A few months ago I heard about a game called Heavy Rain. It was being marketed as the first game in a new genre. The reviews were all positive so I decided to pick it up. The game was made by the same company that made Indigo Prophecy a few years ago on the Xbox.
I'm blown away! For starters, the game is gorgeous. The detail of the characters make them look almost real. Every building I have been in looks and feels like a real building.
This game really is its own genre. It is not a shooter, adventure, rpg, or strategy game. I would have to describe it as an "Interactive, Choose your own adventure" game.
The tagline of the story is "How far would you go to save someone you love?" There is a serial killer that targets young boys. His trademark is to leave origami figures in the boys hands.
You control four different characters throughout the game. A father of two boys, a Private Eye investigating the killings, an FBI agent also investigating, and a journalist.
The beginning of the game starts off as you as the father. You wake up and your wife and kids are gone to the store to pick up some things for your oldest son's birthday party. Right when you wake up you have choices you have to make. You can go out on the balcony and gaze at the backyard, take a shower, feed your bird, get dressed, etc. You then have the choice of getting some work done or doing some gardening in the backyard.
When your wife and kids get home you can choose to ignore them, or help your wife get ready for the party, and even play with your kids. My wife asked me to get some plates out of the cabinet, and instead I made myself a coffee, which made her mad. I got the plates out of the cabinet and started to place them on the table, but I move my joystick too fast and ended up breaking one of them! My wife got even more mad and told me they were her grandmothers plates... oops!
I went into the backyard and started playing with my kids. They both wanted me to swing them around on my shoulders, and I had to choose between the two of them. I chose the younger child and the older had a sad look on his face. I realized then that it was his birthday, and I should have chosen him first. We then had a sword fight, and I didn't let my kid win...He looked mad.
Yes, the game is that in depth. Choices you make throughout the game will affect things later. I don't know if me not letting my youngest child win the sword fight has anything to do with him being so distant to me now. (the game jumps two years after the first part of the game)
The beautiful thing about this game is that it actually makes you think about the situations, and makes you ask yourself "Would I really have made that choice in my own life if put in the same situation?" I actually came to care about the characters and what happened to them, and I felt utterly satisfied with the ending I got. There are 12 endings, and your choices throughout the game determine which one you get.
The controls are simple, but almost every action presents a mini game of sorts. Press a button too quickly or miss a button press, and you might break something, or get punched instead of dodging out of the way, or even something as simple as not pushing your son on the swing high enough.
Has anyone else been able to play this game, and if so, what did you think?
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
I've heard a lot of good things about this, and am frustrated that I do not have a console (it's for playstation 3, right?). Given that this is a game where the controls literally will not work on a keyboard, this may be something that finally forces me to get a console.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Heavy Rain is good stuff. Some people subscribe to the notion that you should only play through it ONCE and then willingly not play it again for a long time, to maximize the impact of wondering 'what might have been' before getting to, suddenly, relive the whole experience again with the benefit of hindsight.
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
I'm inclined to agree with you SamP. After completing it I'm still wondering if I made the correct decisions and what could have happened had I chosen some of my actions differently.
I'm now on Final Fantasy 13 (Rewarding in its own way) and will be playing God of War 3 next week. After those two I will probably go through Heavy Rain again...This time I am going to make the father a work-a-holic that doesn't care about his family. I'll make him apathetic to the extreme and see where that gets me.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I'm incapable of playing a bad guy in games.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
The point of Heavy Rain, from what I gather, is to deliberately blur the good/evil line. You're trying to save your son (or, when playing the other characters, to catch a killer), and you are confronted with a bunch of choices as to how far you would go to do it.
If your son had actually been kidnapped by a serial killer, what would you do about it?
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: The point of Heavy Rain, from what I gather, is to deliberately blur the good/evil line. You're trying to save your son (or, when playing the other characters, to catch a killer), and you are confronted with a bunch of choices as to how far you would go to do it.
If your son had actually been kidnapped by a serial killer, what would you do about it?
And that is the best thing about this game. It forces you to question yourself. It messes with your mind. Would I stop that guy from robbing this store if I had a gun? Would I stand back and let it run its course? Would I shoot the guy, or try to talk him down?
It makes you question what kind of person you are, and that is what makes it so great.
Scott, I always go through games like this as a good guy as well. Mass Effect and Star Wars: KOTR always have me choosing to be the good guy. This game isn't the same as those. Heavy Rain is as much as a psychologic profile of you as it is a game. Good and Evil aren't clearly defined.
I know you have kids and this game makes you ask yourself how far would you go to save the life of one of them. Many parents would give your life, but how far would you go when others are involved to ensure your child's safety?
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Yeah, I know the game.
TomD asked the same question on this forum a while ago; how far would you go to save your child?
I think at the time, I said that I'd go nation-shatteringly far.
That was before he started talking and thinking for himself.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I played Indigo Prophecy. Heavy Rain does look interesting, but I have to say if you declare your intention to be to create a revolutionary work that vaults over the limits of the medium and then make it exclusive to one console, your intentions and your methods are kind of at ends... Surely a work that intends to have a ripple effect on the medium needs to be put into as many hands as possible?
Of course, that's partly sour grapes on my part. As long as it's PS3-only, I know I just won't play it.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
quote:Surely a work that intends to have a ripple effect on the medium needs to be put into as many hands as possible?
Some of the biggest innovations in Heavy Rain simply cannot be translated into other media without completely rewriting the game. The controls vary from scene to scene, using the accelerometer in combination with various buttons to simulate real life actions.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
But isn't this game just like real life except without the drama of a kidnapping? You're forced to make these kinds of decisions daily, and think about the ramifications: Am I too mean? Am I too nice? Should I have used those words? How can I make myself a better person and still get the same results? etc.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:But isn't this game just like real life except without the drama of a kidnapping?
Well, it's also a little harder to drink milk out of the carton in-game.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I found the game very depressing at the beginning, but it started to lose some of the emotional impact later in the game. It was fun, but the controls could be frustrating at times, which brought me out of the immersion.
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: I found the game very depressing at the beginning, but it started to lose some of the emotional impact later in the game. It was fun, but the controls could be frustrating at times, which brought me out of the immersion.
Ok....But did you kiss the journalist when you got the chance? Eh eh eh? How immersive was THAT?!?
Posted by Aros (Member # 4873) on :
Finally played it (it's always checked out at Blockbuster). It probably had the best / most immersive story of any game I've played. It's like game meets book meets movie. And Ebert said that games aren't art?
Then again, maybe this isn't necessarily a game.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I played it when it came out and really enjoyed it. If I ever get a Move, it would be quite interesting to play through it again.
SPOILER
The scene where you can choose to cut off your own finger would be pretty intense with the Move, I think.
Posted by Geoffrey Card (Member # 1062) on :
Jason!
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Aros: And Ebert said that games aren't art?
Then again, maybe this isn't necessarily a game.
It's a game & ebert's wrong.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)