Heavy Rain Review

Heavy Rain starts out rather mundane. You wake up as the character Ethan, and begins your day. This includes taking a shower, getting dressed, preparing for your son’s birthsday party and doing some architectual work. You get the impression of an idyllic family life as Ethan plays with his kids before the guests arrive. Everything is going well untill disaster strikes. One of Ethan’s two sons is hit by a passing car, together with Ethan trying to save his son.

Next follows Ethan moving in to his new, sort of depressing-looking apartment and having his other son over visiting as the loss of their son split up the marriage. From this point on the rain starts pouring down constantly, in the dark world that inhabits Heavy Rain.

We are then introduced to the other playable characters of the game. Each has their own story arc to play through, though overlapping. First we have Scott Shelby, the Private Eye trying to solve the mystery of the Origami Killer. Same goes for Norman Jayden, an FBI agent with some advanced tech trying to do the same. Lastly we have Madison Paige, a reporter trying to write a scoop on the killer.

After his divorce Ethan is starting to have blackouts. He is waking up in the street, far away from his house with no recollection on how he got there or why. His discovery of an origami figure makes him question his whereabouts and whether he might be the killer or not. A day in the park with his son Ethan has another blackout and wakes up with his son gone. Ethan now has to go through trials set by the Origami Killer in order to save his son, who is seen through a video in a hole with water slowly raising as the rain keeps pouring down.

At the same time both Scott Shelby and Norman is trying to find the Origami Killer. As a Private Eye, Scott follows his own clues, interviewing people from every walks of life, such as victims of the killer – mothers who has lost their son. The Origami Killer is targeting young boys. During his investigation he meets a prostitute named Lauren who through persistance tags along on his invesigation.

Norman, being the techie, goes to crime scenes and other places where the killer has been, and uses his sofisticated scanner in order to find clues, and map out a profile on the murder.

Lastly Madison seeks up Ethan for an interview, as he was the latest victim of the killer. Playing it off as a concerned citizen, and hiding the fact she is a journalist, they become rather friendly, and she tags along trying to help Ethan find his missing son.

Heavy Rain is quite inspired by Film Noir. Ethan is a classic film noir protagonist, who blames himself for the bad things that has happend to him (the loss of his son). When his second son is kidnapped he cares not for the heavy dangers bestowed upon him on the journey to save his son, neither all the pain and tornment he has to endure. All this is set in the sobre tone of the dark rainy atmosphere. All throughout the game, cept for the prologue, it is constantly raining. When inside the rain can be hard slamming on the windows or the roof. The only thing missing, is a slow jazz-soundtrack whilst Ethan uncovers the mystery of the murderer.

That being said, the music is very cinematic, and might as well have been made for a movie. It works very well at setting the mood, and is really rather good.

The gameplay consists of a lot of Quick Time Events. When you are not moving around, choosing dialogue or watching a cutscene the QTE’s makes up a lot of the gameplay. When playing through the games your actions do have consequences, and depending on your choices one or more characters might die. The game also has multiple endings, either good or bad, which provides with a lot of replayability.

As far as graphics goes, the game is created wih facial motion capturing. The game is using real actors, both as voice and character model mimicing their real-life apperances. This makes for a much more cinematic gaming experience. The game is sort of like a movie, where you get to make the important choices.

All in all Heavy Rain is a great game, with a great story and a good mystery with plenty of plot twists. The atmosphere is good, and if you are a fan of the rain, and mystery, it should be right up your alley.