Hot Games !!!: Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain Review

Disclaimer: This game is not meant children or to be played with children in the room, there are too many scenes that are not appropriate for anyone under the age of 13.

This is a heavily scripted game, everything triggers dialogue and watching the cutscenes are extremely important in following the story. The whole point of the game is the story and the characters. The game moves really slowly, the characters do not run, they walk, slowly, and the dialogue is slow with no way of skipping it. Think of this game as 'Choose Your Own Adventure' and play out how the game ends per character who is tied to the story. The only thing that doesn't seem to change is who the villain is, but the course of actions determine how the other characters end up. Some of the scenes along with the music are intense, the sense of fear or rush from seeing a character struggle is amazing.

There are multiple endings and depending on what choices are made, the characters will live or die. The incentive of replaying the game is to get all the endings. The controls are awkward for this game, there are prompts to press buttons at a specific time and sequence, and missing the sequence will mean re-doing it over again, and again, until it's done correctly to pass the scene. The controls make the game not very enjoyable in my opinion, I found myself not hitting the prompts every time and when the SIXAXIS icon comes up to tilt the controller, there was tons of missing as well. Half the game is filled with tasks each character will must perform, it gives the sense that they are real people doing real things, like changing diapers, preparing food by taking stuff out from the fridge, etc.

This is an important video game for this generation, to try out storytelling in video game motion controller form. Heavy Rain does have a decent story to it, far better than most things in the movies these days. However, the voice acting is unbelievable, the characters sound hollow, but this could be due to roster of French developers in the credits. The only real negative thing about this game is the glitches, it hiccups often enough to notice and froze more than once.

Heavy Rain Feature

A PlayStation 3 exclusive featuring accessible gameplay via intuitive, contextual controls and interface.
An evolving action adventure thriller featuring mature content, reflecting a realistic world setting and powerful themes, in which you shape the story with every decision made.
Action featuring four playable characters that allows you to continue playing as one of the other characters if your initial character is killed.
Savable chapters that allow you to replay the actions of the past, while maintaining the continuity of the events of earlier chapters.
Stunning graphics, animation and technology support an emotionally driven experience.

Heavy Rain Overview

Experience a gripping psychological crime thriller filled with innumerable twists and turns, where even the smallest actions and choices can cause dramatic consequences. The hunt is on for the Origami Killer, named after his calling card of leaving folded paper shapes on victims. Four characters, each with their own motives, take part in a desperate attempt to stop the killer from claiming a new victim.

Heavy Rain Specifications

Heavy Rain is an interactive, single player, action adventure game in which every decision players make influences the evolution of a desperate quest to catch a deadly killer poised to strike again. Featuring a complex and dark storyline meant for mature audiences, the game is a PlayStation 3 exclusive featuring a variety of possible endings, advanced crime scene analysis, replayable chapters, four playable characters and the ability to continue play as remaining characters in the event of your current character's death.

Story
How far will you go to save someone you love? In Heavy Rain each player discovers their own answer to this question as they experience a gripping psychological thriller filled with innumerable twists and turns, where choices and actions can and do result in dramatic consequences. Spanning four days of mystery and suspense, the hunt is on for a murderer known only as the Origami Killer - named after his macabre calling card of leaving behind folded paper shapes at crime scenes. Even more chilling is the fiend's well established pattern of killing his victims four days after abducting them. The public is gripped with fear as the police seem powerless to stop the carnage, and another potential victim — Shaun Mars — has gone missing. Now four characters, each following their own leads and with their own motives, must take part in a desperate attempt to prevent the killer from taking yet another life.

Discover how far you will go to protect a loved one as you join the search for the Origami Killer.
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Gameplay
Heavy Rain is a single player, action/adventure game with a particularly strong emphasis on a player-influenced storyline as a means of facilitating the evolution of action towards one of many possible conclusions. The game features four playable characters: a father, a photographer, a FBI agent with a special skill set and a retired cop turned private detective. Each have different paths, means and motives to ending the reign of terror that the Origami Killer has imposed on their city. As players follow the path laid before their character of choice, they are able to explore, interact with and view their surroundings in a variety of ways using their controller's left and right sticks. At crucial times players are given a series of choices relating to how to proceed in various situations, with the outcome of these choices revealing both benefits and consequences. Benefits can be important to progressing through the game, while possible consequences can in turn pose a very real danger to characters, including death. But unlike other games, and because Heavy Rain features four playable characters that exist independently of each other, yet simultaneously within the same the story arc, this does not end the game. Players are instead able to play as one of the other available characters, with appropriate changes to possible outcomes due to the absence of the deceased character(s).

Key Game Features

An evolving action-adventure thriller in which you shape the story with every decision you make.
Action built around four playable characters that allows you to continue playing as one of the other characters if your initial character is killed.
Savable chapters that allow you to replay the actions of the past, while maintaining the continuity of the events begun in earlier chapters.
Mature content reflecting a realistic world setting that explores powerful themes.
Stunning graphics, animation and technology that support an emotionally driven experience.
Accessible gameplay via intuitive, contextual controls and interface.

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