Game REVIEWS

unWIRED Rating:

Heavy Rain Review

System: PlayStation 3
Publisher: SCEA
Category: Simulation
Available Now!

Heavy Rain has been getting mixed reviews since its release, some high scores while others are low. unWIRED TV decided to check out this interactive title for the PlayStation 3. The first thing I will have to say is this is really not intended for younger audiences or those with weak stomachs because of the gruesome and nude scenes.

Heavy Rain, developed by Quantic Dream, is one gigantic cinematic movie. In the game, you control 1 of 4 different characters who are all linked together in one rather large and exciting story that lasts for hours. Also, the story provides alternative scenes and different branches of stories, which gives the player a lot more story then just the typical story line of the game.

The game starts as Ethan Mars, a happily married man, proud father of 2, and an architect, starts his morning (as the game uses this to teach you how to control and use actions you will be using the whole game) by getting some work done before his family gets home, on his oldest son’s 10th birthday. The game then skips ahead to the start of Ethan’s nightmares, one day at the mall, his oldest son Jason runs around and disappears. Ethan then looks frantically for Jason only to find him crossing the street unattended. As Jason tries to get back to his father, an oncoming car hits both Jason and Ethan as he attempts to save his son’s life. The story then skips to the present; Ethan is more depressed and rugged looking. He is separated from his wife as they share custody of their youngest son Shaun, and he has other problems including blacking out. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there is a mysterious killer known as the Origami killer that kidnaps young children, who are then found dead 3 to 5 days later. Six kids have been killed this way and the only link to the killer is that he drowns them in rain water, places an origami figure in there and a certain flower on them.

Heavy Rain features 4 playable characters, each one providing a different outlook in the 52 chapters that string this game together: Ethan Mars, the protagonist of this game. Ethan has to complete various challenges and quick time events in order to save Shaun and escape the police. Scott Shelby, a private detective hired to investigate the origami killer and does so by visiting the parents of the missing children for clues, playing as him you must investigate and question all leads to the origami killer. Norman Jayden is an FBI agent sent to assist in the origami killer case and at his disposal is the ARI which are a pair of sunglasses and a glove that can react with the area showing any and all changes in the area: footprints, finger prints, blood trails and traces of pollen to help Norman find clues to discover the true identity of the origami killer. Madison Paige, a mysterious female who has insomnia and runs into Ethan Mars after he completes the first trial and ends up helping him in different ways that include patching him up and getting information to help him find his son.

What can you expect with this game? As stated before this game is one large movie, but you control their actions and each choice, or mistake, affects the outcome of the story more toward the middle of the game than at the begging. Missing certain actions or investigations will impact the story much later on, such as missing a few of the investigation points with Norman will lead him to miss clues vital to unlocking the truth.

Gameplay is very simple, but at the same time difficult. The game is played by hitting a series of buttons or button sequences as the scenes progress. Some of the actions needed to play this game are quick pressing a button, holding buttons in sequence, shaking the controller using the six axis or moving it in a particular angle all help you successfully pass events, failure of the actions have many different results. I won’t spoil the negatives of it check it out yourself sometime, it’s actually worth failing.

There are 7 endings, and many of the actions from the beginning lead to which of the 7 endings you will receive, keeping all your characters alive is the most important choice to get the best ending in the game, but killing them off will get you closer to the bad ending.

There are two important aspects of this game: the ability to go back to any chapter and redo the choices and actions made to continue. This allows you to change the story such as at the beginning chapters you enter the convenience store with Shelby and once a robber enters you have 3 choices: negotiate with the killer to put the gun down, attack him from behind, or even let him kill the clerk. So if at first you negotiated with the killer, you can go back and change it to one of the other two choices. The only problem with this is if you go back 10 chapters you have to redo all the chapters again to redo the story.

The other aspect is the trophies in the game. There are 52 playable chapters and 57 trophies available to get, the game is set up so you won’t get your trophy mid-story but until the loading screen. This means you won’t know if you successfully unlocked the trophy until you beat a chapter, and if you didn’t, you have to go back and try again. Some chapters have more than one trophy that is based on decisions or actions done, so look forward to redoing a chapter more than once, and make sure you keep your game and system clean, because if the game freezes while trophies were loading you will not get them and have to redo it again.

Heavy Rain lives up to its hype, it’s a wonderfully addictive story which gives you so many clues, twists and action, keeping you entertained throughout the whole game. The characters are very well created and the voice acting was done beautifully and fits the mood of the current scene really well. There haven’t been many interactive games that have kept gamers interested, but Heavy Rain is one that goes far beyond an interactive game and more toward a full motion picture with real time action and sequences. PS3 owners should not pass up this game, if only to rent it. The only downfall of the game is once you complete everything there isn’t as much replay value other than redoing the story, but the first few times through really is an experience.

**Written by Christopher Del Castillo