Created over a period of four years by the French digital animation/motion capture company Quantic Dream, Heavy Rain tells the story of Ethan Mars; an architect and single father, Norman Jayden; an FBI agent harboring a drug addiction, Madison Paige; an insomniac journalist, and Scott Shelby; a noble private eye. All four playable protagonists are searching for a serial killer known as the Origami Killer, who leaves the eponymous paper figurines with the corpses of his victims and who's main MO is abducting children. When Mars' son Shaun is kidnapped by the Origami Killer, the four individuals jump into action, each with their own, individual agenda to stop the Origami Killer.
The story is presented as a gripping noir mystery worthy of Hollywood, but the gameplay helps flesh things out and makes the plot more organic. You control your character from a third-person persective and interact with your environment searching for clues and making judgments based on your character's thoughts, which can be executed either in self-reflection or during conversation. Certain moments of action or high-intensity may require a "quick-time" event, where buttons need to be pushed in a certain order and time when they appear on screen. This makes for a very visceral gaming experience, because failure to complete these actions can result in a less-than desireable outcome for your character a la Mass Effect. I'll post a video of the demo here:
Playing with the standard PS3 wireless controller isn't too challenging, there's a slight learning curve with the "QT" events, but it's nothing too hard. Playing with the Move was pretty cool, but very frustrating without a tutorial. I still have yet to try the full game with the Move, which starts with the tutorial. I initially tried it while playing the Downloadable Content Level Heavy Rain Chronicles: Episode One - The Taxidermist, which lacked a tutorial, and I was embarassed at myself. Casual gamers like myself, therefore, may feel more comfortable using a wireless controller.
The attention to detail with the graphics is outstanding, Heavy Rain has a look that's similar to the Final Fantasy films by Square or Avatar, in that each of the characters are all motion captured, modeled, and voiced by the same actor. A few months ago, I played the game in front of a friend who was interested in seeing a demonstration, and he commented on how was impressed by the lack of "doll's-eye" in the facial models (especially in the loading screens when all you can see are the characters' faces). Although physical movements can still be a little stiff at times and the acting, a little shaky due to the accents from some of the foreign actors, the visuals are an incredible piece of work. They even made my video game-abhoring parents stop and stare at the screen in awe at times.
I love the music in Heavy Rain; it's a wonderful score that captures the bleak, somber mood of the game, along with the tension of the action scenes. Sometimes it has that quality of quiet unease like Bernard Herrmann did in Hitchcock's films, other times it has the stinging rush of energy like Danny Elfman. Either way, it's great. Each character has their own main theme: Ethan's is soft and somber, Norman's is dark and mysterious, Madison's is quiet and contemplative, Scott's is strong and forboding - heavy on bass. They all sound great, and I've even found myself studying along to the soundtrack due to its introspective nature.
To top it all off, the game has a myriad of endings that it makes a perfectly reasonable incentive to play through it again while encouraging experimentation. I've beaten the game already about four times and I never get tired of the story or seeing what happens strictly from trying new things. I consider Heavy Rain to be one of my all-time favorite video games and I strongly encourage any open-minded gamers with a PS3 and who enjoy a good adventure/mystery to check it out.
10/10
Peace,
- Jon
