Review: Heavy Rain
(Read the original review on my blog)
It's ironic that I should be writing about a game featuring the worst virtual weather of this generation while enjoying a beautiful almost-spring day outside. The sun is shining, plants are growing, birds are chirping, dogs are barking, and all of this topped off by two men wielding chainsaws somewhere up the street. Indeed, there is no better way to enjoy the great outdoors like wearing in your brand new power tools. Great job guys. I hope that fallen tree gets what's coming to it and you build a nice, big porch for your backyard. And let's not forget got useful that noisy leaf-blower is compared to the simple and quiet rake. Whew, man I thought I would never get those damn leaves out of my yard! But I digress...
I'm here to day to discuss my thoughts on the Playstation 3 gameHeavy Rain, an interactive psychological crime-thriller that tasks you with solving the mystery of the Origami Killer. The killer has been terrorizing the city (as to which city, it's never mentioned...probably for the better) by kidnapping and drowning little boys. The boys disappear, and five days later turn up dead in some empty lot by the railroad tracks.
In the game you assume control of four central characters, which, depending on how you pay the game, may or may not ever cross paths. The main character is Ethan Mars, a distraught father who is struggling to keep his family together after the death of his oldest son, Jason. One day at the park with his other son, Sean, he blacks out, only to awaken on a dark street holding an origami figure. Having lost his only remaining son, Ethan is on the verge of breaking and will do anything to save Sean, but it's up to you to determine how he goes about doing that. The other characters (Madison Paige - Journalist, Norman Jayden - FBI, and Scott Shelby - Private Investigator) are of lesser importance but still vital to telling the story.
Now, I've only witnessed one play through of the game, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that there are numerous ways the story could end. Every decision you make can determine who lives and who dies. It's all left up to you, and thankfully, no matter how one chooses to play the game, a unique game experience is guaranteed. For example, the endings my friends had differed in many ways. In one game, Norman Jayden was impaled with a katana by the killer in a club-owner's office, but in another he survived long enough to be squished by a car-crushing machine. It's possible he could have survived to the end, but all the same, he met his end in two completely different ways. There are potentially dozens of examples I could throw out to demonstrate the variety of differences between their game experiences, but I don't want to give too much of the story away for those of you who haven't played it yet (all three of you). You'll just have to play it for yourself.
Some may argue that it's just one long interactive cutscene or quick-time event, but it goes deeper than that. You have the ability to control the movements of the characters, and you can make them do whatever you want them. If you don't like a particular character, given the situation, you could let him or her die. Or not. I'm anxious to hop into the game myself, because there were some decisions I would have handled differently from the one I watched.
Another discussion going on is that of the numerous plot-holes in the story. Yes, there is a potential for plot-holes, but it really all depends on what you choose to do. If you can get all of the characters to the end of the story without any trouble, chances are you're going to be scratching your head when the game explains how certain things came to be. If you bump up the difficulty for more challenge, you might have an easier time putting the pieces together when all is said and done, but you might not like how the game ends. Personally, I think if you're not pleased with the result of your decisions, go back and revisit some chapters and do things differently. The choice is yours.
