Heavy Rain Review
By Jordan Davis

Rating:

I recently had the pleasure of playing one of my favorite games to date, Heavy Rain, exclusively on the Playstation 3. This amazing game is designed by French developer Quantic Dream, the maker of Indigo Prophecy (a.k.a ‘Fahrenheit’ in the European release) and Omikron. This all inclusive drama based game is the accelerant of a flame war on game genres. The main question of that argument being, can a game be art? After playing Heavy Rain my answer is a strong yes.

When I first played Fahrenheit I was shocked. Not because of breath taking graphics, or a moving musical score, but because it was so incredibly different. I had never played a game that let you guide a story that was so immersive. So when I heard about Heavy Rain, I preordered it on Amazon and was itching to try it, and I am proud to say it met all my expectations. Hunting down the “Origami Killer” as multiple characters including an FBI agent, a private detective, a beautiful insomniac, and a father on the edge of a mental breakdown, leads you into a whirlpool of moral dilemmas.

Despite my comments about the previous game by Quantic Dream, this game is breathtaking. The graphics are phenomenal, certainly one of the best looking games out right now. The music is great and the story is absolutely amazing. It is rare for me to watch or play any detective/crime based story without figuring out the killer within the first 20 minutes. Heavy Rain had me gasping at the turn of events in a way M. Night never could. Brilliant writing made this an intense thrill ride from beginning to end, and teamed up with multiple endings made it a blast to replay. I finished the game three times, with separate endings, and watched others play getting different endings than me. Load times were never an issue and the game played at a solid frame rate even in fast action sequences. The first install of the game is time consuming, but they use that period to teach you to fold origami on a paper provided in the case. It kept my attention, and was a neat addition to the game.

The controls took some getting used to. I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish when I should be holding a button or tapping it, causing me to fail several of the quick time events. I never noticed anyone else having that problem with the game, so perhaps I should be wearing my glasses while playing. Failing those events is what made the game so interesting to me. There are no do-overs, no continues, no retry. If you mess up and a character dies, well, you better find a way to get by without them because they are gone forever. What other game allows you to be reckless with your main character, let them die, and makes you continue with out them? Unique games are few and far between, and I say don’t pass this one up.
So why is this game such an issue with certain gamers? Why can’t a game be a beautiful, moving piece of art? And why is drama not allowed to be a genre of game? Well unfortunately I can’t answer those questions without getting far too deep into psychological and mentally destabilizing conversation. However I can say that this game struck me on both mental and emotional levels. Needless to say, I don’t think a game made me cry this much since Aeris was killed by Sephiroth.

So if you are a fan of moving and emotional storytelling, you will absolutely love this game. If you are an FPS junkie, and prefer fast paced shooters with no storyline, you probably won’t enjoy it. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that it feels like you are just watching a movie and pick up the controller once in a while. I didn’t feel that way at all. I felt so incorporated with the characters, setting, and story that it felt I was creating it, not just guiding it. If I wanted to sit and watch a movie, I would have put in Metal Gear Solid 4 and watch one of the several hour plus cut scenes.

I would like to mention that Heavy Rain is (possibly) going to be made into a film. I have to say I am strongly opposed to the idea. The experience is already there, and making it into a movie would take away the point. To summarize a 10 hour long game into a two hour movie would leave no room for the detail and would strip it of its emotional and moral roller coaster insides. So before this experience is destroyed by a movie, I recommend picking up this amazing game and giving it a play through. Just keep the kids out of the room due to lots of nudity and foul language.

To read more about this game visit: http://www.heavyrainps3.com/

To purchase this game visit: http://amzn.to/co3W2G