Title - Heavy Rain
Played on PlayStation 4
Heavy Rain is an interactive action-adventure drama video game by Quantic Dream first published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2010 for PlayStation 3. A remaster of the game was later released for PlayStation 4 which, for the record, is the version that I played. The game was also later released for Microsoft Windows.
It was my first time playing an interactive drama video game like Heavy Rain, so I was a bit worried if I would not like it. Will it be like a movie? Will it have enough gameplay for me to enjoy? I have so many questions. I think I did watched few gameplay videos for the game before but still I was worried. Now I can happily say that I love this game and the experience it gave me. It has its flaws and plot holes, no doubt about it, but I was enjoying it so much that I ignore them all and just focus on my enjoyment of playing it.
So what is the story of this game? The main story is about a father looking for his son who has been kidnapped by a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. The modus operandi of the killer consists of abducting young boys during fall season and leaving them to drown in rainwater. Beside controlling the father, Ethan Mars, players will also control three other protagonists; Madison Paige, a journalist; Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler who is assisting the local police in tracking down the killer; and Scott Shelby, a private investigator who is investigating the murder cases related to the Origami Killer from the request of the previous victims' families.
As an interactive drama video game, story is definitely the number one selling point for Heavy Rain and I have to say, the developer did a pretty good job with it. The story will take you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions; happy, sad, suspense, relief, anger to name a few. I really enjoy the story and feel so connected to the characters, I feel their joy and pain and suffering. But the scenes can feel a bit disjointed at times. It must be hard to combine a good story with gameplay especially when you want to make the narrative flow like a movie, so I think that is what contributed to the plot holes and disjointed feeling between scenes in the game. I always have questions in my head like "How does character B knows that character A would be here?" or "How did character C knows about this? Did they explain it before? Did I missed it?". After awhile, I learn to stop questioning stuffs and just enjoy the game. And because this is a video game and not a film, I'm okay with that.
Trials and Tortures
The gameplay consists of pushing the prompt controller buttons or move your controller as it appears or instructed on screen to make the characters do certain actions like brushing teeth, driving, dancing, playing the piano, playing golf, chasing a thug, escaping a maniac, cutting a finger, escaping from a submerged car...yeah, you get to do a lot of different stuffs in this game, some are mundane things and some are totally insane and bizarre stuffs. I must warned you that some of them are totally brutal and torturous. You get to choose what the characters will say in some of the scenes too. So in a way, you get to make decisions for your characters and see the consequences of your actions and decisions. It's fun, it's interactive, and can be painful when you realized your choices have consequences far worse than you expected. To be honest, I was quite surprised of how involved the players have to be in this game, especially when it is presented almost like a film (albeit a very long one). It opened my mind of how much varieties a video game can become, especially when telling a story in a film-type format.
It Rain All Day, Everyday
As mentioned before, the game that I've played is a Remastered version. However I couldn't tell you if the visuals have any improvement compared to the original PS3 version since I've never play that game before. Personally, I really like the graphics for this game. You can see the almost life-like visual of the characters during loading screen but be warned though that the actual gameplay wasn't as life-like as that. They still look good and hyper-realistic in my opinion but still cartoonish in a certain way, which is not a bad thing considering the uncanny valley factor that can arise from video game characters that look too realistic.
I'm quite impressed with the acting or motion-capture performance from the actors, they are really good and committed to their roles. I understand if people have the feelings that the performance can be over-dramatic at times but to me personally, they had done their job pretty well. I'm not sure if all the actors are professional actors or not, or if they are from different background such as theater, but I do hope they get to make more motion-capture performance for video games because I've enjoyed their performance so much that I hope this is not the only time they do it.
Other aspects that help elevate the game are the overall visuals for the environment, the sound design as well as the beautiful orchestrated soundtrack. The sound of rain that prevalent throughout this entire game had truly mesmerized me. It makes me feel melancholy which pretty much make sense considering the tragic story that the game is telling, but as someone who loves the sound of rain, it also provide some sense of calmness and tranquility. As the game title suggests, rain would be featured quite heavily throughout this entire game, so it makes sense for the developer to get the feeling and sound of rain to be perfect. The soundtrack should not be forgotten too, as it is one of the best aspect from Heavy Rain. It makes you nostalgic and emotional which perfectly complemented the story, but also make your blood pumping during action scenes or challenges that the characters had to face.
Conclusion
Overall, I am quite satisfied with Heavy Rain. Despite plot holes and the feeling of disjointed in the story as I was playing the game, it still managed to provide me with a beautiful story of a father's love towards his children. I'm impressed by the performances of all the actors in this game, and the wonderful sound design and soundtrack complemented the game beautifully. I've enjoyed Heavy Rain so much, so thank you Quantic Dream for a wonderful experience.
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