DAY 51 / GAME 51
Heavy Rain
I've been following Quantic Dream closely ever since they made that crazy sci-fi game featuring David Bowie, Omikron. But they've come a long way since 1999 and in 2010 they created one of the most emotional, story driven games I've ever played until Last of Us in 2013.
Heavy Rain was generally well received and won multiple game of the year awards but truth be told most people I talk to have never played it. They were turned off by the idea of a game that was essentially one big Quicktime event. I saw it as a lot more complex than that. In a typical game, you're still basically just hitting designated keys at appropriate times. But in Heavy Rain your controller is being remapped constantly. Everything is context sensitive. Button options float around on the screen and different kinds of button combinations and movements are necessary for different scenarios. This is particularly great during tense action scenarios where you have to really be keeping an eye on what you need to be doing.
Heavy Rain is an insane psychological thriller. Drawing from movies like Seven, you find yourself playing five different characters. Each a part of a larger story. A story where a serial killer is kidnapping children and forcing their parents to prove they deserve them. It's even more complex and interesting than even that, but there are people here who may get around to playing it sometime and I don't want to ruin the fantastic story.
Heavy Rain's demo showed you the introductory backstory where the one character looses his child in a busy mall. The stress is palpable. This is a real scenario and anyone with a kid knows this very well. But there's humor to be found everywhere. During this playthrough, you 'pressing X to call to Jason'. You run around yelling "JASON!" into the crowd. While attending PAX East, just after this demo dropped, we heard people in the crowds yelling "JASON!" over and over. It took and second before it clicked, but when it did it was way funnier than it should have been. In fact, one of our friends explained this to his wife when he got back and she thought it was absolutely awful.
Heavy Rain looked absolutely beautiful. It was a fantastic story with terrific acting and the option of multiple storylines all depending on how you attack different parts of the game. I recommend anyone who is iffy on the gameplay style to put that aside so they can enjoy one of the finest movies gaming had ever produced.
Oh, and by the way. If you do, I recommend playing in French audio with English subtitles. It was produced in France and so it was written for French language and it seems to be better voice acting. .
Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain was generally well received and won multiple game of the year awards but truth be told most people I talk to have never played it. They were turned off by the idea of a game that was essentially one big Quicktime event. I saw it as a lot more complex than that. In a typical game, you're still basically just hitting designated keys at appropriate times. But in Heavy Rain your controller is being remapped constantly. Everything is context sensitive. Button options float around on the screen and different kinds of button combinations and movements are necessary for different scenarios. This is particularly great during tense action scenarios where you have to really be keeping an eye on what you need to be doing.
Heavy Rain is an insane psychological thriller. Drawing from movies like Seven, you find yourself playing five different characters. Each a part of a larger story. A story where a serial killer is kidnapping children and forcing their parents to prove they deserve them. It's even more complex and interesting than even that, but there are people here who may get around to playing it sometime and I don't want to ruin the fantastic story.
Heavy Rain looked absolutely beautiful. It was a fantastic story with terrific acting and the option of multiple storylines all depending on how you attack different parts of the game. I recommend anyone who is iffy on the gameplay style to put that aside so they can enjoy one of the finest movies gaming had ever produced.
Oh, and by the way. If you do, I recommend playing in French audio with English subtitles. It was produced in France and so it was written for French language and it seems to be better voice acting. .
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