Frank's Heavy Rain review
Every once and a while a game will push the limits of what games do and have done before. Heavy Rain does just that and in doing so might be something slightly different then a game. One can hope that some of the right people take notice and there is inspiration for more interactive entertainment of this sort. I feel like they have started to tread new ground here and it is very exciting.
The Origami Killer is loose and there are several different people looking for him/her in their own ways. You play as these characters and learn about them and what drives them to stop the killer. I felt like the story started out a bit slow. I think this was mostly due to them teaching you how to use the controls. The action will get started and you will be in for a great ride. Now as you make choices you mold the story much like a pick your own adventure book and this is amazing. I am amazed at how much work it must have taken to make this work. I did find a couple of choice options later in the game that should not have been open to me but I think for the most part each different player will find their story differs in many ways from another. I find myself already wanting to play again to see what differences there will be if I did some of it different. I think there is good replay value here maybe just take a couple month break in between plays.
The controls of this game will take a bit of getting used to but they are used in such a unique way that adds to how immersive the game is its incredible. The basic movement controls could be improved and can make it hard to get to places or things. You are not using this movement in the bulk of the real moments of this title so thats forgivable. What the controls do is help you feel as the character feels in that moment. Examples of this range from making you almost need three hands to push all the buttons to complete an impossible task. To having the chat options shake and fly around the characters head so fast you can barely make them out in a tense moment. This is not a title I could sit and play for long periods as it emotionally drained me so much I needed breaks. You feel excited, scared, depressed, happy, angry, shocked, stressed and many more as you play through. They did an amazing job of making the controls show on the right place of the screen to not take away from the video of the actions that were going on. I think this was paramount in letting the game work. I was worried you would have to watch over peoples heads for the button prompts and not really get into what was happening but when someone is swinging a pipe at you the prompt to duck is down in the direction the action goes.
The graphics and sound really add very well to the mood of the title. The work they did on the main character faces is simply amazing. The graphics overall are very good but I did find that when you were free walking everyone seemed to walk very stiff and robotic. In the cut scenes between free walks it was spot on though. I will say I was kind of disappointed that two of the supporting characters seemed to have almost the same face. The music and environmental sounds were superb. I love the main theme music to this game. With that being said the voice acting was just bad. There are some characters that were ok but others have accents that come and go and I even found a couple that I had a hard time understanding at all. This can hurt your immersion in the game and it a shame.
I found Heavy Rain to be a good title that although not being perfect has so much going for it that the good far outweighs the bad. Having said that I am not sure that everyone will like Heavy Rain. Many gamers may not like it but on the flip side I think that it can appeal to a range of people outside of gaming. What Heavy Rain does is it opens the possibility for some really interesting interactive entertainment in the future. The story is solid and I feel like were it counts the controls exceed my expectations. The music is fantastic but the voice acting falls very short. I would like to say I am very surprised that I was not carded to buy this game as it has lots of violence and a fair amount of nudity so parents beware. I would recommend that if you have a PS3 download the demo and try it. If you are unsure if this is the type of "game" you will like then try renting it you might be surprised.
The Good
Groundbreaking gameplay
Immersion in the story
Graphics on faces amazing
Choices have more weight then just good vs evil
The Bad
Some very bad voice acting
Robot walk in controls and graphics
Slight story glitches
Score: 7/10
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It's nice to have something different for a change and I enjoyed Indigo Prophecy so I think I shall enjoy this as well.
Originally Posted by Muffincat
