Heavy Rain: PS3 Game Review

• Release Date: 2010
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
• Rating: 18 VLN
• Studio: quantic dream, Sony Entertainment

Quantic Dream’s risky storytelling pays off with an experience that’ll leave you begging for more.

If you want to skip right into the text below, you are welcome! But if you want to read this review from beginning to end you will understand the insight more and also understand how this game works. Don’t expect to fall right into it with shooting and killing people. Ain’t gonna happen. The first part of this game is to familiarize yourself and to get a better understanding on how this is going to work out for you. Once you get the hang of it you will be blend into the game and that is where the game or should i say story starts.

This game will end on the decisions you are going to make through this journey. You are telling your own story. People will die or maybe not and when someone does, the story will take another course. Having said that, it’s also worth quickly pointing out that I’m going to keep this review completely spoiler-free, so feel free to read it without fear of anything being ruined for you (and trust me, you don’t want anything ruined).

How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love? This is the central question of Heavy Rain and one that the protagonist, Ethan Mars, is compelled to answer. After Ethan’s son goes missing and is presumed to be the latest victim of the mysterious Origami Killer, he vows to do whatever it takes to rescue his boy. Besides Ethan, you also take control of three other seemingly unrelated individuals that have been drawn into the case: private investigator Scott Shelby, FBI criminal profiler Norman Jayden, and insomniac Madison Paige.

Unlike other games that make extensive use of quick-time events, Heavy Rain does not track your progress in terms of success and failure. There is no right or wrong way to play; thus, no matter what your outcome is, the game will move forward and adapt to the consequences of your actions or lack thereof. Though the overall narrative framework is unyielding, your performance throughout the game can have a variety of effects, ranging from subtle changes in how a scene plays out to much bigger adjustments. Entire events may not occur because your actions and choices caused the plot to branch in a different direction. It’s even possible for key characters to die, thus eliminating any subsequent contributions to the story that they might have made. No matter what happens in your play-through, the adaptive plot of Heavy Rain becomes a deeply personal sum of your experiences.

Though it suffers from its share of plot and technical problems, Heavy Rain is nonetheless a bold and visionary step forward in the medium of interactive storytelling. Part adventure game and part psychological thriller, Heavy Rain is far from the quick-time-event-powered movie that it may appear to be at first glance. Every action you perform or decision you make–from the simple and mundane to the dark and disturbing–brings you closer to the flawed but realistic characters you manipulate. Their stories become your story, and their hardships become obstacles that you feel compelled to overcome with them. No matter how your adventure plays out, Heavy Rain is a profoundly personal experience that should not be missed.

Luan

Love special effects, graphic designing and web development. This is only a hobby though. Have been working with computers for about 16 years now. Started this website to do reviews for companies such as Sony Entertainment, Ster Kinekor Entertainment and NuMetro Entertainment.

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