Game Review: Heavy Rain

This latest offering from Quantic Dream was years in the making and is well worth the wait. The game uses the PS3 fully, pushing it to levels I didn't know were possible in games. You are plunged into a realistic world where your actions will help save a boy from a serial killer, or let the serial killer escape justice.

(Note that images in this review were taken using a camera of the screen while I was playing the game. Please accept my apologies for the poor quality of some of them.)

Review Date: 13/04/2010

Platform:PS3

In a few words:

The Good: Your actions really did change the outcome of the story, the pacing was excellent, keeping you on the edge of your seat and tense, the rain.

The Bad: Forced to do mundane tasks, lack of interactivity at times, character appearances are firmly in the uncanny valley.

Story:

The story starts frustratingly slowly, but patience is rewarded as you meet the 4 main characters that you can control. All of the characters are trying to solve the case of the origami killer: a serial killer who drowns his victims in rainwater and then leaves them with an orchid and an origami figurine on their chest. Ethan, the main character, is the father of the latest soon-to-be victim. The other characters are an FBI detective, a journalist and a personal investigator. Through these characters you attempt to find Ethan's son before it is too late.

The less said about the plot the better, as the game takes you on a ride that is unpredictable and a lot more enjoyable when you don't know what is happening. Although there are many moments where your actions don't seem to affect anything, overall your actions will change the outcomes and a number of different endings are possible. Due to this I found myself under a lot of stress, because the game was so similar to the real world and the characters could be killed off permanently. The drive to save the boy really got to me, at one point my character gave up trying before I was ready and I found myself yelling at the screen and almost in tears thinking that this would mean I would "fail" the entire game. Thankfully, the game allows you to replay scenes to get different outcomes and fulfill all those niggling "what if" questions.

Gameplay:

Heavy Rain uses the PS3 controller in an innovative way where every button is used, but not at once. Sometimes it felt like the game Twister for my fingers until I could work out a strategy to push the buttons. The best parts of the gameplay are when you have been watching part of the story with nothing to do, and then you are suddenly expected to push a somewhat random button within a timelimit or fail. This pacing of slow and then fast actions meant that even during the lengthly cut scenes you were trying to stay alert in case you were needed to jump into action.

Although there were many times when your actions had massive outcomes on the plot, there were many times when I found myself asking why I was being forced to do such mundane tasks as having a shower, cooking an omlette and so on. Further, there were times when only one action was available to the character. This meant that even if you didn't want to do that action, you had no choice. I felt that in times like that I would have preferred to just watch a cut scene.

At first I thought that the way that conversation options hovered around characters was a great way to seamlessly allow you to choose what to do without breaking the illusion and reminding you that you were just playing a game. However, in times when what you said affected the outcome, I found that I wasn't able to read all the options at first glance and found myself struggling to understand all the implications of my choice might be within the time limits. Perhaps this reflects what would truely happen in the real world, however I got frustrated that I couldn't find the option I wanted since it was obscured by a character. Further, the options were often ambiguous. For example, at one point you are given the option "Help", however there are two people you could help, the bad cop, or the person being abused. This meant you were unsure of what you were really choosing.

Game elements (graphics, physics, AI):

While the graphics were clearly stunning, the characters really fell straight into the uncanny valley. I couldn't possibly tell you why that was the case, because they certainly seem realistic at first glance. However, as you play the game I found myself getting a bit freaked out that the characters weren't quite right and moved awkwardly.

The physics and graphics worked together so that you felt that you were in the real world. If your character had to do a physically hard task (such as picking up something heavy), then the buttons you pushed on the controller reflected that well, so that you felt that you yourself were doing something difficult too. The story and all the possible outcomes clearly were scripted well in advance. So the characters didn't need to really do any "thinking" other than working out where to stand (which was well done).

Other Comments:

Quantic Dream's previous game, Fahrenheit (or the Indigo Prophecy), is probably my favourite game of all time. So I was expecting a lot from Heavy Rain. What I wasn't expecting from Heavy Rain was that it would be so similar to Fahrenheit. Much of the innovative gameplay in this game was taken directly from Fahrenheit, and the story that related to rain or temperature and a serial killer made me feel at some points that I was playing the story that Fahrenheit should have been. The story of Fahrenheit went to the absurd at the end, and I was very thankful that Heavy Rain stayed in the real world for its entirity. Despite Fahrenheit's silly story, I still think it is my favourite game because it was the game that opened my mind to completely different gameplay possibilities. Heavy Rain's story and gameplay were amazing, but that was partly due to reusing many many ideas from Fahrenheit. The graphics made Heavy Rain a truly compelling game, and if it wasn't for having to do so many mundane tasks, Heavy Rain would now be my favourite game.