Heavy Rain for the PS3

[EricMontreal22]

I'm not too into video games--I tend to get bored unless there's a really great story, which is why I miss the low tech point and click adventure games from the 90s (Gabriel Knight, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango etc). Even when there is a compelling story, often the level of endless fighting and repetition has me lose interest in a game I loved, a day or two into playing.

But I've been tracking this game for the past three years now--the French designer David Cage made Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy in the US) which I thought was one of the best video games of the decade--a really great attempt to make a moody supernatural thriller where the story and characters were as deep as in a big budget movie, but it was a game. It was flawed though--the control system, while a brave attempt to mix action play with the old point and click system, was not really successful.

Anyway, this review basically makes Heavy Rain sound like everything I hoped it would be... Clearly, people really into action games will not like it. Still, I hope it's a big success.

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It sounds like hardcore action gamers may have similar issues with Heavy Rain that they did with Fahrenheit--though less so. Its Metacritic score is outstanding, but the reviews do say that you'll love it or hate it, that some gamers will claim it's just an interactive movie, etc, etc.

METACRITIC SCORE 89% Positive

Some quotes:

"Heavy Rain is not a perfect game, maybe it's not a videogame at all. It's an involving experience that no one has created before and that will remain in videogamers' hearts forever."

"Heavy Rain isn’t just a masterpiece; it’s an ingenious step in the right direction...This may very well be the most “human” game ever made, and an absolute triumph for the industry. Take from that what you will."

"It's really difficult to judge Heavy Rain. The new David Cage masterpiece is something to love or to hate without any compromise. But this duality is something typical for the excellence: Heavy Rain is strongly emotional and represents a new way to think about videogames. A way where the plot and the quality of narrative become more influential than the gameplay."

"One of the most emotional experiences I've ever had playing a videogame."

"Heavy Rain is thoroughly unusual. Rarely before, a game has been as emotionally haunting as this one. Furthermore, the replay value is very high, because of the different endings."

"Heavy Rain isn’t a film, or even a game trying to be a film. It’s proof of just how compellingly a game can use film, of how gripping a warmed-over scenario or humdrum script can become in the hands of a skilled design team. It filches ideas from cinema, doubtless – what big budget character-driven release doesn’t? – but it’s because it’s a game, in the final analysis, that it’s marvelous."

"Put gaming conventions aside, go in with no expectations other than this is something new and massively good-looking, and you'll be rewarded with a unique experience that lurches between genius and madness, manages to be genuinely emotional, and that you'll be bursting to talk about with your friends."

"A hell of an experience. Its controversial control scheme actually works really well in allowing the fantastic story to dictate how events play out, and many of the game's scenes will keep you on the edge of your seat. It starts slow and the presentation isn't perfect, but the character development, dialog and story twists will hook you like few games can"

Even the couple of low ratings (low being 70%), make the game still sound compelling to me:

"Heavy Rain is an inspiration board of editorials waiting to be written. It is entertaining without being “fun” and explores the assumptions players make as a spectator and a participant, the extent at which literary drama can interconnect with games, and the uncharted space far beyond mainstream gaming...Even if you come to oppose everything it stands for – and understandably so – Heavy Rain needs to be played."

"Ultimately, Heavy Rain is an experiment that both succeeded and failed, when it could easily have been a total success if the brains behind it weren't trying so hard to be smart, and cared more about providing a sensible plot as opposed to a shocking one."

"Visually and aurally it's a decadent feast for the senses, but its frequent descents into ham-fisted schlock and downright broken storytelling ultimately make it a clumsy case of style over substance. It's a likeable mess if you don't think too hard, but nevertheless, a mess it remains."

[Vee]

I loved Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit until the last act, which was idiotic. I'm very excited about what I've seen of this, but have no money to get a PS3 - I'll be biting my nails until I do.

[EricMontreal22]

Totally agreed--Cage said they had to rush the end of the game due to lack of funds and deadlines but even so, creatively it ws such a disappointment. Still--the first 3/4 or more were so good and ambitious, I can forgive that--if he's learned from it (it sounds like he has).

[EricMontreal22]

It's funny a few of my hardcore gamer friends have already said, deridingly, to me "I hear it's just a 9 hour interactive movie--don't bother"--but the same people said the same thing about Indigo which, like you Vee (though I don't mean to be twisting your words like I apparently do ), I loved up to the ending. So it doesn't bother me (I sometimes think these people think any game with a complex plot that's not RPG is just an interactive movie and not a "real game"0