Heavy Rain

I picked up Heavy Rain though Goozex. I wouldn't say it is a game to buy, but definitely one you need to play at some point.

So, what is it? I would describe it as a choose your own adventure movie where quick time events determine the course you take. The whole game is just a movie and QTE - and context sensitive button pushes.. One of the reasons I didn't buy the game is I hate QTE. However, I heard the story for this game was great and after playing the demo I figure I could get through the QTE to check it out.

I am going to start with the bad first as there is only one thing bad about the game. QTE sucks! And this game makes it worse. There are a couple of type of QTE events. There is your typical react and push the button that pops up on the screen as soon as you see it. Hold buttons in a sequence as they come up. Finaly, gestures.

The other form of interactivity is context sensitive button pushed. Like to open the fridge do0r when you are next to it you will see a symbol of a quarter moon motion on your right stick. Do that motion and you interact with that item.

The first type isn't bad other than they throw in motions once and awhile. For example, you may have to move the controller down quickly ot twist it. Sequences that had a bunch of these I tended to fail because the game didn't detect the motions that well. On the second type those weren't that bad, except when you had to hold 5 buttons at the same time. The gestures weren't that bad either. Did I mention I hate QTE. When they introduced it to Madden 10 to recover fumbles I gave up trying to recover fumbles.

QTE aside it is an awesome movie. I wouldn't call it a game. It's a movie that is suppose to have 17 different ending scenes, all depending on what your choices and performance are during the game. It plays out just like those Choose Your Own Adventure books we read as kids.

Spoiler alert. I will try not to give too much away but you are warned. The story is a murder mystery, trying to find the Oragami Killer. It is told from several character's point of view. The game starts out rather boring. The first couple of scenese you control the main character as he gets out of bed on his son's birthday. You have to take a shower, get dressed, typical everyday activities. These levels are just a warm up to the type of QTE and context sensitive events you can expect. But thent he story takes a turn for the worse as the family is at the mall. Ethan buy his oldest son a ballon. As he pays for it the son runs off. Ethan tries to follow the balloon. What ends up happening is the kid goes outside and Ethan tries to save him from an on coming truck on the street. Ethan is put in the hospital and the kid dies. After this event the story starts from several years later. You find out Ethan is having blackouts that can last hours and it coincides with the Oragami Killer victims. While at the park Ethan gets a blackout and then his son goes missing. The story takes off from here in different directions depending on what you do. You will control Ethan as he gets challenges from the killer on how to save his youngest son. You will control the private dick as he tries to track down the killer. You will also control the FBI agents as he is on the case. You will also control Madison as she covers the story.

The story is awesome. It is a great mystery. You are given many clues to suspect different people as the Oragami Killer. However, it isn't who you expect when they finally reveal it. The reveal was awesome also. It goes through a flashback of the story and shows the tiny clues as who it was but were so insignificant at the time you wouldn't have guessed. There are so many twists and turns in the game you will suspect everyone but the real killer at some point throughout the story.

Madison's motorcyle is awesome!! Is it wrong to be attracted to a vieo game character? I need to find a girlfriend that has an awesome bike like that :)

Heavy Rain is not for kids. There's swearing, some violent scenes with plenty of blood, and some nudity. You do get to see some nicely render boobs. Delta, they are boobs, not shoulders. I cringed at the chopping off the finger scene.

ALRIGHT, THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE HAS HUGE SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW YOU CAN STOP READING. I am going to go over the path I took and hte endings I got.

I think I got all the happily ever after endings. Ethan gets the girl and his son lives. The FBI agent is a hero. The killer dies. For the big choices during the game I did every challenge except kill that random guy. I tried to take the calm and positive routes, not the aggressive routes. There are some route I want to go back and take just to see how they affect some following scenes. I assume if I did kill the random guy I would just get more letters of the location of the kid. Which would narrow down the GPS choices I would have had at the end of the game. I also want to see what happens if Ethan turns himself in. I did look on youtube for alternate endings. I want to find out how to get the ending where Madison is at the book signing. There are some small insignificant scenes I want to redo because I failed the QTE and context sensitive actions. Like when Scott cooks the eggs. Apparently I failed at cooking the eggs. Considering I regularly make my self egg sandwiches I don't know how that happened!

There are a couple of holes in the story, like what was the kid's moms reaction to him being found alive or dead. Even though Ethan and his wife seperated after the accident she is in a couple of scenes. Looking on youtube there isn't a single ending where Ethan gets back with her which is ashiame. There wasn't much explaining why they seperated. You can only assume the accident caused her to go insane or something because Ethan ended up with custody of the kid. But she seemed normal int he scenes she was in. Overall the holes don;t detract from the good story telling that does occur.