[ Image courtesy of Gamespot ]
In the case of "Heavy Rain," you can ask if this is a video game in the "traditional" sense or if it is a movie that just happens to be interactive. I think it's the latter, that is reminding of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. If you are looking for a "traditional" video game where you can jump around, shoot at things, throw magic spells, etc., this will not be your cup of tea. What "Heavy Rain" is though is a vehicle that uses some of the most amazing technology in video games to deliver one solid storytelling experience.
The premise of "Heavy Rain" is that in the city of Philadelphia, there have been a series of murders in which young boys are being drowned and each time are left with an origami. Dubbed The Origami Killer, the latest victim is the son of an architect. The architect, Ethan Mars is just a simple man. He is not a cop, not a super soldier who moonlights as someone saving people from burning buildings. Just a man who has lost his son and is put to through a series of tests all to answer the question, "How fare are you prepared to save someone you love?" I'm sure it's a question we've all asked ourselves. How far would you go to save a loved one? It's in "Heavy Rain" where you can control just exactly how far you are willing to go. The gaming aspect of "Heavy Rain" comes in a series of "quick-time events" where you have to make a decision in a short amount of time and each and every single decision comes into play. This is where the reminder of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books comes into play. Do you choose to go down path A or path B? There are some moments though where it may not seem like if you do or don't do this, there won't be a consequence, however as the story of "Heavy Rain" unfolds, you will quickly see that doing or not doing certain things can come with an actual consequence. Here's an example, if you were caught in what is obviously a crime scene, but you know you had nothing to do with it, wouldn't you make sure your prints weren't on anything so that you aren't considered a suspect? It's this structure that has often been considered "ambitious" because well it is. The creators of "Heavy Rain" have made a fantastic effort of making it truly feel that your decisions matter. It's been said (and I couldn't verify it for myself when I did a first playthrough) that if a character in "Heavy Rain" dies, you do not get an undo. They are removed from the story for good and the overall story accounts for this. This creates a great level of replay value because after one playthrough, you want to see how the story could've ended had someone not died.
"Heavy Rain" has been in development for a long time. It was first announced in 2006 utilizing technology which at the time, a lot of people hailed as remarkable in the realm of creating facial expressions that had only been mostly seen in feature-length movies. It's funny if you think about how far the technology and visuals have evolved in video games, yet it's only so recent that some developers seem to be able to dig deeper into motion capture technology to create faces that can display emotions. Since the initial announcement of the game in 2006 and at the time, it's remarkable technical demo, "Heavy Rain" has been given the proper polish and finish and I have to say it's one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. Sure there aren't a lot of pretty and vivid colors, but the world and characters all come to life because everything is alive. You see it in loading screen moments where you get a close-up shot of a face of a character. The movements of the eyebrows, the cheeks, all of those subtle movements are those little touches that have set "Heavy Rain" apart from a lot of other video games. It would not surprise me one bit if at the end of the year, "Heavy Rain" is praised and awarded with honors if not for overall game experience, sure as hell for the technical marvel that it is.
If you have a PlayStation 3, you owe it to yourself to invest at least one playthrough of "Heavy Rain." You get such an engaging storytelling experience, that is real. You're not traveling to some mystical world where dragons and magic spells are your bread and butter. This is your personal trip through a psychological crime-noir thriller that invokes emotion. For one of the year's most anticipated games, "Heavy Rain" has delivered.
Note: The structure of "Heavy Rain" is set up in a way that a lot of decisions, pivotal or minor can affect the outcome of the story. Who lives, who survives, all shapes the outcome of the story. This review was written up having completed one playthrough in which the identity of The Origami Killer was revealed and no one died.
0 comments:
Post a Comment