March 7, 2010, 10:21 pm : Heavy Rain (Review)

Filed Under: Games
Discussion: C[3]mments

10/10

I’ve finished playing Heavy Rain at some point in the middle of the night after playing approximately 10 hours. First of all, let me tell you: I just could not stop.

The game starts slow, it takes about an hour to really get into the story but then there’s no way back out. It was a mix between shivering (goosebumps), making weird noises (whoa, help, oh my) and being completely on the edge of my couch.

There were moments I forgot how to handle my PS3 controller just because I was afraid of making a mistake, Thus making mistakes. Sometimes my hands were shaking, yes, that’s how much the game got through to me.

Let’s take a look at the story. There are 4 characters that are trying to track down the Origami Killer. Ethan Mars who is trying to save his son, a FBI agent Jayden that is trying to solve the case (that one has some hightech gadgets I’d love to have!), the Private Investigator Scott Shelby who has been given the job to find the murder by the families left behind and then of course, the highlight, Madison Paige. She’s a journalist, suffering from Insomnia (and yes, she’s the highlight because she’s hot, I do admit that without hesitating.)

Lets’s start with the good things. You can’t actually fail in Heavy Rain. The words “Game Over” are feared everywhere but they will not appear while you play this game. There are four main characters that are playable. All of them are well developed and add depth to the story. If one of them dies the game will continue but there will be story clues missing and of course you won’t get to see all the scenes that you would experience if the character was still alive.

Even if you completely mess up and end up not noticing half the clues you will be able to finish the game. In the first 3/4 it won’t change much, the game is linear and you will still get to the same points just with different scenes, it’s the end that you can change by screwing up or succeeding. So, the replay value is not bad, there are certainly a lot of different endings to be experienced. However the first 3/4 will look more or less the same. But the game allows you to only replay certain chapters and start right in the middle if you do not want to go through the whole story again.

The dialog and the story are wonderful, one of the best I’ve ever seen in all the games I’ve played in my life. Next to that I need to mention how marvelous the soundtrack is. Also there’s the option to play with subtitles, something I highly appreciate.

The most amazing thing was how much I cared for these characters. I wanted them to succeed, I was afraid something bad would happen to them and I was in constant fear of messing up.

What makes this game so unique is the amount of choices you get. Sometimes I had troubles with my own conscience. Do I let him die? Do I help him? Do I shoot him? Do I intervene? I made some choices that bugged me for the rest of the day because I knew that it was something I could never live with. I tried to act the way I would if I was in the exact situation but sometimes the choices I ended up taking terrified me because of that very reason.

The bad things? For example the graphics, mostly just great (especially the faces), could be more detailed when it comes to certain things. There are moments where the lip syncing could be better.

I’ve had some issues with the controls. With R2 you walk and with the left stick you change directions. Sometimes it’s downright annoying to get through a crowd or to cross a street or to just get yourself close to certain objects because of the way the controls work. The problems arise especially when the camera angle switches, the moment you walk into a room and suddenly you find yourself walking out of it again, just because the camera angle switched.

Overall: I’m in awe.

Tags: Game: Heavy Rain, PS3