Released: 23rd February
Platform: PS3
Background: ‘Heavy Rain’ is an adventure game developed by ‘Quantic Dream’. The game has been circling the tracks of major game shows for about two years now and promises to deliver an immersive story driven experience. ‘Quantic Dream’s’ history of game development includes games such as ‘Fahrenheit’, a previous generation game which garnered favourable media attention for taking risks and developing the ‘Interactive Film’ genre of games.
‘Heavy Rain’ is here; have ‘Quantic Dream’ brought game fiction to the next level??
‘Heavy Rain’ puts you in the shoes of four different characters. The background to the story is that there is a serial killer on the loose whom people have come to know as the “Origami Killer” who kidnaps children and leaves them to drown. The victims disappear and are found days later, dead with an origami figure in their hand. This game is very heavily story focused, so I will refrain from giving away any plot points aside from saying that all characters are affected by the murders and throughout the course of the game, they will all have a part to play in the hunt for the killer.
Crime Scene Sequences are superbly done
As a game, ‘Heavy Rain’ could be most accurately described as an “interactive movie”. It is quite different from anything I have played before. It employs a very powerful narrative, and I believe that many developers in future will look to this game for guidance on how to integrate great storytelling with gameplay.
This story is not perfect however; some of the dialogue is bad, the occasional voice actor feels unsuitable and there are some characters that feel a bit too clichéd and can take away from the genuinely gritty and realistic elements of the story.
That said I was engaged thoroughly with the story of the game. I was guessing to the very end as to how it would conclude, and although there are over a dozen endings, I feel like my experience was the way it was meant to conclude.
Gameplay: The gameplay of ‘Heavy Rain’ is something of a mixed bag. Players navigate the environment by looking in a direction with the left stick and holding R2 to move at your desired pace. You can even listen to your characters thoughts by holding L2 and pressing a button. Navigating the game world feels sluggish and imprecise. You will find the early portions of the game very frustrating, but you get the hang of movement after a while.
Interacting with the environment is done by following on screen cues that vary depending on the task. Most of the actions will require you to move the right stick in a particular direction for example: right stick down to pick up a piece of paper on a desk, to the right to open doors etc. A problem with these onscreen cues is that they can be difficult to read. Occasionally, the character will obscure the view of the icon and since you cannot move the camera all the way around, you will have to either reposition your character or guess what you’re supposed to do. The controls register quite easily however and the game is normally quite forgiving when it comes to stick movements.
Oh the Beautiful Character Models 
When interacting with other characters or making tough decisions, the player will almost always be given a multitude of options to select depending on what path they want to take, these will usually involve a moral dilemma that aren’t always as black & white as good vs. bad. A problem with these on screen cues is that in an effort to integrate the options into the game world the options are blended into the screen and as a result the corresponding button press is very difficult to make out.
On countless occasions I selected a choice which I didn’t intend to because I read the symbol wrong. These problems don’t detract greatly from the experience, but it can be annoying to have to get up and walk closer to the screen to read it.
For action sequences such as fights, quick-time scenarios are used that will require timed button presses. These are executed fairly well and are very forgiving of error.
This title won’t be remembered for it’s innovations in control, but overall, the game responds very well and makes the best use of ‘Sixaxis’ to date.
Presentation: Enormous production quality. An engaging story and wonderfully original narrative create a very involving experience that lasts for a solid 7-8 hours. I experienced a few system crashes during my playtime and the sound randomly cut out on several occasions.
Graphics: Character models look great and animate fluidly. Environments are expertly designed but can occasionally suffer from being overly dark and difficult to make out. Certain secondary elements such as water and fire seem very dated in their look but it is difficult to penalize the game for these minor blemishes.
Sound: A wonderful score is complimented by great sound effects and solid voice acting.
Extras: The game does not offer much in the way of extras but for completionists there are many endings to see, branching paths to explore and a tonne of trophies.
Final Word: Coming away from playing ‘Heavy Rain’, I feel thankful that there are still developers willing to really break the mould. ‘Quantic Dream’ have really succeeded in delivering an engaging and memorable single player experience. The game isn’t perfect, but it stands as a shining example of innovation done well.
8.5 Unique & Enjoyable
