How far are you willing to go to save someone you love?

By Ben Salter

When I saw the trailer for Heavy Rain, and its subsequent standing ovation, at E3 last year two things came to mind. The first was respect for developer Quantic Dream. Without knowing anything about the game Heavy Rain looked different. It wasn’t another generic FPS or action game that would ship millions of units without trying. When I found out it was a dramatic thriller, best described as an adventure game, I was excited by the prospect of a genre that has become somewhat scarce in recent times. The second thought, reaffirmed by the fact it’s an adventure game, was that it won’t sell anywhere near as well as it should. I hope I’m wrong, and opening sales have been stronger than I expected, but if we want to see more games pushing the conventional boundaries, we need to buy them.

I have a phobia of games that start off slow. I keep trying to get into the original Mass Effect, but each time the first, slow, few hours bore me too much (on a side note I’ve finally gotten into it this week). Unfortunately for me Heavy Rain is another game that takes a while to get off the mark. If you’re anything like me I implore you to push on, and promise you won’t regret it. If I wasn’t reviewing the game there was a chance I’d never have gotten past the 2 hour mark, and that my friends would have been tragic (that said the game itself is only about 8-9 hours).

Now that we’ve got the cold hard facts out of the way, let’s get down to business. Heavy Rain focuses on four diverse protagonists. Ethan Mars, an architect and loving father, is at the centre of the prologue when one of his two sons dies in a car crash, leaving him in a coma. Jump forward 2 years and Ethan is still struggling to come to terms with the situation, as is his other son Shaun. The tragic story of losing your child combined with the responsibilities of being a father does tend to drag on a bit, but that’s when it begins to get interesting. Things go from bad to worse for Ethan as Shaun is kidnapped by the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who has a nasty habit of taking children and, well, killing them.

The remaining three protagonists, journalist Madison Paige, drug addicted FBI Agent Norman Jayden and Private Detective Scott Shelby, have their stories intertwined with Ethan’s as they attempt to stop the Origami Killer. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of story. If you’ve been following the development of Heavy Rain you’ll know many publications consider it closer to a film than a game. Personally, I think that is a relatively bad and unappealing description. It’s an adventure game, with an extremely strong narrative. Putting aside the fact that I don’t want to spoil anything, writing about the game’s story in 20,000 words wouldn’t do it any justice, let alone in 200. It’s a rollercoaster ride, full of ups and downs, and something that has to be experienced for yourself.

Rather than force-feed you two minutes of cut-scene at strategic moments, Heavy Rain’s story is on going throughout the entire adventure. You might cringe when I tell you it’s essentially one big quick time event; you’ll constantly be required to press a button as it appears on screen during key moments. Once again this sounds terrible when committed to paper, but it actually works quite well. The controls for Heavy Rain are unusual to say the least. You can interact with almost everything using the facebuttons, Six-Axis or analogue sticks, as the command appears on the screen. The obvious comparison is a good ol’ fashion point and click adventure. Essentially everything the PS3 controller has to offer replaces the mouse’s curser to point and click on the environment. R2 allows you to move forward, while the left analogue stick allows you to change direction. It takes a lot of getting used to; the learning curve is much greater than any other game you’ve played of late, just because it’s so different to almost everything else.

During the more relaxed moments Heavy Rain plays out like a traditional point and click adventure. In the more action packed scenes, such as driving and fighting, however, it follows the more recent quick time event conventions. Button commands flash across the screen and you have a limited amount of time to make sure they happen or everything will go horribly wrong. Unlike most games that use this technique as nothing more than a desperate connection between gameplay and story, it’s vital to the outcome of Heavy Rain. You won’t see a game over screen if you miss a command, instead it’ll change what happens next. You might end up somewhere completely different had you complied with the quick time event’s demands. It sounds quite harsh, but it’s all part of Heavy Rain’s charm. It’s unpredictable, you don’t know what’ll happen next, and that’s why you’ll love it.

The control scheme is different, it’s confusing, but it allows a greater emphasis to be placed on the story. The way the four protagonists’ narratives come together is the best I’ve seen in a videogame. These are more than your run of the mill characters. They are 4 people, with diverse and interesting backgrounds. You want to know about their past, you care about what’s happening to them and most importantly you’re on the edge of your seat waiting to find out where they’ll end up next.

The only problems I had with the controls, apart from the learning curve, is that it just never feels completely fluent. R2 and the left analogue stick don’t work as well as one may have hoped to control movement. You’re not exactly required to move around at great speeds or anything, but even after 8 hours of game time it still felt chunky. Occasionally it’s also hard to see what command you’re meant to be using, especially when using the analogue stick, which needs to be pushed a specific direction. In the grand scheme of things these are fairly minor issues, and it certainly works a lot better than it would have with a traditional control setup.

The character models look fantastic. The facial details and expressions are breathtaking, and are vital to maintaining the high level of drama. Unfortunately some of the environment aren’t quite at the same level. Normally something like Heavy Rain would score exceptionally well in the graphics department, but we feel it needed to be at the upmost standard of excellence in presentation. When a game focuses on its story as much as its gameplay, the visuals need to be impeccable. I’m not saying they’re bad, quite from it in fact; they just needed to be even better to complete the experience. The same can be said for the sound. In a game like Heavy Rain it has to be at the highest level. The voice acting is fantastic for the main characters. The supporting cast, however, let the team down a little.

The Final Verdict

Heavy Rain is a dramatic thriller (point and click) adventure game. If you’re looking for something different, something story driven, and something that’ll have you on the edge of your seat in suspense its hard to look past it. In saying that, it’s not for everyone. If you’ve skipped the body of this review, for instance, and gone straight to the final verdict it’s not the game for you. Heavy Rain is all about its story. It’s very rewarding, but it requires patience. If you’re up for the challenge, I highly recommend Heavy Rain; a great PS3 exclusive.

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