CAUTION WALL OF TEXT INCOMING
At the time of writing this I completed my first playthrough of Heavy Rain a mere 25 minutes ago, this is my first post (I've been a lurker for a few years now) and if anybody likes this I may make more of these.
I am fairly new to the PS3, having only bought mine a few months back and having been an Xbox360 fanboy this time last year, I would love nothing more than to reach back to that period and punch myself in the genital region. Heavy Rain was just one of many games recommended to me by my friends.
I will keep this as spoiler free as possible, but the game has been out long enough now, so if I slip up, you have been warned.
I bought Heavy Rain with one main problem. I knew the answer to the game's central mystery, the identity of the game's origami killer. If anything this was my fault, I was incredibly interested in the game at its launch and stupidly read a few threads to see if it was any good. Instead I found out that not only was it good, but a person, who shall now be referred to as, "Douchenozzle," enjoyed it so much that he had to tell the world what he thought of it. In that respect I am very much like Douchenozzle, the sole reason for me writing this thread is for me to express my love of the game, but more on that later. Now Douchenozzle being the Douchenozzle that he/she is, must have thought that no one would believe them, of course the solution to this was to reveal EVERYTHING. No, literally, EVERYTHING. Now the reason I escaped with only the killer's identity permanently etched onto my eyelids was due to Douchenozzle revealing that first and me scrolling down fast enough to see the person beneath him verbally nuke Douchenozzle.
Now that that's over I can begin with the actual game. I took Heavy Rain home, put it into the PS3 and waited for it to install. Now honestly in those 5 brief minutes not much went through my head other than, "I wont like this, I know who it is, lets just play it for a bit so I can say I have." But then something changed. By something I mean the image on my TV, the PS3 was now telling me to fold out an origami bird, giving me specific instructions, that bird now sits in front of me, that moment made me realize that what I was about to play, was no ordinary game. But that wasn't at the time necessarily a good thing, because for the next half an hour I would make a guy who I frankly didn't like, perform activities that had become part of my daily routine. In short I was bored. I'm ever so stubborn though, if the only thing that would stop me from returning that game without completing it was the money that would have been wasted, then so be it. I played it for another hour, was slightly less bored by the end of that hour, but inevitably turned it off.
I stepped out to see some friends later that day, one of whom had recommended the game to me. I joked about how the most exciting thing that had happened so far was a decision. Whether or not to make one of the main characters shave. My other friends laughed along with me. However the friend who had recommended it to me looked disappointed, "Give it one more hour," he said. I told him I'd think about it.
That brings us to today, the day I finished the game. I woke up this morning went downstairs and sat in front of the TV. Now truthfully I don't believe that much in a God, but if ever I had any proof of divine intervention then what happened next was that proof. I suddenly wanted to play the game again, if only for that promised hour. Was it the origami bird next to the PS3? Or simply the fact that the controller was next to me and in less than a minute with hardly any effort from me I could be playing again? Whatever it was it was too perfect to be a coincidence. So I turned it back on. After having experienced quite possibly the most boring hour and a half I had ever experienced while gaming, this next hour had better be pretty damn good. It was. Very damn good. In that hour this game had managed to do something that only a select few games had managed to do before. It had made me care about the characters I was controlling. I remember towards the start of the hour, mockingly saying to Ethan (one of the four playable characters), "Don't worry Ethan I'll get you through this." I literally said that, I didn't mean it but I said it. An hour later I was still playing, and had I said that again I would have meant it. In the space of an hour I had been sucked into this world, I wanted each of the characters to succeed, when I screwed up a button press I was genuinely worried, I realized that I had control over not only the games ending, but the lives of these virtual people.
Now to say any more about how in love I am with this game would be wandering into spoiler territory, something I wouldn't want to do, for fear of branding myself a Douchenozzle. So now I will talk about the few things I dislike about the game.
One of the main topics surrounding the game at release is how far it ventures into the uncanny valley. I will be the millionth to confirm, that yes, the game practically lives in a valley, and there is nothing canny about it. While most of the character models are stunning, particularly in animation, the worlds fugliest of fugly people would second guess the integrity of their reproductive organs if they squeezed out what the game so playfully calls, "children." It's for this reason that some of the best looking games are stylized, I'm not saying that hyperrealism isn't a good thing, but it should be a while at least before it is attempted properly. Technology isn't currently at a point where it's fully possible.
Quite literally the only other problem I have with the game is its voice acting, again I point at the children. Almost the entire remainder of the cast are superb, yes not every line is delivered perfectly but in a game with so many options it's difficult to keep the emotion going. However the children sound incredibly uninterested, while I understand that voice talent is hard to come by in children, you could at least provide some incentive to do well. I find money works very well.
And that's all I can say, I won't be playing through the game again, my version of the story has already been told, I wouldn't want anything changed. All I can say is that, if you haven't played this game before, buy it. If you don't own a PS3, then hope that one day the game will be available to you.
Don't think of this as a review of the game but rather of my experience with it.
So with that being said I rate my experience 9/10
If people like this then I will write another soon about another game, see the poll above.
At the time of writing this I completed my first playthrough of Heavy Rain a mere 25 minutes ago, this is my first post (I've been a lurker for a few years now) and if anybody likes this I may make more of these.
I am fairly new to the PS3, having only bought mine a few months back and having been an Xbox360 fanboy this time last year, I would love nothing more than to reach back to that period and punch myself in the genital region. Heavy Rain was just one of many games recommended to me by my friends.
I will keep this as spoiler free as possible, but the game has been out long enough now, so if I slip up, you have been warned.
I bought Heavy Rain with one main problem. I knew the answer to the game's central mystery, the identity of the game's origami killer. If anything this was my fault, I was incredibly interested in the game at its launch and stupidly read a few threads to see if it was any good. Instead I found out that not only was it good, but a person, who shall now be referred to as, "Douchenozzle," enjoyed it so much that he had to tell the world what he thought of it. In that respect I am very much like Douchenozzle, the sole reason for me writing this thread is for me to express my love of the game, but more on that later. Now Douchenozzle being the Douchenozzle that he/she is, must have thought that no one would believe them, of course the solution to this was to reveal EVERYTHING. No, literally, EVERYTHING. Now the reason I escaped with only the killer's identity permanently etched onto my eyelids was due to Douchenozzle revealing that first and me scrolling down fast enough to see the person beneath him verbally nuke Douchenozzle.
Now that that's over I can begin with the actual game. I took Heavy Rain home, put it into the PS3 and waited for it to install. Now honestly in those 5 brief minutes not much went through my head other than, "I wont like this, I know who it is, lets just play it for a bit so I can say I have." But then something changed. By something I mean the image on my TV, the PS3 was now telling me to fold out an origami bird, giving me specific instructions, that bird now sits in front of me, that moment made me realize that what I was about to play, was no ordinary game. But that wasn't at the time necessarily a good thing, because for the next half an hour I would make a guy who I frankly didn't like, perform activities that had become part of my daily routine. In short I was bored. I'm ever so stubborn though, if the only thing that would stop me from returning that game without completing it was the money that would have been wasted, then so be it. I played it for another hour, was slightly less bored by the end of that hour, but inevitably turned it off.
I stepped out to see some friends later that day, one of whom had recommended the game to me. I joked about how the most exciting thing that had happened so far was a decision. Whether or not to make one of the main characters shave. My other friends laughed along with me. However the friend who had recommended it to me looked disappointed, "Give it one more hour," he said. I told him I'd think about it.
That brings us to today, the day I finished the game. I woke up this morning went downstairs and sat in front of the TV. Now truthfully I don't believe that much in a God, but if ever I had any proof of divine intervention then what happened next was that proof. I suddenly wanted to play the game again, if only for that promised hour. Was it the origami bird next to the PS3? Or simply the fact that the controller was next to me and in less than a minute with hardly any effort from me I could be playing again? Whatever it was it was too perfect to be a coincidence. So I turned it back on. After having experienced quite possibly the most boring hour and a half I had ever experienced while gaming, this next hour had better be pretty damn good. It was. Very damn good. In that hour this game had managed to do something that only a select few games had managed to do before. It had made me care about the characters I was controlling. I remember towards the start of the hour, mockingly saying to Ethan (one of the four playable characters), "Don't worry Ethan I'll get you through this." I literally said that, I didn't mean it but I said it. An hour later I was still playing, and had I said that again I would have meant it. In the space of an hour I had been sucked into this world, I wanted each of the characters to succeed, when I screwed up a button press I was genuinely worried, I realized that I had control over not only the games ending, but the lives of these virtual people.
Now to say any more about how in love I am with this game would be wandering into spoiler territory, something I wouldn't want to do, for fear of branding myself a Douchenozzle. So now I will talk about the few things I dislike about the game.
One of the main topics surrounding the game at release is how far it ventures into the uncanny valley. I will be the millionth to confirm, that yes, the game practically lives in a valley, and there is nothing canny about it. While most of the character models are stunning, particularly in animation, the worlds fugliest of fugly people would second guess the integrity of their reproductive organs if they squeezed out what the game so playfully calls, "children." It's for this reason that some of the best looking games are stylized, I'm not saying that hyperrealism isn't a good thing, but it should be a while at least before it is attempted properly. Technology isn't currently at a point where it's fully possible.
Quite literally the only other problem I have with the game is its voice acting, again I point at the children. Almost the entire remainder of the cast are superb, yes not every line is delivered perfectly but in a game with so many options it's difficult to keep the emotion going. However the children sound incredibly uninterested, while I understand that voice talent is hard to come by in children, you could at least provide some incentive to do well. I find money works very well.
And that's all I can say, I won't be playing through the game again, my version of the story has already been told, I wouldn't want anything changed. All I can say is that, if you haven't played this game before, buy it. If you don't own a PS3, then hope that one day the game will be available to you.
Don't think of this as a review of the game but rather of my experience with it.
So with that being said I rate my experience 9/10
If people like this then I will write another soon about another game, see the poll above.
, I really want a PS3 just for heavy rain!