PS3 Review – Heavy Rain
We’ve spent four days in the pouring rain with Quantic Dream’s ambitious thriller noir, Heavy Rain, and are ready to pour our thoughts into a review, so you can properly forecast if the game is worth your purchase.
Heavy Rain, despite its dreary title, starts off on a bright and sunny day. You’ll take control of Ethan Mars, a successful architect who has it all; the gorgeous modern home, loving wife and two energetic boys. It’s a happy occasion, it’s Ethan’s son Jason’s birthday. You’ll go about your day just as anyone would, you’ll take a shower, shave, get dressed, do some work, carry in groceries, set the table, and play with your sons. All of this serves as an introduction to the game’s unique context-sensitive controls. Although the prologue seems like a mere tutorial, its real purpose is to get you to know and identify with Ethan Mars, the everyman.
Tragedy soon shatters this vision of a perfect life. At that time is when you realize Heavy Rain isn’t your average video game. What ensues is a deeply emotional, highly-cinematic experience that will keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire 8 or so hours the game lasts.
You’ll play the role of 4 different characters, all on the hunt to find the Origami Killer, the maniacal serial killer the game is based upon. Good-hearted, triptocane addicted, FBI Profiler, Norman Jayden, the persuasive private detective Scott Shelby, and the alluring photo-journalist Madison Paige, who finds Ethan Mars at a hotel, distraught and tattered.
Ethan Mars: A broken man, mourning father.
The game takes place in real time and alternates between characters to flesh out the story from each different aspect. The main story begins with Mars, who’s life has been destroyed by a grievous event that occurs at the end of the prologue. The once happy Mars, has lost his home, his wife and one of his sons. Clinging on to sanity, Mars keeps himself together for the sake of his son Shaun. However blackouts plague the mind of the young father. After one of these blackouts, Mars returns to consciousness only to find that his son is missing, appearing to be the latest victim of the Origami Killer.
The rest of the game as Mars is dedicated to answering the question, “How far would you go to save the one you love?”. The question alone is thought provoking. Ask yourself, how far would you go? You’ll get chills when you see exactly how far Ethan Mars will go to save his son.
This a prime example of how writer and director David Cage uses situations in the game to get you to think. The game challenges you to make quick, critical decisions based on desperation, survival and morality. The game focuses heavily on decisions and consequences, again challenging your mind more than your button pressing skills.
During particularly intense scenes, the on-screen button prompts will shake and spin, making it more difficult to make a clear choice.Panic is felt throughout every decision you’ll make, especially knowing that unique to Heavy Rain, if your character dies, your character is gone for the remainder of the game. Due to this, an added level of realism and fear is present throughout the game.
Emotions and different psychological states play a major role in the game, not just with you the player, but with each character as well. The game showcases various conditions of the mind: schizophrenia, addiction, dementia, insomnia. Each character carries so much emotional baggage, that at one point or another you’ll suspect each and every one of them to be the Origami Killer.
Collecting forensic evidence; will it be enough to find the killer?
The story itself is gripping. So much so that you will want to set aside an entire night to play it through until the very end; you wont want to put this game down. It will have you wondering what could possibly coming next. You’ll constantly second guess yourself about who the killer is, although if you pay close attention early on, you can figure it out before it’s revealed. Throughout the game you’ll pick up clues, interrogate suspects, even question parents of victims in the search for the Origami Killer.
You’ll find yourself in some seriously shady places, all with the ominous heavy rain pouring beating down upon you. The rain takes an even bigger role than just being part of the backdrop, even going as far as to be used as the murder weapon of choice for the killer. The rain also serves as a constant reminder of the inauspicious situation Ethan Mars is having to endure through.
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45 Responses to “PS3 Review – Heavy Rain”
sweeet, been waiting for this review, Thanks
I can’t wait to play this title.
Excellent review Sev.
did anyone read this review? If you did, can you please tell me if it contain spoilers. If it doesn’t, when I will read it. Been on media blackout for this game.
Sounds good I’m still wondering though what the replay value is going to be like. I’ll most probably get this because of this review. Thanks.
Oh, ok. Thanks Sev. It looks like I will not be reading this review then. This is just one of those games what when I played it, I want to experience what reviewers and people who has gotten the game early has experience. Reading a review describing a scene will ruin that feeling for me.
I have a question. How many different ending have you encounter so far?
[...] PlayStation Lifestyle – 5 [...]
Release dates NA 23 February 2010
EU 24 February 2010
AUS 25 February 2010
UK 26 February 2010
IRE 26 February 2010
JP 18 February 2010
Great review Sev. The reviews on this site always seem to reflect my expectations of a game.
[...] PlayStation Lifestyle – 5/5 [...]
want it!
What a beautiful game. People say that games haven’t been unique in years. I say HEAVY RAIN.
Nice. How were the trophy’s Sev? I know they had some qualms about the game not really being a trophy kind of game… and they spent a lot of time just figuring out how to put them in. Do you remember what percentage you had after your first completion?
Excellent, there’s more good reviews than bad reviews so i guess id be getting this game now. Great job Quantic Dream!
~funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id)~
hello …
this is more than a unique game, it’s pure A.R.T!
makes videogame one of the best entertainment industry in this world.
thank you Quantic Dream, can’t wait to have my pre-ordered special edition in hands…
cheers!
Great review of a great game. I have a question, do you guys here at PSLS get all of Sony’s games a few weeks earlier than release to review?
Awesome review! I’m glad to see this game getting a warm welcome so far…even though it has mostly been from Playstation sources (PSLS, PSOM, etc.) I can’t wait to get my hands on this, I’m even hoping that this will be such a gripping story that I can have my girlfriend sit beside me while playing it and we’ll be able to skip a couple movie rentals.
Great spoiler-free review! I already pre-ordered this game, to be at my door on release date thanks to Amazon.
Good to see the game has lived up to expectations.
I still think of Bowfinger every time I see this game.
“was it normal rain…or was it chubby rain?”
l was planning on renting this game but l played the demo and found out how truly awesome it is. l gotta thank them for releasing a demo because l would have missed out on purchasing this
great review man, solid work
[...] PSLS 5/5 [...]
one thing ive been wondering is if you die do you have the option to try again?
thats one thing that i can see really getting on my nerves if you cant, because what if i want to find out what would happen if i did not die?
theres no way im playing through the whole game again doing everything exactly the same to make sure i get to the same point again.
hopefully they give you the choice to either try again, or continue suffering the consequences.
if not during the first playthrough at least make it a unlockable during the second.
i really want to experience everything in heavy rain, explore all the different paths but there is no way anyone is going to be able to do that because of the sheer amount of time that would take.
there is still many other games that i want to play not to mention ive only been back at tafe for 2 bloody days and the bastards have already given me 3 assignments!
[...] PlayStation Lifestyle – 5/5 [...]
Great review! I didn’t want to respond to this article until I played the demo. The 2 aspects about this game which stand out to me the most are the investigation glove and shades tools and the fighting sequences. I haven’t played the demo in-depth to make a good enough judgment on the decisions-and-consequences aspect of the game but it’s got plenty potential. I’m not too fond of the fight sequence with the button input method right now but I liked how there were numerous alternate fighting moves (I can see I’m not going to do well with a few beers).
After playing the demo and re-reading this review, my anticipation has peeked. I was a little unsure about this game after watching the first nine minutes of the game (the video you posted recently) but I’m now convinced to buy it on day one… although, I’ll most likely be able to find it a few days early at my local independent game store.
5/5
This game TOTALLY deserves a 5/5. The demo was the best I have ever played. Too bad two reviewers gave it scores in the 70′s. They obviously don’t see that Heavy Rain is a masterpiece.
Love the demo but must say pretty uneventful. I know that it they dont want to give away too much so i have very low expectations for the demo. The game’s concept, the art style, the story telling, and the interaction will be like nothing we have seen before to this degree. Incredibly excited great review cant wait to play.
you know what hate…people hear about a great game like this and their first question is “what about the trophies?” Are you kidding me?? Play the damn game and if you happen to get trophies while you do it good for you…It really bothers me even more when people refuse to buy games that don’t have trophies. Did you buy a game console to play games or to get shiny, little, meaningless accomplishments?
Worst game I’ve ever spent money on. I can’t believe it. The only twist in the game is awful. The point of the game is story, and the story sucks. What else is there to like? Cliche action/plot/twist. The major twist is the worst, ever. This game deserves the worst possible scores but it won’t get it because it’s exclusive and “interesting,” because it’s basically like you’re not playing. We shouldn’t stand for bad storylines in games anymore. We shouldn’t make excuses for them because they are games. Furthermore, the controls, even things as simple as walking, are outrageously stupid.
Played the demo to this game and liked it, but i´m not sure if i will buy the game. not really my favorit genre of games. I will most likely borrow it from some friends…
Beat this a few months ago and loved it reminded me alot of Saw as the trials you go through to rescue your son from the Origami killer.
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