Okay Geek Farm
PS3 Review: Heavy Rain
Okay Geek Team
A murder thriller set not within a TNT original mini-series, but rather within Sony’s PS3. This crime drama is more of a movie than a game but the suspense is just as exhilarating as watching a top notch cinema - albeit with a ton of plot holes that pretty much undo everything done correctly, but its heart is in the right place.
Story
Over the past couple of years, a string of murders have taken place within an unnamed city. There are a number of victims - all young boys drowned by rain water. The only clues investigator’s have are the orchids placed on the bodies of the victims, as well as a piece of folded origami within their limp hands.
The identity of the serial killer known as the Origami Killer is the meat of this tale, and the four characters that are connected to the investigation are potatoes whom you’ll go along with for the ride. You could say that the main protagonist is a man named Ethan Mars, a father of two whose quick negligence cost him the life of one of his boys. Two years since the event he’s been suffering from some massive blackouts, which he incidentally has one while watching his remaining child and ends up losing him, causing himself and the police to blame the child’s disappearance on the rampaging Origami Killer.
Other playable characters include, Scott Shelby, a private investigator hired by the past victims’ families, a mysterious motorcycle driving woman named Madison, and an FBI agent named Norman Jayden who’s hobbies include drug addiction and a keen interest in looking like Neo from the Matrix.
Gameplay
Quick time events are just about the only thing you’ll do in the game besides walk around. But the good thing is that they’re as simple as pressing the given commands (X, square, triangle, etc…) when they pop up on the screen. Having quick reflexes is an absolute must when wanting to do everything right on your first go - which at times I myself had a hard time keeping up with, though, the game is lenient in how many tries you get doing certain tasks. But try not to use this too liberally as the game will punish you if you screw up at the wrong time, which is what I did when one of my characters died due to my lack of reflex speed.
And since characters CAN die it’s obvious that outcomes and the ending will all vary on how skillful you are on reacting to these quick time events. But luckily if you screw up or wish to do something over again, you can always load up any chapter you’ve played so far and select the option of playing it over for fun, or use it as a start off point to begin overwriting past mistakes.
As for thinking or strategy, there’s not much of it as the game puts together all the clues you find from investigating persons of interest, so there’s not much detective work you have to do besides having to always remember that the game is writing down everything you do. I found that pretty sad as I wish there were moments when I could just try to solve the mystery myself rather than waiting for my character to get it on his own intellect.
Also of note, whenever you press and hold L2 you can see the character’s current thoughts which can be helpful at times when you may not be all that sure on what your next move should be.
Visuals/ Audio
Not one of the BEST looking games ever made, but certainly not the worst. Heavy Rain’s visual style is unique but doesn’t make you say “wow!” - you could say that it’s enough and gets the job done. Voice acting is well done, no awkward moments that I can recall. And as for the music, well it’s pretty amazing to be quite honest; Background tunes are never overbearing but instead set the mood for some chilling scenes as the plot that slowly unfolds.
Oh, and was I the only one who saw the horrible glitches throughout the game? My gosh! I was controlling Madison in her first chapter and suddenly I’m playing her bare character model - no skin, no face, no nothing. I wasn’t sure what happened, but at times she would come in clearly, and at others she’d be 0’s and 1’s so to speak.
And speaking about slip ups, through out the entire climax of the game my audio kept coming in and out. Characters’ lips were moving but there wasn’t anything coming out of their mouths, but luckily for me I had enabled subtitles. During other moments I could hear sped up talking and some characters’ dialog would be cut entirely as they would have to slow down or speed up according to what had just happened.
For this game to be one of Sony’s mega daddy exclusives it sure didn’t seem like it when every other chapter felt like the developers just quit and figured everything was set to go. Didn’t anyone beta test this thing?
Final Thoughts
It’s not a shooter, it’s not an RPG, and it’s not even a sidescroller - who would’ve thought that something new and original was even possible nowadays? Heavy Rain is an interactive movie, with an emphasis on the interactive part; It’s a breath of fresh air, and despite it not being a must own it’s definitely something everyone should at least experience. That being said, however, I know not every gamer out there is going to have the patience to play through or even enjoy the game, as this seriously isn’t much of a game to begin with. If you can recall or look up some interactive movies of the past, mostly on the Sega CD, you can get an idea of what it’s like to play Heavy Rain, so player beware.
Sony’s exclusive may have gotten some high marks from the corral of blogs, but I personally don’t believe it’s anything that stands out as a masterpiece or work of art. It’s different, I’ll give it that, but once the story is over and the mystery revealed there’s not much magic after that. Sure, there are a couple of unlockable bonuses and even newly playable chapters that unravel some of the missing pieces, but to be honest there’s too much missing from the overall story that just doesn’t add up.
There’s a massive plot hole near the end that just about kills the whole thing. At first I was puzzled, maybe I had missed something? No, I hadn’t. The game made me play it the whole way through full but only for it to say, “screw it”, and decides to solve itself. The experience is worth playing the game for, but you may just get frustrated by the lack of skill on the writers’ part for coming up with a coherent story that doesn’t just tie up all the loose knots with one convenient deduction that shouldn’t have existed in the first place - you’ll understand this all when you get to it. But if you can look over this one small, yet enormous detail, then it’s a fun ride and one that PS3 owners can brag about until Alan Wake takes a shot at the mystery thriller genre on the 360.
