Get that gun out my face, don't you know I'm from Bosyorkatchewan?!?

Heavy Rain is one of the most engaging video games I’ve ever played.  To call it a video game doesn’t really do it justice.  Heavy Rain is about the story, first and foremost.  And the story is compelling.  Unlike so many titles where the story is an afterthought that seems tacked on to the game (Gears of War, anyone?); Heavy Rain feels like a rich, character driven story with a game added to it.

The game is not perfect, don’t get me wrong.  I’ll try and do this without spoilers, so feel safe to read on if you haven’t played it yet.  Heavy Rain is about a series of murders completed by the “Origami Killer”.  Named so because he leaves an origami figure with his victims.  You play as one of four characters, rotating between them as they all travel along separate – yet sometimes intermingling -paths to try and stop the killer.  There’s the good samaritan, the private investigator, the FBI agent, and the father trying to save his son.  Each one with their own vested interest in finding the murderer.  The story is well done, just what you would expect from a good mystery.  It starts off slow, and depressing (make sure you play the first couple hours on a sunny day).  Even with the slow start, the emotions that the main character was going through were palpable.  I was immersed and emotionally affected very early on in the story.  It picks up nicely a few hours in however, gradually building to the eventual set piece finale where the murderer is revealed.

That being said, the story does have some flaws.  Mainly when you finally learn who the killer is and start to recount what happened previously, there are several WTF?!? moments.  I won’t go into detail, but post in the Heavy Rain spoiler thread in the forums if you’re interested.  It almost feels as if it were a movie where some of the “set-up” scenes were cut for length.  For the most part, I think the story did a good job of keeping me engaged and moved at a good pace.  I think the game could have been a tad bit short, but the length of the game does lend itself to replayability.  Due to the myriad of possible endings, most are going to retry at least portions of the game.

The controls are….let’s see – interesting.  This is not an action game.  There are no “twitch” style controls here.  There are some new, innovative control mechanics.  I like the idea of what Quantic Dream was trying to do, which is keep the player immersed in the game.  Sure, you could hit X to punch, square to kick, circle to run, triangle to interact with items – but I think that would take you out of the story.  One of the early sequences (also in the demo) where we see the controls start to take shape is when the FBI agent, Norman Jayden, is investigating a murder scene.  There is a muddy hill that he needs to climb to check for clues.  In order to do this, you must hit a series of three buttons, holding down each one.  The idea being one button for his right leg, another for his right arm, another for his left leg, etc.  I don’t know about you, but it’s not often that I’m simultaneously holding down three or four buttons on my controller.  If you miss a button, you fail and must try again.  If the action requires you to be slow or deliberate, you may have to perform a quarter-turn on the right stick very slowly.  Put all this into a more tense situation – escaping a burning building let’s say – and your adrenaline does start to pump.  If you’re like me, and invested in these characters, you want to help them, so you pay attention and hit the right sequence of buttons.

There are some six axis controls as well, most of it nicely done.  Thrust your controller up to jump, or to the left to clear off a table, tilt the controller to steer a car, etc.  Shaking the controller up and down to brush your teeth was a little over the top, but it was during the beginning in-game tutorial, so I’ll let it slide.  The sensitivity was fine, I rarely had any issues.  In addition there are some standard quick time event controls, usually revolving around combat.  On the medium difficulty, I found these to be pretty easy.  Even if you do miss one or two prompts in a fight, you won’t necessarily fail the sequence – your character my have a bit more bumps and bruises however.

Another game mechanic I thought was well designed was the characters’ “thoughts”.  If you are interviewing someone, for instance, your character’s thoughts will circle around their head in one or two word phrases with a corresponding button.  Press the button and the character asks the pertaining question.   It’s much better than beating you over the head with a huge wall of text dialog box with 5 options, which lead to another dialog box with 4 options, which then leads back to the first list so you can try another option.    Heavy Rain does the same thing in a much less obtrusive style.  You read the three or four one word options and make a choice.  If you delay and don’t make a choice, the game makes one for you.  That’s right, no dilly dallying here, you have to think quickly.  Also, most of the time you won’t be able to go through every option.  You, as the player, must decide which of the options are pertinent and will produce the best leads.  If your character is agitated, or under duress, the options will appear shaky and difficult to read. All of this adds to the immersion.

Graphically the game is really good.  The loading screens, which focus in on the face of the character you are about to play, are particularly striking.  Some of the best graphics I can remember.  But, like most of the other aspects of the game, there are some nagging drawbacks.  Some of the voice animations are glitchy, and I did notice some weird motion capture issues that can take you out of the moment.  None of it game breaking, but could have used some more polish.

The main complaint, by far – that I have with this game is the voice over work.  Quantic Dream is a French studio.  I imagine good American (Heavy Rain is set in Philadelphia) voice actors are hard to come by in Europe.  My guess, and this is only a guess, is that they sub-contracted the voice over work to a French Canadian casting agency.  Some of the character voices are fine.  Scott Shelby, the PI, was ok.  Madison, the good samaritan, was good.  Norman Jayden however, I thought was borderline awful.  His accent fluctuated from Boston to New York City to Saskatchewan and everywhere in between.  I really had problems with him.  The children were another bad example.  They were obviously bi-lingual Canadian.  I half expected them to whip out a helmet and skates and say “How’s it goin there, eh?  You fellas see the new tuuk my mum got me there?”  (Apologies to Canadian readers.)  My point is these kids did not sound like they were from Philadelphia.  Far from it.  In addition, I noticed some “bean” instead of “been”, “oot” instead of “out”, etc.

In summary, I greatly enjoyed my experience with Heavy Rain.  I’ll take something new and innovative that needs a little polish over a perfectly executed re-tread space cowboy game any day of the week.  This game was well done, even with the flaws I mention above.  With a bit more money and time, I think all the problems could have been fixed.  This is a business however, and there are budgets and deadlines.  I applaud Quantic Dream for the effort and hope the next in this style of game can build on it.  It’s not for everybody, but I think Heavy Rain is something every well-rounded gamer should try if given the opportunity.

Tags: Reviews