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Heavy Rain Review - Destructoid


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1:06 AM on 03.23.2010

Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain is the third game released by Quantic Dream. Their previous game, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was received very well within the gaming community. Even though a lot of the game was QuickTime Events (QTEs), people played it more for the story rather than the gameplay. Heavy Rain is no different.

This video doesn't have any spoilers, it's from the demo on PSN.

Heavy Rain (Playstation 3 (Reviewed))
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: February 23, 2010
MSRP: $59.99

You play as one of four characters at a time. You'll end up playing as all of them. You play as Ethan Mars, Madison Paige, Scott Shelby, and Norman Jayden. The game is a murder mystery story. There isn't much "gameplay" to the game, but the story is quite immersive. The game also does a great job at keeping you immersed. The game doesn't allow pop-ups (messages, game invites, trophy pop-ups) while the game is being played. All your pop-ups show up during the loading screens when you switch characters. Your decisions float around your head, and you choose whatever you want the character to do. The more stressed you are, the faster and more blurry the decisions are, so you can run the possibility of picking the wrong choice.

Ethan Mars is the father of Shaun Mars. Shaun gets kidnapped and Ethan is going around the town trying to find his son and get him back. Madison Paige is a reporter for a newspaper that ends up meeting up with Ethan and helping him out. Scott Shelby is a private eye that has been hired by the families that their son was killed by the Origami Killer. Norman Jayden is an FBI agent investigating the killings by the Origami Killer. The characters seem really fleshed out, but when it comes right down to it, their actions are ultimately chosen by you.

There are multiple endings, depending on the decisions that you made throughout the game. The only problem, is you know who the killer is the second playthrough. Your decisions don't change who the Origami Killer is. So, in order to see what the other endings are, you need to play it again. But the game isn't as immersive because you already know the story and the ending.

For as well designed as this game is, there are quite a few flaws that I have to point out. For one, and probably the most noticeable, is the walking mechanic. You hold R2 to walk and the left analog stick to change the direction. It's an interesting idea, but the use of it is so broken. You find yourself walking into so many things and walking past items that you can look at. Another thing that I have to complain about are some of the animations for talking. For the most part, they're fine, but when Scott talks, it's quite noticeable that he's a videogame character. Some of the voice acting doesn't seem to fit the situation. I heard a few times where Ethan is in a really stressful situation, and he sound really calm talking.

I'd really like to go more into detail, but the game is so spoiler heavy, that it makes it difficult to do a legitimate review. I don't want to put spoilers in my reviews, because I want everyone to be able to read it, especially people who are reading my review to see whether or not they should buy the game.

For those of you that are looking for a different genre of games, this is quite a good game. There were a few times where I had a difficult decision and it took me a good 5-10 minutes just to figure out which would be more beneficial. I'd recommend it to anyone who owns a PS3, but I wouldn't say it's a game that will sell a PS3 to someone who doesn't have one.

Rating: Super Sonic

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