Review | Heavy Rain
Format: PlayStation 3 | Genre: Adventure | Publisher: Sony | Developer: Quantic Dream | Release date: 26/02/10 | RRP: £49.99
Looking back further the natural ancestor is the adventure game genre in general. Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandago, perhaps The Longest Journey most significantly, all of them tell a story through a slow movement from scene to scene, solving puzzles along the way. Similarly, none of them have a real fail state, instead just presenting you with passive puzzles to solve. But the difference is all choice is redundant; they have items to pick up, and each has a set combination or purpose. You fulfil their role and you advance, down a linear path, as the story is told.
So there’s something else here that’s new and exciting. You could look at Mass Effect, and more specifically Mass Effect 2, with it’s Paragon/Renegade options that flash up on-screen, allowing you to change the course of a scene. The conversation tree, significantly, seems to be somewhat similar, with Heavy Rain offering you a single word to stand in for an entire topic or sentence. You select one and continue, but then, Heavy Rain isn’t about the dialogue. It’s a game of action, more so than Mass Effect even.
In Mass Effect all your decision making is made during conversations. Heavy Rain places the decisions in your hands and the hands of whoever you’re controlling. A flick of the right stick one way, and one action is performed; press the X button instead, and your fork of the road is chosen, and your path set. Early in the game you see an obvious thug head into the apartment of a woman, with clear intent to cause harm. You can go back and help her, or carry on walking away. It’s the choice that’s important, and the actions follow.
The more you look at it, the more you become the director of Heavy Rain. There’s a substantial difference between you and the director of a film, however, and that is one of knowledge. To draw an analogy, Heavy Rain is a film where the director only gets the script scene by scene; they don’t know where the story is headed, and they’re being asked to make decisions on which direction to take the scene based purely on the knowledge of previous scenes. It’s a conceit that, initially, seems to be Heavy Rain’s greatest weakness.
Heavy Rain is a thriller. The premise is that someone has been kidnapping ten-year-old boys, drowning them in rain water a few days later, and then dumping them on a wasteland with a face covered with mud, an origami figure in his hand, and an orchid on his chest. What the game sets about to do is lead you down the paths of those involved, from a father of one of the victims, to a private detective hired by the families of the victims, to an FBI agent investigating the case, and a photographer caught up in it all. Using tried and true staples of the thriller genre, Quantic Dream force you to play a guessing game to attempt to figure out exactly who the killer is.
The problem lies in the fact that you’re playing four different people, with different perspectives and different facts about the case. As you learn more, it becomes more and more 
apparent that the game is keeping things from you. Each twist and turn relies on you not knowing something about the character that you’re supposed to be playing as, and the fact that there’s even a button to hear their thoughts makes this an even larger pill to swallow.
WHAT IS THAT BEAUTIFUL HOUSE?
This isn’t the evolution of film. It’s not the definition of gaming. But nor is it some sideshow freak in the corner, just wanting to be loved by whoever will play it. The fact remains that this is one of the most significant PlayStation 3 releases to date. It doesn’t matter that it might not attract the demographic that Sony are so desperately seeking; what matters is that it now exists, and it is utterly, truly unique. It occupies a vacuum of complete narrative freedom, within a rigid framework. Essentially, it’s a lion with a very big cage to run around in. But it’s still not free.
I’m of the personal opinion that games are going to go one of two ways. Either we’re going to embrace procedural generation, and we’ll have entire games summoned out of the ether with algorithms and incredibly clever coding, or we’re going to see a completely scripted experience that has every single action you can possibly perform already thought of and catered to. It’s only natural that we’ve reached the latter first.
[Continues...]
Wow, that was an amazing(ly long) read. This reminds me of Jim’s “Counting for Taste” article on RPS — just how much “game” is Heavy Rain? I actually had a talk with a friend on something he said about the game — “infinitely replayable,” he called it. Though I haven’t played it, I said that it seemed more replayable in the sense that books and movies are rereadable and rewatchable rather than being “replayable” in the traditional sense of a game.
Now if only I had a playstation triple and could play it.
1. Be frustrated at MS not Quantic Dream. MS built an inferior system with same last generation DVD, 5.1 sound, no HDD standard – instead of pushing gaming forward. This is the result.
2. $299 for a long list of quality exclusives like this.
3. Thanks for the read. I plan to start playing it this weekend.
I don’t think Phill’s placing the blame on anyone, wiseguy. It’s nothing to do with console capabilities; it’s just that he feels this is a game that deserves to be played by as many people as possible, and its being limited to release on one format prevents that.
What he (Lewis) said…
Amen – the fact this isn’t multiplatform is nothing short of ridiculous. I hate to sound like a dictator, but I’m leaning towards a world of one console, as time goes on.
1. It has everything to do with console capabilities.
2. People can buy better products if they want better games. It’s really simple. Nothing to get frustrated about.
3. What multiple formats prevent is high quality games like this. You have it backwards. So if he wants more games like this he should be recommending people buy the higher quality consoles instead of misdirecting (unintentionally or not) that the problem is the game being on a single format. It would have been watered down to make it fit the limitations of the 360 and the publishers contracts that games be equivalent. IOW a race to the bottom. Go peddle that nonsense somewhere else.:)
I think you’re reading more deeply into the comment than was intended. You’re right: Heavy Rain is obviously very carefully tailored to the PlayStation 3’s processing power and control mechanism. All Phill – like myself, and Christos – is saying is that it’s a tremendous shame that people who don’t own a PS3 (can’t afford one, aren’t interested in its other games, whatever) won’t get the chance to play such an exceptional and exciting game.
If there was one platform there would have been no Wii motion controller that has expanded the market.
Not sure how any intelligent consumer can see less innovation and fewer choices as a good thing.
However I can see how corporate shills with monopolistic desires would be excited to push the idea of one console on the gullible. Under the current market they can’t get control with multiple consoles. So push for the idea of one console where they can.
Let’s get rid of Pepsi because we only need one pop. It’s so frustrating having choices. And really what’s the difference between Root beer and Coke. Is it really that significant. Let’s just have Coke while we are at it.
Nothing short of ridiculous is right.
No I understand and appreciate what your saying.
My point is I don’t think I would ever hear you say it’s a shame we can’t only have a Yugo instead of 6 different Hondas because some people can’t afford one or the other. It’s a ridiculous premise that I’ve only seen raised in consoles. Not phones, not cars. NOWHERE else would a person suggest thats’ a good thing. One Cheese?
The point is NOBODY would get a chance to drive that EXCEPTIONAL Honda because it would be a Yugo if one company controlled the market.
If they want to drive something exceptional then they should have the choice to vote with their dollars as to which product is exceptional and which is not. One console removes that choice.
[...] You can get it from here. And in a rare moment of fairness, here’s Phill Cameron saying why he dug the hell out of Heavy Rain which is an exciting game for the PS… wait! We’ve been duped! It’s a Trap! EJECT! [...]
[...] 4, 2010 by thomasdowd Phil Cameron over at Resolution Magazine has a lengthy review of Heavy Rain up that I pretty much agree with. Phil’s a little more effusive in parts than I am, [...]
Thanks for the review. You’re a good writer.
The reactions I’ve heard and read about this game are interesting. I haven’t played the game myself (which renders what follows quite hollow, but bare with me), but from what I’ve seen and read in reviews, Heavy Rain comes off as the most self-absorbed, pretentious piece of marketing strategy this console generation. Fahrenheit took that place last generation. I say marketing because this game has been hyped for about three years now, with the gaming press saying that Heavy Rain would redefine gaming, playing into the hands of the PR industry (hell, is there even a difference between press/journalism and PR?). And people are eating it up with a spoon, because, as it seems from my point of view, being told that “this is art, this is mature, this is unique”, a lot of gamers are going “ok!”.
If you construct a game around the premise of story, and that story gets mangled by the gameplay and looses its potentially “emotionally engaging” moments, how can that be considered art at all? What has been said, and did you really have any control, and if so, how did the game acknowledge that without falling apart? And here I come back to what I said about PR and journalism: how can you review a game like this without discussing its story, behind the mantra we’ve come to know as “spoilers”?
You mentioned whether you reviewed the content or the story, and kinda landed on acknowledging that the two can never be separate, which was very insightful. Yet you still come back that dichotomy over and over again. If the game is the story you make (like a lion in a big cage, right?) through decisions that either are smoke and mirrors, or completely mangles any credibility the story might have had, what game are you playing? Or more importantly, does it say something about the human condition; can we call this art?
There’s a difference in between being an “intelligent consumer,” as you so deftly put it, and being someone who’s simply sick of platform exclusives.
I am no fan of monopolies – in fact, a quick search of my name or articles, some even on this website, would have told you as much. My point was simply that it would be nice to have a console that, in a more utopian environment, was owned by everyone, and everyone published on. I wasn’t seriously suggesting we wipe out Sony and Nintendo, but there’s a line between diversity/choice and constant bitching about a console you hate simply because you chose one you’re feeling more than insecure about.
While you’re in the anti-corporate mindset, why not simply research into why one console might be a better idea in a future environment, rather than running with the idea that RIGHT NOW would actually work? I know it won’t, and I’d wager most people would agree. With one console, do you think massive – and imho, illegal – failures to meet customer rights, such as the RROD, would have existed for as long as they have? We live in a world where niche products are labelled “diverse” and are rife with customers suffering financially due to the possessive nature of platform manufacturers over new IPs, and where the only true unbiased platform – the PC – is still largely ignored because the idea of paying the amount X to keep a PC upgraded is ignored in favour of paying five times the amount, yearly, to buy new consoles and games on varying platforms simply because consumer choice stopped BEING choice once it became a weapon.
It’s all well and good to take up the mantle of the righteous consumer, but when you’re not willing to think any deeper than “those evil bastard CEOs” and research the opinions of those you challenge so self-righteously, it does beg the question: is one console not ALSO a choice, and by your response, are you not monopolising the ideals of those sick of controversy?
“Which renders what follows quite hollow”.
:P
A tremendous read, thanks for that.
But ‘innovative’? Weren’t the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books knocking about 40 years ago? Granted, you’re twirling a stick to represent fiddling about in your ear or something rather than turning to page 123, but it’s still the same principle.
Mind you, there’s something to be said for transferring the concept to this medium. It would be great if this proved to be as popular (if not as prolific) a medium of storytelling as film or books.
[...] Heavy Rain: http://vi.deoga.me.uk/2010/02/review-heavy-rain-ps3/ Resolution Review of Heavy Rain: http://resolution-magazine.co.uk/content/review-heavy-rain/ 1UP Review of Heavy Rain: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3177883 Edge Review of Heavy Rain: [...]
I haven’t played the game yet either, and have been guilty of ’soapboxing’ about it myself, but asking a raft of speculative questions that you don’t even know are relevant… well it’s a bit silly. The proof is in the pudding, and I’m excited to play and find out for myself sometime soon.
well, we all know how valuable the opinion of people who think that “graphic quality = game quality” is.
If you think of games as you might books and music rather than cars and phones, the objection becomes a lot clearer. Sure, there are format issues in other mediums – VCR vs. Betamax, CD vs. vinyl, etc. – but games are uniquely tied to the platform they are targetting; there are no PS3 bootlegs for XBox. What this means is that people are limited with regards to what they can experience based on how much they’re willing to spend on consumer electronics, which is a boorish pragmatic consideration when faced with something that can change the medium.
And frankly, I think you’re putting far too much emphasis on the quality of the platform. Rarely is it the case that the technical differences between platforms have anything more than an incremental effect on the final product (with the exception of actual qualitative differences, like Wii motion controls, or online stores making smaller games viable). I don’t think the correlation between what is possible technically and what is possible artistically is as strong as you think.
[...] something grand. I’m not sure how presumptuous that is, but if things like Sleep is Death and Heavy Rain are indicators of the future, this is the best time to jump on the band-wagon, so to [...]
[...] But first, because I’m a shameless self-promoter, please, indulge yourself in four and a half thousand words that I had to write about the game in question, w… [...]