Heavy Rain - Game Review for PS3

I have to say I would have lost a lot of bets on Heavy Rain. We were first teased with this project right when the PS3 was released and this is one of those titles I thought would just never see the light of day. To make things even more grim, the high concept nature of "The Casting" (the original E3 06 teaser for Heavy Rain) seemed to set a bar that they could never reach.

Well here we are four years later and I can scarcely believe that I have just spent the past twenty or so hours with one of the most fascinating interactive experiences I've ever, well, experienced; and I say "interactive experience" quite intentionally. It is almost difficult to call Heavy Rain a "game" in the traditional suspense. Very much in keeping with the Quantic Dream style, and clearly the spiritual successor of all of the great advernture games of earlier eras, Heavy Rain is almost revolutionary in its execution.

First off, the story telling, graphic design, music composition and sound design are phenomenal. It can be said without exaggeration that the plot here, a somewhat morose but intelligent affair involving a cat and mouse chase for a monstrous and ellusive serial killer, easily rises to the level of "decent movie" or "really good" episode of Law and Order. The voice acting, unfortunately, leaves a bit more to be desired, but as video games go, is still quite good. Some characters in particular really stand out and, at the very least, the voice acting never harms the experience.

Gameplay will be polarizing. The entire game is a quick time events system. For those not familiar, think along the lines of Shenmue, Resident Evil 5 or, going way back, Dragons Lair. At key moments, the game expects you to take an action, time limited, in order to advance the plot in real-time. Miss the moment, and you suffer the consequences. Heavy Rain has taken the QTE approach and brough it to a new level, both in terms of gameplay scenarios, and actual execution. "Events" aren't limited to just the major things like a shoot out or a car chase. Something as simple as reading a file is an event as well. Think - opening a file cabinet drawer, reaching inside, taking out a file, you get the idea. It might sound somewhat tedious, but once you get used to it, it's surprisingly intuitive and rarely gratuitous outside of the first few minutes (which are more of a tutorial). In addition, all aspects of the six-axis controller are in play here including movement (tilts, shakes, etc) and pressure on the analogue stick (some movements require a soft, gradual, touch).

Personally, I rate this game very high - 95% for me - feel it executes on everything it set out to do and, in many ways, could even be called revolutionary within its genre. Truly amazing for a product I would have sworn would be vaporware just 4 years ago! It's almost enough to give me hope for Alan Wake!