Review :: Heavy Rain

No more than 10 minutes in and I’m witness to Heavy Rain’s slow but exciting introduction. Fast forward 10 hours and as the credits being to roll, the Dualshock 3 still firmly gripped, I can’t believe it’s all over. The story hooked me, the characters entertained and a vast majority of the scenes had my heart pounding uncontrollably outside of my chest. Quantic Dream’s latest game, if you can even call it a game, will be received in many different ways by many different gamers, but one thing however is abundantly clear; from start to finish, there simply isn’t anything like Heavy Rain.

Right off the bat you’re tossed into the life of Ethan Mars, a successful architect, married with two children, life for this everyman is going swell until disaster strikes Ethan after losing his son in a bad turn of events. Cut two years later and this fall from grace has reduced Ethan to a hollow existence of caring for his remaining sun. Suffering from depression the occasional blackouts, Ethan has run out of reasons to keep going. That is until his remaining son Shaun goes missing and a mission to save his son puts Ethan in some compromising positions that are just too drastic and spoiler-filled to type.

Of course Ethan Mars isn’t the only character you’ll play; if you’ve been following Heavy Rain at all then you’ll know the game revolves around a further three characters all in search of the Origami Killer. Norman Jayden, a FBI investigator brought into the case to aid the investigation to profile the killer whilst struggling to deal with an addiction of his own. There’s also Scott Shelby, a private detective hired by the families who were victim to the Origami Killers actions tracing suspects and gathering evidences. And finally there’s Madison Page, an insomniac journalist who gets caught up in Ethan’s struggle to save his son.

Heavy Rain’s weaving narrative is stunningly well paced, never allowing you to over indulge in one characters tale without breaking the tension that escalates in all the right places. Some segments can be a little mundane in nature; in particular a scene in which Scott Shelby is forced to play babysitter changing diapers and rocking a baby gently to sleep should indicate the kind of tangents this murder mystery can take early in the story.

The most intriguing aspect of the narrative is its many branching paths the story can take for everything you do and everything you don’t do. You’ll occasionally ask yourself if you can take the life or another or whether or not the sacrifice you make comes at the cost of killing off someone else or even yourself. Don’t fret, the story will continue with or without some of the characters and the conclusion can be just as satisfying with all four characters alive or not, it’s all depends on the choices you make.

Of course not all choices are a case of picking from the games floating responses. A lot of it will depend on how well you can react to the games inventive use of quick time events; making use of button presses, directional pushes and even valid uses of the six-axis controls. Their implementation is cleverly mapped to the actions in-game the majority of which will be introduced in the games stunning introduction in which you take part in Ethan’s day to day activities: showering, sketching and playing with his sons. It might sound like something plucked out a cinematic take on The Sims but there’s no doubt the controls are peculiarly accurate gauging everything from timing, gentle gestures, furious button bashing and finger twisting button combinations.

Quick time events aren’t exactly revolutionary these days but Quantic Dream should be patted on the back for making them relevant and accurate to the actions in-game. The same cannot be said for the games tank-like approach to navigating said characters. Holding down R2 to walk in a straight line whilst directing with the left analogue stick really isn’t the most practical control system occasionally pushing characters to walk into walls before correctly aiming them in the right direction.

Heavy Rain’s presentation for the most part is pretty solid. Quantic’s efforts to produce a realistic and believable world with considerable attention to detail haven’t gone a miss, something that the games close up loading screens alone will be a testament to. You’ll see certain pieces out of place be it a pop-in texture or an odd looking character animation here or there but it’s the games ambition really magnifies these chinks in the armour beyond their actual significance.

A single playthrough of Heavy Rain should last around 10 hours and the narrative wraps itself up pretty well without leaving too many deep plot holes; arguably there are some unexplained circumstances but it’s nothing that should ruin the plot for anyone. To say each play through is unique however is a little misleading; repeating the game over and over and you’ll find the narrative structure barely branches out too far as to change the story considerably. If you don’t want to repeat the game too soon, you should have unlocked a selection of movies and artwork clips which highlight the significant efforts that went into the games development.

There will be people who hate Heavy Rain; its emphasis on narrative over interactivity tends to put you in the co-directors seat than the driving force of the story. That said, it’s hard to walk away from story once you’re elbows deep in shards of glass and a tormenting guessing game of who’s the Origami killer. Heavy Rain’s ambition might come across a little pretentious, something made all too true when you unlock the ‘Thank you for supporting Interactive Drama’ trophy, but there’s no denying that what has been achieved here is nothing short of outstanding and something that no PS3 owner should be without.

8.8/10

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