Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain is a neat game. Sort of. I still think "interactive movie/story" is probably better. It functions a lot like its predecessor (in terms of design, not storyline), Indigo Prophecy. They're both similar to adventure games of old where you walk around areas to find things and trigger events. Instead of extensive use of key-based puzzles, though, you get extensive use of quick-time events, even for the most mundane of tasks.
Heavy Rain looks good. It sounds good. The story is good (though not without a few flaws). The overall experience is engrossing, both to being enjoyable and troubling at times. It drew me in well on an emotional level. Definitely worth playing, in my book, though I don't see any sign that it lives up to the pitch of "one little change can alter everything." There don't seem that many pivotal moments that shift the storyline in more than a minor way.
On one hand, I like that the story avoided the metaphysics and "WTF?!" of Indigo Prophecy. On the other hand, I sort of miss the supernatural elements. Go figure.
Finding out who the Origami Killer was did come as a surprise to me. It fit pretty well, but it doesn't seem to fit perfectly. He seems to get Villain Fiat to have everything laid out exactly right. And there's the big question of how the heck the scene in the typewriter shop could have played out that way without the player knowing about it. I had the sense when playing that who the killer was could actually be determined by what you do in the game, but a little post-game research indicates that's not the case.
I really liked the story overall, but there are some holes. There's the murder of Manfred. There are the details about Ethan's blackouts that are never explained - okay, psychological trauma, sure, but coming to while holding an origami figure seems like it should be more important than just a red herring. There was a scene (at least in my playthrough) where Madison chooses between calling Ethan and calling Norman when she's never even met Norman (at least on-screen).
And... seriously? The game lets me kill one of the playable characters by staying in augmented reality mode looking for some critical piece of evidence that I apparently missed previously. That's pretty harsh. In fact, Norman Jayden's whole storyline, while an interesting side perspective to have, contributed very little to the overall plot. In my playthrough, he served to get Ethan out of police custody and... umm... has spiffy (if lethal) glasses, I guess. I enjoyed playing him, but he really wasn't very important.
Heavy Rain looks good. It sounds good. The story is good (though not without a few flaws). The overall experience is engrossing, both to being enjoyable and troubling at times. It drew me in well on an emotional level. Definitely worth playing, in my book, though I don't see any sign that it lives up to the pitch of "one little change can alter everything." There don't seem that many pivotal moments that shift the storyline in more than a minor way.
On one hand, I like that the story avoided the metaphysics and "WTF?!" of Indigo Prophecy. On the other hand, I sort of miss the supernatural elements. Go figure.
Finding out who the Origami Killer was did come as a surprise to me. It fit pretty well, but it doesn't seem to fit perfectly. He seems to get Villain Fiat to have everything laid out exactly right. And there's the big question of how the heck the scene in the typewriter shop could have played out that way without the player knowing about it. I had the sense when playing that who the killer was could actually be determined by what you do in the game, but a little post-game research indicates that's not the case.
I really liked the story overall, but there are some holes. There's the murder of Manfred. There are the details about Ethan's blackouts that are never explained - okay, psychological trauma, sure, but coming to while holding an origami figure seems like it should be more important than just a red herring. There was a scene (at least in my playthrough) where Madison chooses between calling Ethan and calling Norman when she's never even met Norman (at least on-screen).
And... seriously? The game lets me kill one of the playable characters by staying in augmented reality mode looking for some critical piece of evidence that I apparently missed previously. That's pretty harsh. In fact, Norman Jayden's whole storyline, while an interesting side perspective to have, contributed very little to the overall plot. In my playthrough, he served to get Ethan out of police custody and... umm... has spiffy (if lethal) glasses, I guess. I enjoyed playing him, but he really wasn't very important.
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