After practically a decade of PlayStation exclusivity, Heavy Rain is on PC, which implies now you can press 1 quite than X to “Jason! Jason! Jason!”
Heavy Rain is a story-driven game following Ethan Mars, a father in quest of his kidnapped son, Shaun. Shaun has been taken by a serial assassin generally known as the Origami Killer, who targets younger boys and drowns them in rain water. Three different characters are additionally concerned within the hunt: Norman Jayden, an FBI Agent with magic AR sun shades; journalist Madison Paige; and Scott Shelby, an ageing and gruff personal investigator. The game switches between all of them.
Much of the plot’s intrigue is present in the way in which every character tries to search out extra data. Ethan is contacted by the Origami Killer straight, and is put via numerous trials as a way to save his son, resembling driving the improper method into site visitors. The different characters, although, have their very own goals. Norman is investigating crime scenes and utilizing police tools, for instance. The method the game switches from character to character retains the game feeling contemporary, and barely much less grim than 10 hours of Ethan crawling over shards of glass.
You additionally get to hearken to your characters’ ideas, which provide hints in direction of the target and generally present perception into that character’s emotions. Unfortunately, what the characters suppose is typically inconsistent with what they do, and obtrusive plot holes quickly make themselves obvious. An intriguing thread early on hints that Ethan is struggling some kind of reminiscence loss or dissociative state that would join him to the murders, however it’s utterly dropped later within the game, apparently a casualty from a bunch of cut content that makes the game extra complicated. Still, for those who don’t look or pay attention too carefully, Heavy Rain’s broader story holds up fairly properly — higher, I believe, than Quantic Dream’s newer games.
Re-playing Heavy Rain did make me respect the performances in Quantic Dreams’ Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit, although. Much of the voice appearing in Heavy Rain falls quick when the game is supposed to painting intense, honest emotion. Some of the dialogue can be extra at dwelling in a parody of a daytime TV whodunnit, because it’s peppered with tropes like “I’m going to take you off this case!” or bizarre redundancies like “It’s a painkiller. It’ll help reduce the pain.” It can find yourself downright laughable. I’ve needed to ask myself simply how a lot of this I’m prepared to pardon in a game the place the story and character interplay is meant to be a major promoting level. Especially when mixed with the restrictions of movement seize on the time it was made, and Heavy Rain’s bizarre controls.
Players are launched to the controls in a prolonged and mellow tutorial, wherein Ethan prepares his dwelling for his son’s celebration. The PlayStation model relied on the movement sensors within the DualShock controller, whereas the PC model requires actions of the mouse in indicated instructions. All potential character actions, from frantic dodges right down to consuming beer, are ruled by both making this motion appropriately, urgent or holding the proper key, or a mix of each. In moments of dramatic motion, the participant is prompted to undergo a collection of fast time occasions (QTEs) the place you need to do that appropriately and quickly.
At their finest, the QTEs really feel satisfying. When you’ve managed to dodge each assault and wiggle out of each lure, Heavy Rain feels prefer it’s working because it ought to. That scene the place you need to dodge oncoming site visitors felt like the proper degree of difficult and responsive. There are additionally moments the place the participant is offered with a time-limited dilemma, however the actions aren’t QTEs. Moments like sneaking via a creepy physician’s dwelling and thoroughly selecting which rooms to go looking earlier than being noticed, or deciding easy methods to finest carry out an impromptu amputation, are much more partaking than a famously hilarious chase sequence, and I want that Heavy Rain had extra of them.
By distinction, there have been segments the place the responses for each the QTEs and common actions labored poorly. In half it appeared to be as a result of the controls translated badly to PC-specific {hardware}. I spent a great 5 minutes making an attempt to get Madison to use lipstick, as a result of I couldn’t match the mouse motion, regardless of following the on-screen immediate precisely and repeatedly. Poor Ethan obtained zapped time and again in an electricity-charged maze puzzle just because my fingers weren’t lengthy sufficient to achieve the requried keys whereas my different hand was utilizing the mouse. It’s virtually like enjoying a private game of Twister with a keyboard. This is extra irritating provided that failure can lead to adjustments to the story through future choices being closed off, and even character loss of life.
If a playable character dies or is in any other case out of fee, which may occur a number of occasions, the game adapts with out that character, leading to totally different experiences and endings. Of course, there are inevitably occasions the place the participant’s hand is pressured, to keep away from dangling narrative threads, however Heavy Rain nonetheless makes these choices really feel weighty. Despite already understanding the reply to the game’s major thriller, I nonetheless completely loved making an attempt to weave the game towards my desired final result and sabotaging some characters on objective. I hoped that Madison may finally be the hero on the finish of the game, which provides form of a enjoyable problem.
On the topic of Madison, her a number of scenes of gratuitous and frequently-endured threats of sexual assault had been uncomfortable to observe 9 years in the past (and never solely as a result of I used to be fearful about my school dorm-mate strolling in on the most awkward time), they usually really feel even worse now. In explicit, a bit of the game wherein Madison should strip and dance seductively below risk of gunpoint hasn’t aged properly. “Isn’t this terrible what this man is doing to her?” the game appears to attempt to say, however the digital camera constantly lingers on her physique. Especially in mild of Quantic Dream’s alleged abusive work environment, it leaves a foul style in my mouth.
Heavy Rain was arguably a game-changer when it got here out in 2010, and paved the way in which for extra narrative-driven, AAA games. For these of us obsessive about storytelling in games, its success was a promise of larger games to return that will take possibilities on setting a game in a world very like our personal, stuffed with characters we are able to relate to.
If you liked the game when it first got here out, you could discover that Heavy Rain has misplaced a few of its preliminary spark compared to newer games. For me, I believe it was simpler to be forgiving of flaws after I was so excited by the novelty of what it was making an attempt to do. If you’re eager to attempt a Quantic Dream game, I’d say Heavy Rain remains to be the one most worthy of enjoying, for those who can excuse among the over-the-top components of the story. And if nothing else, it will likely be a pleasant reminder of how far story-driven games have come.
