Even if you do n’t own a PlayStation 3 , Heavy Rain is a game you should have a go at it because it re - imagines both videogames and pic , combining them into a new genre of prefer Your Own Adventure digital story . ( Very small-scale looter ahead . )
This is not to say Heavy Rain is perfect , but think of this piece as less a reassessment than a decisive discussion of a new work . How about we commence from the beginning ?
Heavy Rain is by a French company named Quantic Dream . Unless you ’re a hardcore gamer , there ’s no way you ’ve heard of them . Before Heavy Rain , they ’d made a biz that was so plagued by budgets and launch schedule that its tale drop off introductory coherence — yet Sony has most likely sunk meg of dollars ( be it in indirect support ) into Quantic Dream to create a unique , PlayStation - single IP .
Why ? There ’s no other development studio apartment on the planet like them .
Quantic Dream creates a biz that ’s equal parts video game and movie . And I do n’t mean that it ’s a secret plan peppered with a few , slightly congruent lengthy cutscenes , like Metal Gear Solid 4 or any Square Enix RPG .
Heavy Rain , and its predecessor Indigo Prophecy ( also known as Fahrenheit ) , are highly directed pieces of media , deploying fixed cameras to tell the story of a scene as your fictional character walks through , nuanced motion capture to add naturalism to both jump through windows and only change by reversal off a sink , and choices that stem from veridical actions and dialogue that will change the course of the story you see unfold .
What ’s this mean ? If a person cries in Heavy Rain , you will most probably feel for them as you would any fictional character in any photographic metier . These games are n’t Grand Theft Auto , with humans filling the landscape as silly , phlebotomize sheep - like diversions . Heavy Rain ’s composition is melodramatic to say the least , but its canonic presentment of character is on par with any well - directed dramatic play .
Heavy Rain may chronicle a serial child liquidator through the perspective of four theatrical role — an overweight private eye , a young FBI agent , a sexy journalist and a down father — it may take you through gamey speed chase and fight sequence that match any action flick — it may have all the twisting of any good narration — but it opens with a Father-God waiting for his Word to come home .
The male parent walks through his house , explore his spirit , complete mundane project and think aloud at any time with the wiretap of a trigger clitoris .
Much of Heavy Rain research the mundane , some of which fills in backstory , other of which just pose you in the shows of another ’s life — like The Sims for someone 30 or over .
However , there is something to be learned in all this skimming and cookery . You ’re overcome release combinations , unusual holds and releases and analog peg maneuvers that you ’ll demand when thing do n’t go so well for Dad and his family . To drink a cartonful of milk , for instance , you ’ll want to move the analogue stick in the form of a fishook … but slowly ! Too fast and the realtime animation might make you spill on your face . Shaving puzzle out likewise .
Eventually , this same motility , coupled with a properly timed ex or square clit wardrobe could be the deviation of liveliness and death . And if your character pass away during the line of the game , their story merely stop .
I know why Quantic Dream practice these quick fourth dimension button mashing issue . They want to make the gamer literally sense like they ’re really controlling a eccentric . And no matter how unified you are , knowing you ’ll need to rack up a random button at the correct meter is always nerve-racking — allegedly mapping the accent your character feels in , say , ducking a swing crowbar to your nous as you compress down on the controller .
And herein lies Heavy Rain ’s greatest defect .
I desire to take whether or not my fictitious character dissipate an innocent man for information . I ’d like to decide the respectable way to hide out a soundbox without getting caught . And yeah , when and if I kiss the girl — that should be my call , too .
Knowing a scene can stop so many ways to make a story branch so many ways feel like , well , it feel like something very important in the hereafter of storytelling and gaming likewise .
But when these decision , my decisions , are impeded , not just by my gambling accomplishment , but by the nature of the Dual Shock itself , it rips me from the narration and reminds me that this is just another game filled with characters that are n’t veridical .
A simple shake of the control , that was the difference between life and destruction for two of my characters . I shake the controller , timing it just right . They both died .
Sure , that could be the end of their write up — people fail , and that ’s one potential outcome that I witnessed . But while I encounter the power to affect choices interesting , if my play prowess is put to the test — even when that Dual Shock is working fine — I do n’t desire my heroine to perish because I miss hitting X when prompted . I want her to choke because I stupidly told her to go into a deserted household where a murderer was waiting , or because I told her to fight the guy off with a banana instead of a centre clever .
It ’s a key question that future entity like Heavy Rain will involve to answer better than they are now : How much of a story ’s outcome is based on the narration , and how much is base upon player skill ? But I have the distinct feeling — as intense as it is to wiggle an analog marijuana cigarette to unhook a bra clasp — we’ll make that watching two the great unwashed make whoopie is a lot more exciting than making a lame minigame out of it .
And just as we have for millennium , we ’ll watch over a story unfold in front of us , passively , just with a bit more choice and replay value .
If titles like Heavy Rain show us anything , it ’s that , yes , technology is unlock new ways to differentiate a tarradiddle . While most television games focus on a very linear plot of land , modeling themselves after moving-picture show and theatre , they have the great potentiality to give up the audience to search function of a story that could have encounter , alter fabrication to better emulate real life and challenging the construct of a chronicle as we acknowledge it — all well allowing the looker to feel like they ’re somehow involved beyond mere spectating . Fiction germinate from a series of events to a series of choices , much like life sentence .
All my critiquing by , you should perfectly roleplay Heavy Rain . The PlayStation 3 title , available now , smudge the bound of media , offers an extremely entertaining 10 hours ( or more if you play back chapter for different outcomes ) and , for just a few moments over the course of the plot , renders characters that are spitting images for real people . ( And the rest of the clip , the game still bet damn good . )
Oh , and one of the character has these virtual world trash that are really cool .
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