Heavy Rain: Review

Heavy Rain
Playstation 3
Developed by: Quantic Dream
Review by: Doppelganger24


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Normally when I go to get a game I will get a game with familiar franchises such as Mario, Halo, or legend of Zelda or games that are made by familiar publishers such as capcom, ubisoft, or THQ. But Heavy Rain is a very rare game for me. Heavy Rain is a Playstation 3 exclusive and is developed by Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain is an interactive drama video game that is the first time I have heard of that type of game genre. You know really and truly this is really not a game more of a movie with quick time events.

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Prologue of the game

Plot
Throughout the game you switch between 4 main characters that I will talk about later. One of the driving things behind this game is your choices do affect the story and there are a lot of choices to make example do you go out and play with your sons or do you stay inside and finish you work. The game/story starts off as you playing as Ethan Mars one of the 4 main characters that you play as. Ethan is an architect with a wife and two sons. Ethan’s story is really the prologue to the main story and game. Ethan’s family is celebrating one of his son’s birthday (Jason the other being Shaun). After the party the family then goes to a busy mall. Ethan stop to buy a balloon for Jason after paying for it Ethan turns around to see that Jason has walked off leaving him scared and desperate to find him. Ethan finds Jason outside across the street from the mall when Jason turns to walk across he accidently steps in front of a car Ethan leaps out to save Jason….Jason is killed, while Ethan is injured and falls into a coma for six months. Two years after the accident, Ethan is suffering from depression, a fear of crowds, and blackouts that last for several hours.
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A Depressed Ethan Mars

He and his wife have separated, and his remaining son, Shaun, is distant with him. After the accident the main story begins and every choice you make does affect the story. After school one day Ethan and Shaun are at the park after playing a few games at the park Shaun wants to get on the parks merry-go-round. Ethan then blacks out and awakes a few hours later nowhere near the park after return to the park everyone is gone including Shaun. Ethan has now lost his second son but for good? The police are notified and they believe that Shaun may have been kidnapped by some one that is only known by as the Origami Killer.
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Every copy of heavy rain gets a free make it yourself origami figure
The origami Killer kidnaps young boys during the rainy fall season after which their bodies are found several days later in a remote location, drowning being the cause of death, along with an origami animal figure in their hands thus the killer is given the name the origami killer by police and FBI.
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Detective Shelby checks his notes
Scott Shelby (the 2nd playable person) is a retired police officer, currently working as a private investigator. On behalf of the previous victims' families, he is conducting his own investigation into the Origami Killer. Shelby begins visiting several of the victims' parents for information, and obtains several items that relate to the Origami Killer. One parent, Lauren Winter, insists on helping him, seeking closure on the matter. Shelby is also has Asthma and most of his quick time events involve him being able to get his medicine quickly before he passes out.
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Madison in the rain

Madison Paige (3rd) is a photojournalist living alone in the city. Suffering from chronic insomnia, she occasionally checks into motels, as they are the only place she can properly sleep. She eventually crosses paths with Ethan who is also in the same hotel and finds herself involved in the latest Origami Killer case and conducts her own investigations. While in the same hotel as Ethan the 2 develop a VERY strong relationship. In Madison’s research she does find some clues to help Ethan find his son and helps Ethan if he becomes injured which he does. You see after the origami killer kidnaps his victims he sends clues to the father of the son the clues are to a task that the father must perform in order to find their son. There are 5 total and depending on if you follow the task and quick time events correctly determine if you get part of the address to were Shaun is hidden.
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Crime scene using ARI

Norman Jayden (4t) is an FBI profiler sent to support the police force with their investigation into the Origami Killer. Jayden possesses a set of experimental augmented reality glasses called an "Added Reality Interface", or ARI. It allows him to rapidly investigate crime scenes and analyze evidence. He is also struggling with an addiction to the drug triptocaine. Jayden is my favorite person to play as because he is the guy that is at the crime scenes and gathering all the clues to find the killer if you find the clues you are able to find the killer. Jayden is also in a conflict with police Lieutenant Carter Blake. Blake believes the killer is none other than Ethan due to Ethan’s strange black outs Jayden does not want to believe that. I could continue on but this is a spoiler free review sorry


Game play
Like I said before there really is not much in the way of game play just quick time action events, clues to find wit ARI, and tasks to complete in order to find Shaun. There are plenty to explore during clue finding and task completing but there is really no reason to stray far from the beaten path. This really feels odd talking about gameplay when there really isn’t any but quick time events added to what could be a great movie.
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Box art showing all 4 main characters

Conclusion
Heavy rain is a great game if you can call it that more like a simulation with quick time events. The story is great and makes you want to continue till the end to find the kill. HOWEVER once you have found out who the killer is the spark of the story and the mystery is gone. The replay value GONE. There is really no reason to re-play the game again unless you want to 100% it and get all trophies like I did. Which doing that is fairly easy. More than 75% of the trophies are to complete a quick time event without failing once. The other is story related. You can complete the game in less than a week and can 100% it in less than 2 weeks. Heavy rain is a really good game but after you beat it and get to the end there is no point in re-playing it again. If you want a great story, little gameplay, and have a free week or two then RENT Heavy Rain. Thanks for reading
Edit wow there are some big pictures did not mean for them to be that big

Nicely done! Although I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game a lot! The story was very captivating as well as addicting. I still play it from time to time just to get different outcomes of each chapter. Its fun to see how the story unfolds when different choices are done. Also, the more you play it differently, the better the story and its elements are delivered; you'll have a better understanding of it as a whole. Again, excellent review Jody!

yea like i said i really like the game but just no re play in it once you have 100% like i have but very great story to it

Really great review Jordan, exactly what I was looking for. Just as I thought, it is a completely story-driven game, which seems really interesting. The characters look like they have a lot of depth, and the cinematics of it seem extremely film-like. Too bad about the replay value though, I kind of thought your actions might drastically alter the ending, which doesn't seem like the case.

I'm also interested in the effect this game will have on future videogames, and the industry as a whole. As graphics and overall quality of games grows, so does the level of immersion...often times games feel like movies, and sometimes even more immersive...I don't think this wil be the last game we'll see with this sort of style.

Thanks again for writing it man.

Well the chapters have different outcomes based on your actions, so things do change a little bit.

Well I suppose that ups the replay a bit, which is helpful. Still, given the nature of a mystery story, I can imagine that finding out who the killer is would really kill the suspense.

Yes it is true that some choices you do does alter the story for example one of ethans task is to kill a drug dealer. Do you kill him to get the clue to his son do you let him live? There is some free dlc that was added to the PSN store that adds 2 stories I did not play them but that adds a little bit more replay but being free there are no trophies just more story telling.

here is why the ARI is bad ass awesome