After waiting for months, I’ve finally had time to play the highly acclaimed Heavy Rain by Quantic Dream. By now, most of you might have read about or even completed this game. To quote Eurogamer.net, Heavy Rain is indeed “unlike anything else you will play this year”. As a player, I was quickly absorbed into the plot within a few minutes. Against the backdrop of a rainy weekend, the thrill and suspense of this game is greatly enhanced (try playing Heavy Rain on an actual rainy evening or night with lights off and you will get what I mean). The game itself is rather short and I’ve completed it within 2 days. But this is no complain. Comparing this game with a 2 hour movie, the plot of the game is definitely thicker and more engaging.
The Story (Spoiler-free)
The story opens up in a light and warm-hearted tone. You control one of the main protaganist, Ethan Mars who just woke up to a bright new day and was preparing for his son’s birthday party. The player get to have some happy family time when controlling Ethan, drawing them closer to the character in the process. Later in the game, Ethan and his family visited a crowded mall where he will lose his son, resulting in a tragic car accident.
After this prologue, the story is fast-forward to 2011, two years after the accident. Ethan had lost his older son, Jason Mars, in that accident. He is divorced with his wife and he suffers traumatic pyschological depression. The setting of the game changed instantly to a gloomy and depressing mood overcast by the dark and rainy weather. Ethan soon lost his second son, Shaun, at a park to the Origami Killer.
The Origami Killer is a serial killer who kidnapped young boys and killed them by drowning them in rainwater. The victims would then be found with an orchid and an origami on him. The player would get to know more about the killer when they get to control Norma Jayden, a FBI who is sent to assist the police on this case.
On the sideline, a third playable character, private investigator Scott Shelby, attempts to collect clues and evidences from parents of the victims killed by the Origami Killer. He visits each of them and gather more and more evidences as he progress.
Finally, the player also gets to play the lovely Madison Paige, a female photojournalist who helped Ethan throughout the ordeal.
The story ended with a twist as the identity of the Origami Killer is known. All in all, there is about seven alternate endings depending on the choices taken by the player throughout the game.
The Gameplay
In Heavy Rain, player follows the on-screen 3D icon to determine which button to press at each specify stage of movement. Although it may seems like a mundane process (sometime you need to do day-to-day simple task like cooking an egg, bathing etc.), the action sequences are exciting as every button you pressed can assist the character in evading an attack or striking on the assailant successfully.
And yes, your character may die if you fail some of the fighting sequence making it even more thrilling and immersive. The six axis controller is also utilized fully in this game.
You get to move your controller in almost all of the available six axis. From simple task of shaking a carton of orange juice to steering a car. Although the Move Version may provide a more creative way of controlling the players, I feel that the six axis controller by itself has provided a basic yet effective way of engaging the player.
At anytime of the game, the player can delve into the minds of the characters by pressing L2. You can then hear what the character is thinking about at that point of time. Sometimes, the character will have contradictory thoughts that illustrate the internal self-struggle that he or she is experiencing.
When playing as the FBI agent, you get to use a futurist ARI (Added Reality Interface) system. The system which consists of a pair of glasses and glove, display holographic representation of evidences and files. Get ready for some matrix-style high-tech fun with this device in the game.
The Graphics and behind the scenes
Running at 720 resolution instead of the Full HD 1080 (as featured in Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII), the graphic is still overall amazing. The physics of the sets are realistic and the realism of real-time rendered cut-scenes are commendable as well. The degree of facial expression seen in this game put many games at shame (especially compared with the recent CSI game that I’ve played). Other than a few glitches, (at one point of time, my Scott Shelby head is turned 180 degree for a second or two), the game level of realism pushes the boundaryof game graphic even further and gamers may now be even more demanding in terms of graphics quality.
Casting of the characters are based on real-life actors and actresses. For example, Madison Paige is actually created from scans of English Model Jacqui Ainsley who also does the mo-cap for Madison. In fact, almost all of the sequences are created using motion capturing. Facial expressions are also that of the actors’ and actresses’. The techniques used are similar to that of Avatar but Avatar captured both facial expression and movement simultaneously in a single shot unlike Heavy Rain.
Scott Shelby is modelled based on actor Sam Douglas. You can see a real-life ‘Scott Shelby’ in the video below 🙂
The creators of the game are very merticulous about the sets. Most of the sets are very elaborate and details much to my surprise.
In a scene of a small convenience store for example, all the racks are filled with real models of daily items. The lazy way of doing the racks of items is to apply a single textured images onto a shelf (as seen in older games such as Counter-strike).
In a mall scene, Ethan has to fight his way through a crowd to find his son Jason. Despite the large number of people in the mall, the gameplay was smooth and not jerky. For those who may not know this, games usually ‘lags’ when a scene consists of large number of objects. This is because, the graphic processors has to compute and draw each of these individual objects to the screen. Therefore, with more objects, the heavier the computation will become. This is also the reason why your computer will lag when playing RTS such as StarCraft II after building many units.
Lighting of the game is also very well-done. Note that rendering of all the scene has to be done in real time when the player is controlling the characters. That is to say that all computations of the 3D scenes have to be done in real-time. Effects such as shadow are not entirely impressive given that such real-time shadow generation is already seen in games such as Final Fantasy XIII and Assassin’s Creed. However, other effects such as reflection (be it off a mirror or reflective surface) will simply blow off your mind. To illustrate the level of difficulty in achieving real-time generation of 3D scene, a single Toy Story 3 frame (generally a film has 30 frame per seconds) took 7 hours to completely render. Now imagine Heavy Rain need to do all these in a fraction of a second. Given the result, I am very impressed by the quality of the graphics.
Soundtrack
What is a good game without good soundtrack? The cinematic soundtracks in the game bring out the various emotion that the director wants the user to experience, greatly enhancing the gameplay. One moment, your heart sinks with the despondent orchestral music, the next moment, it will beat faster as the music turned fast-paced and thrilling. A cinematic experience is how I would describe the soundtracks accompanying the game.
Conclusion
All in all, Heavy Rain is a must-play title for all PS3 owners in our opinion. A game with captivating plot and innovative gameplay presented in excellent graphic is how we would like to described this game. While no sequel is currently planned, I certainly do hope that Quantic Dream can come out with a new interactive drama title that does not build on the current Heavy Rain universe. I do agree that a sequel to Heavy Rain would undermine the game current status quo as a sequel would have problem delivering a newer refreshing idea compared to Heavy Rain. It is afterall, the innovative and new idea of the game that make it successful. Some critics said that Heavy Rain is more of a movie than game, but which successful game of today do not have a captivating storyline? Games in the past like Super Mario and Pacman can be successful without a thick plot. But gamers of today prefer such feature and it is almost seen in any modern games today. Movie or game? You decide. For me, it is not important. What matters is that I have thoroughly enjoyed the game.
GameTrader.SG rating: 9.2/10
Hurray for the good plot and graphics
Boo for a few plot holes.