Heavy Rain Review

Dan Richardson

In an industry bursting at the seams from obscure genres (take a bow, Rogue-Likes) it can be slightly depressing when a game feels it’s necessary to create another of its own. However, often these risk-taking developers strike gold and Heavy Rain is one of these cases. It is also one of those cases which is ridiculously hard to review without spoiling the story. I won’t reveal any of it here, only that while it stumbles upon the occasional plot hole and misses out large chunks, the game spins a fine yarn which is well worth following.

At first glance, Heavy Rain seems like a half arsed quick time event (QTE) marathon, as nearly all of the actions done in game (besides simply walking around) use timed button presses, control stick twiddling or motion gestures. Unfortunately titles such as Resident Evil 4 and God of War have given QTEs a bad name- they feel tacked on, a cheap gimmick. But they work in Heavy Rain, because they feel relevant. In one scene for example, you can push your kid around a playground merry-go-round. In order to spin the child around, you have to hold down the shoulder buttons to take a hold of the handle bars and mash the X button to make the character run. Not only does it feel as if there is an element of tactility from you physically holding down the buttons to hold the bars, but the game manipulates your hand so that you have to go through the effort of using your thumb to mash the X button (your fingers are busy on the shoulder buttons), which is surprisingly strenuous. By the end of the QTE your thumb feels the same exhaustion as your character. These are no dumb quick time events, but instead smart and subtle game design at its best.

Heavy Rain is the future of entertainment. Not the future of games mind you, but of films and books. By allowing you to mould the story your first play-through of Heavy Rain feels special- it feels as if the story that forms is because of events you controlled.  This is due to the fact that the storyline can alter dynamically, changing to every nearly every action you take. Should one (or more- every single one of the 5 main characters can die by the end of the story) of the characters die from your actions they remain dead, but the story continues. This is a game without failure- the title’s trophies actually encourage you to experiment with killing off characters in subsequent play-throughs. Talk to a friend about their own experiences playing the game and you will likely find that you got completely different plot lines, making you want to go back into the story and discover what actions change what.

It feels odd then that what should be the future of cinema was first realised in a videogame. Instead of aping films by showing flashy cutscenes and forcing the player to sit through them (looking at you here, Kojima) Heavy Rain transcends entertainment mediums to become what should rightfully be the future and shows a more established industry how they are seriously lagging behind. I have never been as attached to a character or feel more involved in their plights in any film I have ever seen. I believe this to be because of the interactive nature of gaming and how much weight your input has upon these characters’ lives.

This is a game which could only really have been possible thanks to this hardware generation’s technology. While the game’s spiritual predecessor on the Playstation 2 –Fahrenheit- was good in its own right, you never felt completely drawn in due to the graphical limitations of the era. Heavy Rain, on the other hand, comes closer than ever to climbing out of the proverbial Uncanny Valley thanks to its amazing presentation.  Featuring the best virtual acting ever seen in gaming and (mostly) stellar voice work the game pulls you in and doesn’t let go. All of the locales feel authentic and lived in, while retaining the game’s sombre mood and atmosphere. The chilling orchestral score relaxes and excites, toying with your senses and emotions. You get to revel in all of this painstaking effort thanks to unlockable behind the scenes footage of the acting sessions and auditions, as well as footage of the orchestra recording at Abbey Road and a huge amount of project artwork. This is a very complete package.

And yet it is hard to fully recommend Heavy Rain. Despite the astounding production values, your first run of the game will likely take just shy of ten hours to complete. While the lure of alternate, branching storylines and unlockable extras obviously boost this, the first run-through is inevitably the most impactful. Should you have the cash to spend on a ten hour game, I can heartily recommend Heavy Rain. Everyone else should play it too, but it is forgivable to wait for the inevitable price reductions.

Confused about our review system? Click here for more info.