thrillers. The story grabs you, pulls you in and doesn't let go for several hours. Give a little leeway to the controls, and hold out through the beginning and you will not be disappointed... unless you're looking for a grizzled testosteronefest. Then skip this and play God of War or Gears of War. Or Blank of War.

CSS made by `BloodPromiser
Texture by `Princess-of-Shadows