Stuff That I Played: Heavy Rain

SPOILER-FREE, so don't worry about reading.

A friend of mine recently was kind enough to lend me his PS3 because he has to study for exams, so I'm finally able to play through some of my most anticipated games on the console. This is gonna be pretty quick because frankly, it's hard to judge Heavy Rain in relation to other games because it's so unique.

Heavy Rain isn't really a "game" per se. It's more of an interactive movie; I suppose it's sort of like if you were able to say "DON"T GO THROUGH THAT DOOR!" during a horror movie and that character actually listened. The game is extremely immersive as you control the most basic of actions; the first hour or so of the game basically just has you go through one of the main characters' morning routine, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, eating, etc. Some would find this boring but due to the interesting control scheme and overall uniqueness of the game, it really worked for me.

Most of Heavy Rain is played using a variety of quicktime events. For those who don't know, what happens here is that you don't control the entire character; rather, a cinematic plays, and button prompts are put up on the screen. If you press the button in the the required, you "Win" the action; this keeps going in a particular sequence. For example, you control Guy A in a fight. Guy B takes a swing; the screen flashes X. If you press X in time, you dodge; otherwise you get smacked in the face. The fight resumes in this fashion. Quicktime events have been fairly criticized over the years as being a little bit lazy, but they can be used to good effect (see: the God of War games), and in Heavy Rain this is true. All of the "action" scenes play out in extremely intense quicktime events, using the face and shoulder buttons, as well as the movement of the Sixaxis controller - while I'm not a big fan of motion controls, the Sixaxis is superbly implemented, making the sequences more nerve-wracking(as you have more button choices to worry about) and greater simulating the action of, say, driving a car. What's most impressive about these parts is how smooth they are - you'll never see a "game over" screen in the game; if you mess up a quicktime event really badly, there's the possibility that main characters will die, or certain plot points unfold differently. In this way, the game brings a sense of immediacy to the proceedings, and stresses the importance of split-second actions and decisions; it really keeps you on your toes.

The game follows four characters who all have some sort of relation to a recent child murderer dubbed the Origami Killer (due to the origami figures he/she leaves in his/her victims' hands). Paths intersect and plotlines twist as each of the characters search for the Origami Killer for their own reasons and in their own ways.

The plot is extremely involving even from the start of the game; again, it comes down to immersion and feeling like you are mostly in control of events. There's a certain thrill you get from watching these characters and controlling their every move, like some sort of virtual puppeteer. At times, despite my own personal feelings, it reached a point where I was making decisions based on what I thought the characters would do, rather than my own personal wants (I should have a post tomorrow or tonight pertaining to this, but it will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk). It's a powerful, engrossing game, with some extremely moving scenes and great writing. My only problems in this respect are that side characters are largely one-dimensional and not written as well, and the fact that the script uses a lot of movie cliches. However, this almost works in the game's favour; because it's so influenced by film and uses a lot of Hollywood cliches (In particular regarding to the archetypal main characters), it truly works as an 8 hour movie that you CONTROL. I felt that the length of the game was absolutely perfect, keeping the plot moving at a brisk pace and containing only a couple filler scenes - I blew through the game in about 3 extended sittings, and most others probably will too.

I only have a couple of problems with the game. First off, the movement controls are clunky, using an old Resident Evil-type control system where you press a button to walk and use the analog sticks to just point in whatever direction you face. You get used to it, but I don't understand why they couldn't just make a regular old 3D movement system. My other problem is that it's not until halfway through the game that your choices really begin to affect what happens; for the first half, though you still control the characters actions, most scenes will end with the same outcome, regardless of the details of the scene. Also, the graphics are pretty, but side characters have noticeably less detail than the main characters, mostly in regards to facial expressions, and they still haven't been able to nail a realistic-looking kiss in games; kisses tend to look like the characters' faces are just floating in front of each other with open mouths. It's a weird effect and pulls you out of the game momentarily.  Finally, while the voice acting is generally top-notch all around, children sound uniformly strange; most of them have this weird accent that makes them sound kind of like they're mentally-challenged, to the point where I couldn't quite decide whether Jason (one of the main protagonist's sons) was in fact mentally handicapped or not - it certainly wouldn't be too much of a stretch considering his actions (you'll understand once you play the game).

Overall though, Heavy Rain is an engrossing thrill ride of a game, and one that is incredibly unique. Whether it will be groundbreaking or not remains to be seen - I'm curious to see whether the game will form a whole new genre, or even influence other games majorly; I also wonder how well a game like this will sell; in its first week it sold over half a million copies, so I guess it's doing just fine (stat taken from IGN.com). So, the scorecard:

Play this game if:
-You liked Shenmue (seriously, if you liked that whole day-to-day minutia sort of thing, which I did, you'll totally dig this game. Shenmue was also the first game to popularize quicktime events, so hah!)
-You like movies (particularly movies that deal with more mature subject matter)
-You want a totally unique gameplay experience
-You are a casual or hardcore videogame player; I say this because the controls are unique enough that I think even if not accustomed with games, anyone should be able to get some enjoyment out of it. In fact, before the game starts, it asks you for a difficulty setting, based on how much you play games and how familiar you are with the controller. I'm not sure what this does, but I assume it affects how big the window for doing quicktime events is.

Don't play this game if:
-You are bored easily
-You need a lot of gameplay depth to get into a game
-You just want to shoot stuff

Later days,
Daniel