Heavy Rain follows the nefarious exploits of the Origami Killer; a serial killer who has managed to bring 4 people together in a race against time before he murders his next victim. Can you unravel the mystery before the lives of these individuals are destroyed? Read on for the full review…
Heavy Rain has you stepping into the shoes of 4 different protagonists throughout its fairly lengthy story. Ethan Mars, a strung-out father trying to find his missing son; Madison Paige, a journalist struggling with a bout of insomnia; FBI Profiler Norman Jayden, trying his best to fight his own demons while hunting the Origami Killer; and finally, retired police officer turned private detective Scott Shelby.
While it might seem as if a normal game would struggle under the weight of so many playable characters, keep in mind that Heavy Rain isn’t a normal game. Well, not in the traditional sense anyways. Yes, you play through a lengthy narrative and solve puzzles and there’s plenty of action, but the control scheme is radically different. It’s more akin to playing through a movie as (save for the movement) the only real control over the action you have is facilitated by a combination of onscreen button presses. It takes QTE to the extreme, but this is to be expected considering how much this feels like a spiritual successor to Indigo Prophecy.
The problem with this setup is that in a bid to add another layer of drama to the game, you often only have a split-second to react to the prompts. Making matters worse is that they’ll dynamically appear at different points on the screen and often with limited visibility due to a ‘shaking’ effect or blending with all of the movement making the correct sequence difficult to discern. This is especially prevalent during the game’s many action sequences, but as with any game, the more you play it the more you’ll get used to it and if you’re quick enough you can quit the game before an auto-save occurs if you feel like you need to try it again.
Of course, ‘trying again’ is really dependent on what type of gamer you are. From a conventional perspective this is a shortcoming, but again, Heavy Rain isn’t a conventional game. This unforgiving timing may be rough if you’re going for every last trophy the game has, but the flip-side is that the story becomes more unique to you as you excel or screw up. It’s used to pretty great effect and keeps the game feeling fresh by keeping the action sequences tense and the subsequent payout feeling rewarding. Did you accidentally kill off a character? No problem – the game will keep on going as if that was unavoidable in the story.
Speaking of which, the story is very, very engaging and manages evoke real emotion- something many story-driven games aspire to do but typically end up falling flat. Heavy Rain emerges victorious in this department, by keeping the story very evenly paced, giving you just enough to keep you interested, but not so much that it comes off as some ho-hum shock value attempt. And believe me, there are some truly shocking moments throughout the game. I thought I’d had the killer completely figured out but couldn’t have been more wrong. While your actions do dynamically affect the story, I was saddened to find that none of your actions will actually change who the killer is when the story is nearing its end. While a little disappointing, that shouldn’t dissuade you at all from taking a look.
Further accenting the nail-biting plot is the technical mastery of the game. Some of the close-up textures look a little rough, but everything else looks positively amazing. Character models are the most detailed I’ve ever seen with solid animations and a disturbingly lifelike quality. Unfortunately all of those gorgeous character models and detailed environments combined with the auto-save feature are responsible for some downright terrible sluggishness during many of the action sequences. Again, a patch is supposed to be forthcoming but I’m reviewing the game as it was when I popped it in.
The soundtrack is top-notch with a nice nod to Se7en’s score. It’s tense to be sure and combined with the great performances by the actors which served as the basis of the character renders, it’s easy to get wrapped up in everything going on around you. The only minor complaint I have about the delivery of the dialog is that most of the actors are foreign and trying to maintain an American accent and while they generally succeed, every now and then a few words or a violent outburst from a character will sound a bit odd.
In the end Quantic Dream has proven they know how to tell a great story and save for a few technical nuances, Heavy Rain is a must for any mystery hound that owns a PS3.
Heavy Rain is awarded 8 out of 10.
Related posts:
