David Cage’s philosophy of making gameplay secondary to a
more realistic gaming experience is not to everyone’s taste. Quantic Dream’s
second outing, the hugely underrated Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophesy if you’re
American), was criticised as being a five hour long interactive movie; an
endless sequence of quick-time events and over extended unnecessary ‘action’
sequences. Certain moments were dragged out and exaggerated well beyond their
welcome, especially that god-awful claustrophobic cop scene where you were required
to walk slowly whilst alternating between pressing LT and RT to balance your
breathing. It was like holding down a manual in Tony Hawks for ten minutes solid
with all the fun surgically extracted.
I personally loved Fahrenheit and genuinely believe it to
be one of the best games to come out of the last generation, even when it
started to sacrifice the elements that made it unique during it's final chapters
by turning you into a superhero and tasking you with saving the world. Hooray for innovation.
Anyway, that was 2005. Fast forward to 2010 and I’m
pleased to say that Heavy Rain does not suffer from its' predecessor’s delusions
of grandeur and frankly it’s all the better for it. Gone are the electricity
men and wall running saviours of old, replaced by a bunch of relatable and
mostly realistic characters. Mostly.
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| Do you remember the original teaser trailer? I do! |
There are a total of four playable characters in Heavy
Rain and the game cycles between them as you progress through its many, many
chapters. All of them are interesting and stand up in their own right, although
the cynic in me would say that they are slightly marred by cliché: There is the
old cop who’s seen too much through the years and has turned to booze, the go-get’em
journalist who will do anything for her next scoop, a young drug abusing FBI
agent with an array of futuristic forensic tools and a reality altering pair of
holographic projecting sunglasses… Ok, so that last one is pretty unique. But
by far the most captivating character is one Ethan Mars, a guilt ridden father.
Plagued by nightmares of losing his family Ethan Mars is tasked with a number
of Saw-like missions to prove his parental love by the Origami Killer, the
game’s mysterious antagonist. I found myself grinding out the chapters involving
the other characters to rush to the next Ethan Mars stage to learn more about
the twisted serial killer.
Heavy Rain is not about being mankind’s saviour or
stopping the end of the world. It’s one of those rare games that is centred
around a grounded and tangible plot: Hunting down a serial killer. In fact I
think you only shoot a gun once or twice in the entire game, and even that was
during a quick-time event…
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| The gaming world was sadly lacking in tooth-brushing simulators before Heavy Rain. |
Yes, despite the fact that the majority of complaints
received by Fahrenheit revolved around its heavy use of quick-time events, they
have not been removed for Heavy Rain. If anything there is even more of them. I
understand the purpose of quick-time events, by having context sensitive button
presses flash up on screen your character can do anything the developers
wanted, much more so than could be controlled by a rigidly defined controller
layout, but I do wonder if there is a better way... perhaps the next generation
may have the answers… touch screen controllers anyone??
I shouldn’t complain though, by and large the quick-time
events are more tastefully used in Heavy Rain. There are some fantastic
(although totally mundane) parts of the introductory chapter where you have to
shave and brush your teeth and I loved the way this introduced you to the key
concepts of the gameplay, fully utilising the PS3 six-axis controls. Whilst the
majority of the quick-time events are well programmed and suit the situation,
(for example having to gently manoeuvre the left stick to silently pick up a
makeshift weapon before bopping a mugger over the head with a swift downwards
swipe of the control), many felt forced-in to pad out the experience. Want to
walk up a muddy slope? No problem, just press X, O, hold square and L2 then
hammer the L1 and R1 button simultaneously. Silly.
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| Then I gently pressed X as she breathlessly L1'd... |
This detachment from the direct control of your character
does however free up the camera for some spectacularly cinematic (all be it
heavily scripted) scenes and makes you feel like the director rather than the
protagonist.
The quick-time events serve another purpose though. Unlike
every other game where you can familiarise yourself with the controls and
therefore become more proficient as you progress, Heavy Rain is able to retain tension and fear by being entirely
reaction based. If you don’t want to get crushed inside a car crusher or
drilled in your private parts by a mad surgeon then you had better be ready for
any button combination the game can throw at you. Sounds shallow? I guess it
is, but it works and it is innovative.
The clever way in which the game has been constructed
means that characters can die permanently, adding to the seamlessly woven tale
and altering and changing events as you progress. I don’t want to spoil the
ending, but I think Quantic Dream missed out on a trick by not alternating the
identity of the serial killer with each successive play-through. The story sets
up nearly every character as potential candidates for the serial killer and you’re
left guessing Origami’s identity through your entire first play-through. By
your second run however, you know the twists and turns of the story. It’s a
shame, but this simple matter all but removes replayability, even though it is
clear there are many ways you can arrive at the end of the story, its' overall
mystery and majesty is ruined by the act of completing it.
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| This idylic lifestyle definitly looks sustainable. You can tell by the colours. |
Heavy Rain is a game that keeps you on the edge of your
couch with it’s gripping story, great soundtrack and amazing gritty visuals.
But is it art?
David Cage has a lot of guts. He is not afraid to defy
genre and is a huge player in advancing games beyond mere time-killers into a
viable story telling medium. Heavy Rain has some of the most memorable moments
in gaming history within it, and I don’t say that lightly. It looks great, it
sounds great and by and large it even feels great. It is a welcome breath of
fresh air in the all too often stale, dank, mainstream market and the fact this
game is a full title and not just an arcade game shows great courage. Heavy
Rain holds true to its style and entrances it's audience. You really feel sad,
happy, scared and at least one point desperate as you journey through the plot.
It’s adult, mature and entertaining.
The watered down elongated sections and occasional poor
voice acting however demote this game from the ranks of Art in my mind. Don’t
take this the wrong way though, I strongly recommend playing this game, you
won’t regret it.
Verdict: Just a Game
