Review: Heavy Rain

Blowing ammo dumps to pieces. Stealing cars. Hacking monsters to death. Destroying cities. Infiltrating prisons. Jumping from planet to planet.

Diapering a baby. Take a shower. Frolicing with the kids in the garden. Kissing. Rehashing a piece of pizza. Swinging. Making up.

Between those two listing exists a big difference: the first enumerations we undergo day by day in our virtual world. At the console we like to fight wars against aliens and other creatures or simulate a superhero. The second listing describes actions in real life. We do them before work, at stores, at home or at some friends houses. They aren't much entertaing, but need to be done. When suddenly a game tries to embed some of those ordinary actions to the gameplay, it arouses attention - precisely because actually there is no space in a game for the normal or ordinary things of life. But it works fine in 'Heavy Rain', one of the most anticipated games of 2010. Especially while playing the first hours in Heavy Rain you do a lot of those action mentioned above. As such a huge number of different actions yearns for a simple and constant controlling scheme, Quantic Dream uses context-sensitive configuration: sometimes you use the X-button to smash a door, another time you climb a slippery hillside or you avoid an uppercut by hitting the same button. Heavy Rain neatly adapts the requirements to your prestidigitation - every now and then you have to use 3 buttons at once for some seconds, tend the gamepad or shake it like hell.

Apart from the interaction the main attention lies on the decision making. Therefore you have to choose between answers and decisions that are given via a certain button. According to the answer you choose, the game process develops into different directions and the game‘s ending is also affected. As a result the replayability is very high. A different decision gives not only another ending, but maybe a chapter will be some minutes longer or you play a quite different scene.

The story is thrilling, dramatic and action-packed. Though it is the story that makes the game valuable, I will try not go too much in depth. In a small and sedate town little boys at the age of 8-12 years disappear again and again and appear again after 4 or 5 days. Dead. Drowned in rainwater. The only thing that the killer left at the crime scene is an Origami figure in the victim‘s hand as well as an orchid on it‘s chest. The police doesn‘t have any hints and is so to say clueless.

In the whole game you play 4 charcters. The first you get to know is Ethan Mars. He is an architect, who is married and has two boys, Jason and Shaun. They lived a happy life till Jason was killed in an accident. Ethan, who tried to save his son, suffered a heavy head injury and was in coma for 6 months. 2 years later Ethan is bothered by blackouts and feelings of guilt, his wife divorced him and as if that was not enough his second son Shaun is kidnapped by the Origami-Killer while he was in Ethan‘s charge. It is the 8th kidnapping and from that experience it is obvious that there are only 4-5 days left to save Shaun.

In the search of Shaun you play 3 more characters. One of them is the former police officer and current detective Scott Shelby, who made inquiries in the last 7 kidnappings. Another arm of the law is FBI Agent Norman Jayden. Equipped with high tech glasses, he analyses a crime scene lightning-fast and has his office allways with him. Now, the only thing or better to say charcter that is missing is a woman - the journalist Madison Page. An attractive and smart woman, that doesn‘t back off from using her charms to get what she wants.

During the game you switch between those four and experience the story from different angles. At this point I don‘t want to tell more not to spoil anything.

The characters are very well done. Everyone has it‘s own background, strengths and weaknesses. It makes you sympathize with them. Also the detailed mimic and gestures support that feeling. It‘s the same with the atmosphere. The steady downpour, the shady town and the brilliant soundtrack create an incredible mood. Heavy Rain is pure emotion.

Heavy is definitly a masterpiece and a must-have for PS3 owners. It is not entirely perfect, I grant. The controls are a bit odd and the whole game is very short, ypu can beat it in one day. But on the other hand it has a very high replayability, because of the different endings and scene that you can play by making different decisions. The graphics look fantastic. The story is thrilling, dramtic and action-packed. There are a lot suprise turnarounds, everytime you think you know the killer, the next scene teaches you better.

Heavy Rain is something different and pure emotion. Get it!