Heavy Rain Review
| Game Name: | Heavy Rain |
| Platforms: | PS3 |
| Publisher(s): | Sony |
| Developer(s): | Quantic Dream |
| Release Date: | OUT NOW |
| ESRB Rating: | 18 |
Just a quick note to point out that there are no plot spoilers below, just bad grammar and honest opinion so have no fear!
One of the most common question’s I see when I browse through forum threads on David Cage’s newest is game ” what kind of game is this? Is it a point and click adventure or a cut scene full of Quick Time Event?” It’s a fair question and here’s the answer: Heavy Rain is not really a game at all. There is no scoreboard, no points system; and if you go into Heavy Rain thinking your going to be playing something that gives you a challenge – your going to be a little disappointed. Even on its hardest difficulty setting there is nothing that’s going to cause you to throw your controller at the wall. There aren’t even lives in the traditional gaming sense. No, David Cage’s flawed finicky masterpiece is at its best an interactive exhibition of his tremendous talents wrapped around an enthralling atmospheric story and at its worst a decent yarn let down by some frustrating controls and some ‘convenient plot choices’. I wont call them plot holes because there is, after all DLC on the way.
The opening is clumsy but tense
This juxtaposition runs through a number of Heavy Rain’s features – something amazing let down by something bland. For every spellbinding scene a cut and paste ‘action’ event will pop up to let the side down. The motion capture acting will leave you dumb struck only to be let down by some awful choice of voice actor or some out of synch dialogue and bizarre facial animation. The same with the visuals, some of the environments sore while others (I’m looking at you cop station) are less exciting then my office building. It’s frustrating that there is so much to not just like but love about this experience; but unfortunately its flaws stop it from hitting the heights some will feel it deserves.
Now, that should keep the cynical critic in me happy for a few paragraphs – I actually really enjoyed this game and I want to throw some hyperbole around so lets get started.
The one thing Heavy Rain blows out of the water is its atmosphere. Cage’s wonderful warm but wet world is dripping with it, from the moment those beautiful opening credits hit, you begin feeling the tug and once the initial clumsiness of the opening scenes wears off you find yourself unable to put the controller down. Its not the rush of fighting monsters or firing big guns that brings you back, it’s the world and the way its feed to you. Its one you will gladly want to inhabit and miss, well after you’ve finished it. The ever present rain becomes an anchor for the tone of both outdoor and indoor encounters. Rain has been done well in games before but here it feels like another character in the story that helps immerse you even further into the plot and that’s a good thing too, because a game like this lives or dies by its story. Now lets take a look at it.
Heavy Rains story revolves around four main characters that you as the player will control they are – Sad and beardy former dad of two Ethan Mars, Photographer Madison Paige, FBI agent Norman Jayden and Private Eye Scott Shelby. All linked by the case of the Origami Killer, a Serial Killer who kidnaps and drowns his victims in rain water. Lets not go to deep into the story because in a game where so much of what you experience is linked to it; any nugget of info you pick up could take away from your time with the game and that’s not something I want to be responsible for. Of all the characters the one I empathised with and enjoyed the most was Shelby. Not only is he the most fleshed out character in terms of writhing but also in a graphical sense. His character model is the heaviest of the bunch and when not in a cut scene his is the only one that doesn’t look like it has a pole up his rear. In a cast of mostly strong performances his also shined for me.The bond Shelby he forms with the mother of one of the killers victims is very well written,in fact its probably the most organic of the games relationships and it’s a shame the other big friendship in the game doesn’t feel quite as understated and natural. The others are great too but his tough guy P.I has an old school coolness to it that really appealed to me. It also doesn’t hurt that he has probably the coolest action scene in the whole game.
Norman Jayden and Madison are both great also, Id gladly play a game with Jayden as the central character – using his holographic ARI glasses to solve cases and his strange separation anxiety is pretty unique without feeling out of place in the story and its world. Madison is also great if a little under developed compared to the others. Weakest of the lot is Ethan which is a shame because he is after all the heart of the story. His voice actor just isn’t that strong, not only does he deliver lines stiff but his voice has a nasally tone to it that kind of grated on my ears. As the plot unfolded I did warm to him a bit but not as much as the others.
Get used to this look, you will be seeing it a lot.
The voice acting, tone and atmosphere all help to pull you into Heavy Rains great story but for every great device Cage uses there’s a frustrating poke to remind you that your playing a game. If I was Cage I would be having nightmares about how close I was to nailing the experience. Its these horrible moments that make me think that much of my admiration for the game comes from what the game tried to achieve rather then what it ended up achieving. I’m talking about for one thing, the controls. 80% of the time the controls work fantastic, for the most part the context sensitive Quick Time Events are great. Fight scenes flow brilliantly, the chases have a very real sense of urgency about them and exploration works well. This makes it all the harder to understand why not once but TWICE did I end up making huge decisions by mistake! Surely the one time you want complete clarity is at these points in the game. Now you could argue that the director wanted the player to feel as confused as his on screen character but no, there are other decisions where the character is actually experiencing total mental meltdown and the controls are much clearer so I wont be taking that as an excuse. I’m not the only gamer to notice this and I was so annoyed at one point I was going to start the game again until I realised that the scenes can be replayed after the game is finished (a very cool feature by the by). What it does say though is that I was so emotionally involved in the proceedings that I actually cared what happened to the characters on screen, again there’s that juxtaposition I spoke about at the start. Another almost deal breaker is the awful movement in the character models during the explorations sections where you are left to explore an environment. Were talking Resident Evil stuff people, your character (apart from when in a crowd) doesn’t react at all to the environment – he or she will just bump around with a glassy look in their eyes during even the most tense sections of the game. It’s a waste because there are times when an effort is made to make the character react but then its just abandoned for no reason – living in an age with Uncharted 2 is most be tuff for developers but the reality is that game raised the bar on character movement and in a game like this where environmental linearity is even more focused, there should have been a little more effort put into the immersive quality of details like this.
Technically the game is again hit and miss, coming off the back of Mass Effect 2 If I’m honest I was a little disappointed in some of the animation work. Some of it is stunning mind you, even the slightest facial movements have been mapped to model but sometimes it just looks a little weird and random. Environments as I said earlier can look great but others are just a little bland and this isn’t helped by the gaming breaking bugs I found in my copy as well as rampant screen tearing. Presentation wise it hits the ball out of the park with genuinely interesting extra’s as well as what is probably the best pause screen animation I have ever seen.
I know a lot of my review has been spent criticizing the game and its issues but you should know this. I was sick Friday when I played the game through to completion (a fairly solid 11 hrs) and that day curled up on my sofa with a blanket and a cup of coffee while non virtual rain pounded against the window was one of the best gaming day’s I have put down in a long time. The story’s highlights are fantastic and when the big moment hits it’s handled to perfection. As well in fact, as anything a big Hollywood director could pull off. David Cage has come so close to creating the perfect interactive story experience that its dizzying how frustrating it is when it drops the ball and that’s only when comparing it to other mediums, judged as a video game its one of the best you will play in the last few years with a story that keeps you guessing until the end. Its a brave game that gets so much more right then it gets wrong and Sony and Cage deserve praise for having the balls to bring it to us.
It has to be experienced to be appreciated and thats all its asking of you.
Nice review, and how fortunate to have an illness to allow a long session!
I've been playing over the weekend and it's really hooked me, I agree the controls are a bit off and I've seen the odd bit of tearing but nothing to put me off. This is a bold step and a refreshing change from the usual hide behind something and try to get a headshot.
I wonder about the replay value but I guess I will find out how that goes.
It's unlikely this game will sell in the numbers to consider it a hit but for those wanting something different then go buy it now!
Yes it was very convenient….apart from the flem
Wow, you really did it.
You really did a “heavy rain” pun. You're a disgrace
You loved it.
Can you provide more information on this? cheers
[...] who read our Heavy Rain review would know that the game was an excellent insight into humanity, with top notch graphics, motion [...]