Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Quantic Dream
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

Every once in a while, a game comes out that is completely unlike anything you’ve played in a long time. Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is such a game. In a world full of shooters, racers, jumpers and fighters, Heavy Rain stands out as a thinker. I’m not saying it’s the only game like this, but it’s a refreshing change of pace compared to other recent releases.

Heavy Rain tells the story of the Origami Killer and the people affected by his crimes. Throughout the game, you play as Ethan Mars, whose son is kidnapped by the killer; Madison Paige, an insomniac determined to help Ethan find his son; Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler who is equipped with the latest crime-solving technology; and Scott Shelby, a private detective hired by the family of one of the Origami Killer’s victims. As the story progresses, these characters meet and their lives become intertwined.

Heavy Rain is presented from a third-person perspective, allowing you to see all that is around you. Movement controls are fairly simple and interaction is done by pressing the button that appears on the screen. More often than not, multiple buttons appear, allowing the player to choose exactly what they want to do. Combat and investigation scenes are also conducted in this manner, but the combat scenes are much more difficult. While your character is fighting or running, the buttons on screen react and move around based on your actions. When things get hectic in the story, it becomes much harder to successfully pull off the onscreen button combinations.

Heavy Rain’s story is gripping and keeps you thinking until the very end. Each player-controlled character is well thought-out and developed. At any time you can choose to listen to your character’s thoughts, which often provide a deeper understanding of what he or she is feeling at that moment. The game’s atmosphere does wonders to help the mood, and the soundtrack is a perfect fit. Perhaps the most interesting part, though, is that the story continues even if you fail. If one of your characters dies during an action sequence because your timing was off, that character dies in the story, which changes and moves on without that person. This leads to several alternate endings, raising the replay value.

While the game’s soundtrack is virtually flawless, the voice acting could have used a little work. It isn’t bad, but there are some lines that suffer from poor delivery. Walking in the same direction after the camera angle changes takes some practice, and can lead to a lot of unintentional back-and-forth scene changes. While the story as a whole is deep and very entertaining, the game suffers from a few plot holes that will have you puzzled long after the credits stop rolling.

I immensely enjoyed my time with Heavy Rain. The story kept me guessing and the frantic action sequences kept me on my toes. The game itself isn’t very long, and it gets shorter with each playthrough because you already know how everything works. The plot holes might plague your mind, but trying to figure them out adds to the fun.

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