Heavy Rain (PS3)

"Heavy Rain" is by far the most innovative game I have played for quite some time. No other title has immersed me so deeply and made me feel so much a part of a story. Although it does have a couple of minor faults, this is likely to be a contender for Game of the Year (and we're only in February!).

In a city on the East coast of America, a murderer known as "The Origami Killer" is on the loose and taking the lives of innocent children. You, the player, are drawn into this terrifying tale by playing four different characters in an attempt to bring the killer to justice.

What makes "Heavy Rain" so great is the fact that it is utterly unique. Every action you take, every word you say, has a consequence. The way in which you react to any given situation has an effect on how events unfold later in the game. Sure, there have been games before in which a player's actions determine which variant of a path they travel down (RPGs such as "Fallout 3" come to mind, for example), but not on the scale that "Heavy Rain" does. If a character dies, there is no returning to a previously saved game - the story progresses without them and the way it pans-out is affected by such events. The developers claim that there is an exceptionally large number of ways in which this game can conclude, and this means that everyone who plays it will have a different experience. In short, "Heavy Rain" delivers a level of interactivity heretofore unseen in video games.

The story is immersive, gripping, and full of suspense. The characters have a lot of depth to them, and offer enough variety between one another to keep things interesting. One of this game's strongest points is also its soundtrack - the music constantly shifts to reflect the tone of each scene, and at times the orchestral score is utterly chilling. It really does add to the atmosphere tremendously. Gameplay-wise, some people have criticised "Heavy Rain" for merely consisting of a series of "quicktime" events. However, it is so much more. Although it is scripted and you do follow one main storyline, the outcome of your actions cannot be broken-down to a mere "pass/fail" format - they instead trigger different events in which you can complete a scene. These actions vary from life or death situations to the simple activity of brushing a character's teeth - either way, you can't help but feel as if you are a part of this game.

However, "Heavy Rain" is not without some minor flaws. At times, the voice acting isn't quite up to scratch. Lip-syncing seems a bit off and character's facial expressions appear slightly wooden. Furthermore, the graphics aren't exactly groundbreaking. Don't get me wrong, this game looks fantastic, but there are a couple of moments when the visuals are questionable. At one point, my character was having a conversation in a busy police station and all of the CPU "background" characters were passing through him as if they were ghosts - this is fine in a game such as Warcraft, where constantly bumping into other people is a hindrance. But in the case of "Heavy Rain" it serves to undermine the realism that the story has so delicately created. In addition, the controls could perhaps have been improved upon - they often feel a little bit clunky and unresponsive. One such instance occurred when I had to guide my character through a series of small, dark tunnels - the constantly changing camera angle appeared to confuse the system as to which direction I wanted to go in and as such I was left constantly going back and forth. But these small problems really are infrequent gripes with what is quite simply, a spectacular game.

"Heavy Rain" won't be everyone's cup of tea. If you're after a gung-ho, mindless action game then this is not it. If however, you are looking for something unique, something that requires you to weigh-up every consequence of an action and something that will immerse you into a story like nothing else, then you must play this game. It is utterly unique and completely engrossing.

This is one of the first titles I brought on the PS3, since ditching the Xbox 360 after the infamous three rings of death.

My oh my, I wasn't disappointed!

Heavy Rain follows four different characters as they pursue the notorious Origami Killer, who has been kidnapping and killing boys, usually around the age of ten. Victims are found with a small origami figurine in their hand, and an orchid on their chest. All the victims were killed by drowning.

Heavy rain starts off with Ethan Mars waking up to a bright new day, and preparing to celebrate his eldest son's birthday. Here, you can take the time to get used to the game's unique controls which not only involve using the controller for day to day tasks, but using the buttons to choose a response to dialogue.

What strikes me is the outstanding visuals the game has to offer. Characters are amongst the most beautifully drawn i've ever seen, and although there is the odd glitch, or some objects low on detail, the overal look and feel of the game is outstanding.

After the prologue style tutorial, two years have passed, and Ethan lives with his son Shaun, sharing custody of his surviving son with his estranged wife. Before long, Shaun goes missing, and Ethan faces a battle against time to save his son's life - and will constantly be faced with one question-

How far will he go to save his son's life?

This becomes central to the game's theme, and as you progress through the game, from time to time, you will take charge of the other characters in the game - A journalist by the name of Madeline, FBI Profiler Norman and Private Investigator, Scott. Along the way, there will be various challanges to overcome and some truly tense situations as the game progresses towards a conculsion.

The real innovation with Heavy Rain is that how you react to situations - what you say - what you do - whether you catch the bad guys, miss evidence - fail/pass tasks, all has consequences later on. This is where the game's diversity really pays off - and you'll find yourself returning for more to see how a different choice here and there affect the outcome of the game.

The controls aren't as difficult to master as it seems, but the more nervous your character is, the harder it can be to hit the combinations, but fear not - there is no "game over" as such, what you find is that loosing a character at specific points in the game means their input into the story is lost, thus resulting in a different ending.

The story is engaging, the characters great and once Heavy Rain gets going, you won't want to put it down.

Quite simply, a true masterpiece in gaming - and the best game I've played in a long time.

Visuals 8/10 - Beautiful animated, drawn characters - some graphics low res.
Gameplay 10/10 - Incredibly addicitve, you won't be able to put it down.
Playability 9/10 Innovative control system is surprisingly easy to use.

Overall - 9/10 - Buy it!

This is my first review so I hope the fanboys and other critics wont be too hard on me! After all, these are simply my views. (Sorry if it seems a little long)

I have played through the entire story several times now. (several replays in order to unlock different endings and trophies/achievements)

The most important thing for me when it comes to a game is that it must be fun. Heavy rain, although unlike any other game that I have played was fun the first time I played through it. I was gripped by the story and I couldn't wait to finish it and find out what happened next.

The way in which the story was told was very good in that it kept my attention and aside from a couple of frustratingly long sequences with very little interaction worked very well.

The first time I played through the game I did not realise that you can go back to any chapter and play the story from there - My understanding was that if you made a decision, you had to live with it - and what ever happened was final - This made the action sequences genuinely exciting for me as I really didn't want to mess up.

So, with that in mind, my first play through was great. fun story, exciting sequences and at times, I did feel very immersed in the game's atmosphere.

It is a terrible shame that I did not take the game back to the shop then and trade it in for something else. I had finished MY story and thought it was very exciting, and very entertaining.

Unfortunately, I played it again and in doing so, I realised a few things which took a lot away from my enjoyment - and even managed to taint the first (seemingly brilliant) play through.

I learnt that despite several occasions in the game where you are given a choice - It invariably did not matter what choice was made as shortly after, the story would steer back on course towards the fixed plot.

for example (and I will keep this vague so as not to spoil anything - and those who have played it will recognise the scenes):

You get the choice at one point to kill a person. if you kill him, the scene ends shortly after and the dead person plays no further part in the story. if you do not kill him, the scene ends and the person also plays no further part in the story.

In a similar situation you can chase someone; who if caught plays no further part in the story. But if you let him go, he plays no further part in the story either.

and so the pattern emerges...

I puposely made the opposite choices when I played through the 2nd time so as to get a different storyline, but I was dissapointed to find that it had little to no effect.

That said, there are a couple of occasions where you can make decisions which will impact on the story - these choices will be so blatant however, that you will know what to do and what the consequences will be. These choices ar often, simply to fail at a particular objective.

On an even more frustrating note, during the action sequences, it didn't seem to matter if you failed the majority of the QTE button combinations - as long as you got a couple of them, or the last few, then you would successfully pass that segment.

In some cases the game will give you a choice: eg: run left or right whilst being chased. First time round, I went left. The second time, I went right, just to see what would happen differently... On choosing right, he goes right, realised his path was blocked and goes to the left anyway!
This happens a LOT - But you wouldn't notice it on a single play.

In some scenes you have a choice of what to do out of 4 or more responces, only 1 will progress the story - if you are unlucky enough to choose that response first, then you can find yourself missing out on a lot of dialogue and some of the plot. What I mean here is that through no fault of your own, you can choose an option that will end the scene, without ever intending to do so!

My biggest dissapointment though, was when I learned that, the game had been miss sold to me; I was led to believe that choices and decisions made, even seemingly miniscule choices, would directly influence the story. I understood this to mean that there were a number of possibilities including the endings, and more importantly, who the killer was. I thought (and this was backed up by the countless red herrings in the game)that depending on my decisions, there may be different storylines which resulted in different killers. This is not true - and I'm surprised that no one else has touched on this aspect.

Instead, what you get is 1 story, and depending on how well you do, the game lets you see certain parts of it. Leading up to the final scene where depending who you take to this scene (ie: who is still alive and knows where to go) will play out a set number of ending sequences which either range from 'happily ever after' to misery and failure( frustratingly followed by unskippable credits!)

So basically - You play right through for the last scene, and depending on who is there, you get a different ending.

The game is brilliant for one play through only. There after, plot holes begin to emerge - and there are a few big ones!

One other thing worth a mention: while the graphics are superb, and lifelike - the voice acting is incredibly bad. There are a few laughable lines which really did spoil the mood of the scene.

I would recommend everyone to give this game a try - I enjoyed it. But don't play it more than once or you may risk ruining what is quite a good thriller story.

Nice idea, needs some work, and I think these types of games will only get better.