Heavy Rain
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Heavy Rain is an action, adventure, interactive drama video game created by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 on February 23, 2010, and later the PlayStation 4 on March 1, 2016. A PC port was released on June 24, 2019.
Plot
The game focuses on four different characters: Ethan Mars, a father, and the main protagonist; Scott Shelby, a private eye; Norman Jayden, an FBI agent; and Madison Paige, a photojournalist. They are very different characters and do not know each other at the beginning of the game, but are all connected in the sense that they all have an interest in the game's main antagonist, the Origami Killer.
Why It's the Heavy Rain
- Incredible and photo-realistic graphics, a style that was still in its infancy in 2010.
- It has an interesting story about a murderer who kills his victims via drowning and leaves clues behind using origami.
- Decent voice acting with Leon Ockenden as Jayden stands out the most.
- This game makes better usage of quick time events than Indigo Prophecy as you use them to correlate with the actions of the character whether that be punching or throwing something. Failing certain quick-time events is also a big deal story-wise as it can lead to character's deaths.
- Great soundtrack.
- The game does a great job of setting the tone by taking advantage of the bland look of many seventh-gen games by making the city a dirty, crime-ridden mess similar to the movie Se7en.
- Decent characters that are memorable, especially Norman Jayden.
- The game has a unique mechanic that allows the player to hear the characters' thoughts, which can give insight into what the characters are thinking about their current situation.
- The game relayed an emotionless subtleness that very few games were capable of at the time.
- The idea of having one of the main characters be the killer all along is a good concept, just not well executed.
- The action sequences are great with lots of intense fights that are handled in a realistic fashion.
- Failing certain QTEs can be extremely entertaining and even hysterical to watch. As evident by this video (It should be noted that you can't go through the whole sequence like this, eventually you will lose the man).
- Multiple endings for each main character. Ethan has 7 endings, Madison has 3, Norman has 4, and Shelby has 3.
- Some of the glitches are hilarious like characters walking through solid objects and other NPCs, unintentional animations playing, and sudden jittering in cutscenes. Nothing that seemingly impacts gameplay that would make things difficult to play through.
- The DLC The Taxidermist is pretty good despite being really short, which involves Madison going to investigate a house that is said to be linked to the Origami Killer but instead finds out the owner taxidermies people, specifically women.
- The PS3 version offers PlayStation Move support, allowing for better motion controls and immersion. It also supports the Navigation controller for moving the character.
- Jayden's famous line: "Blake, you are an unbalanced, psychopathic a**hole!"
Bad Qualities
- Each main character has something wrong with them. Ethan has blackouts, Shelby has asthma, Madison has insomnia, and Jayden has a drug problem. While these traits by themselves aren't a bad thing, the game hardly makes them relevant to the plot after their introductions, except for Jayden's.
- Despite Shelby's asthma, he has no problem with taking people on hand-to-hand and after the intro, he doesn't have another asthma attack.
- Madison and Ethan's traits are the worst mainly because:
- Madison's insomnia is just an excuse so Madison could meet Ethan.
- Ethan only blacks out twice in the whole game as a means to move the story. This in turn makes them blatant plot devices.
- Some choices in the game don't matter, such as shooting Nathaniel or helping Hassen and Kramer, as these don't affect the story at all since the game continues without missing a beat.
- While the voice acting is decent, it will sometimes go bad as some actors will not give the proper emotion and sound bored. There are also times when the body language doesn't match what the actors are saying.
- The kids' stoic line readings and inexplicable French accents. John's cries for help when he's stuck in the water pipe stand out the most. He could not sound any more disinterested even if he tried.
- Similarly, Scott begging for help in the finale against Jayden before he falls to his death sounds like he's incredibly uninterested in actually getting any help.
- The same three voice clips of Ethan calling for Jason are recycled every time the "Jason" prompt is available, and none of them sound like he's particularly worried.
- Blake's "F**KING A**HOLE!" quote when Norman pisses him off at the station. Though hilarious to some, he'll say this no matter what option you pick, even if he was calm a moment earlier. If you choose the calm option, Blake says it in that exact manner despite his body language clearly not matching his words. It's as if the developers accidentally assigned the wrong line to play at this point.
- Madison's downright grating "Nee-Yah!" sound that she makes during action scenes, such as when she punches someone or forces herself through a door.
- Several of the game's villains are often maniacally laughing during their combat scenes, because attempting to torture and/or kill someone clearly doesn't make them evil enough.
- Mad Jack's "Go f**k yourself in the a**!" line reaches into this. It doesn't sound nearly as intimidating as the developers probably thought it would.
- The PS3 version has frequent screen tearing during cutscenes and occasionally during gameplay.
- Many characters in the game can act pretty unlikable:
- Carter Blake, in particular, is extremely unlikable, he is often aggressive towards innocent suspects, is a jerk to Norman Jayden, and is a Karma Houdini who jumps to conclusions way too much.
- Grace Mars can also be unlikable at times, as she often blames her now ex-husband for causing Shaun Mars to get kidnapped and she also technically caused Blake to think that Ethan was the Origami Killer.
- The game does suffer from many plot holes and there are some things that don't make sense.
- Why are there so many streets and roads named after Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt?
- Why did Shelby open the window at Manfred's just to close it again?
- Why do the police only show up to the warehouse if Ethan goes alone or goes with everyone?
- How does Shaun not drown or die from hypothermia after being in the water for four days?
- How is it that Shelby has the money to afford some of the challenges when his family was poor and he was just a cop?
- The "Manfred" chapter has one of the worst plot holes in the game as it reveals towards the end of the game that Shelby went to the back and killed Manfred, but it leaves a question as to when it happened because the way the chapter plays out, you never see Shelby go to the back, but it is implied that he went to the back while Lauren was distracted by the music box for about 14 seconds.
- The game also cheats by having Shelby not think about doing this despite the fact that you're supposed to hear nearly everything the characters think as mentioned in WIR #8.
- There are also some dumb moments like how one of the ways Madison can survive the explosion in Shelby's apartment is by hiding in the fridge similar to Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
- Some chapters like The Prologue, Father and Son, The Shrink, and Ann Sheppard can be pretty boring as nothing really happens in them.
- Most of Shelby's chapters are pointless because they don't really do much or anything to the story, specifically, the dispute with Kramer. Although, given the game's ending, it's possible that this may have been intentional, it can be almost boring, nevertheless.
- The Twist: The reveal that Scott Shelby, one of the player characters, is the Origami Killer can come across as an Ass Pull. While it doesn't come completely out of nowhere, and there's plenty of foreshadowing if you know where to look, some gamers still see the twist as questionable, failing to comprehend how someone who is as overweight and unfit as Scott could set up the trials for Ethan, or how even when thinking to himself, meaning that no one could possibly overhear him, Scott never once lets on his true identity for the sake of a dramatic reveal. Not to mention the scene wherein the clock shop owner is killed and Shelby is panicked and shocked, despite the fact that the twist reveals that he was the one who did it.
- While the idea of having all the main characters have different endings is good, it can be incredibly repetitive when replaying chapters because the cutscenes are unskippable!
- As mentioned, the game is glitchy. An example is a rare glitch that can occur in the Ann Sheppard chapter, where even if you get everything, Ann will not tell her story where she talks about her son John's death.
- This also includes the infamous "Shaun!" and "Jason!" glitch, which became internet memes.
- Quantic Dreams unfortunately only made one DLC for the game because Sony forced them to stop working on the other DLCs so they could work on the PlayStation Move version of the game instead.
- In addition, the DLC was not ported with the PS4 remaster or the PC version for unknown reasons.
Trivia
- It spawned the "Shaun!" and "Jason!" memes.
Reception
Heavy Rain was met with mostly positive reviews upon release, and to this day is considered one of the best games on the PlayStation 3 and was included in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.
David Ellis of 1UP.com praised the quality and detail of the sets as "spectacular", noting that the world felt "lived-in and genuine"; the characters were said to have a similar "gritty realness". Ellis' view was that the game relayed an emotional subtlety that "very few games have ever succeeded at", and that knowing the characters bore potentially fatal outcomes added "a stressful layer" to an otherwise tense experience. Edge staff complimented Heavy Rain on its unmatched "compulsive pull", writing that the "gruesome curiosity" of the challenges was reminiscent of that of the Saw franchise. The realism, "aptly conjured" with quality lighting, and "filmic cliché", only considered effective for its sparse use, were observed as treading a "fine line". Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell saw the writing as full of "compassion and bravery" and commented that it was a game "where pulling the trigger makes you really feel something". Joe Juba at Game Informer commended the "astounding detail" and computer facial animation of the characters. Juba enjoyed the "moody musical score" as well as the voice actors, some of whom he called "exceptional". Declaring the game a "masterpiece", he also praised the storytelling and character development for demonstrating the "untapped potential" of interactive entertainment. Chris Roper of IGN found the control mechanics praiseworthy, citing the choice and influence of the button prompts as a "key element" to how it distinguished itself from other games. He admired the main characters for being well-developed, interesting, and integral to the story. The script was dubbed "easily amongst the best" among games.
Conversely, critics criticized the "cumbersome" control scheme, voice acting, narrative inconsistencies, and character models.
In recent years, gamers have become more critical of the game with many considering it to be less than stellar. Some even consider it bad due to the numerous plot holes, stiff voice acting, plot twists, questionable choices, etc, despite others also some of those aspects. Regardless, it is still regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made
Sales and accolades
Heavy Rain debuted in Japan in sixth place, selling 27,000 units, and topped the UK charts the same week. According to The NPD Group, it was the tenth best-selling retail game of February, with over 219 thousand units sold. Two months later, it had passed one million sales, outperforming Cage's pre-release estimate of 200,000 to 300,000. Heavy Rain outsold all Xbox 360 games in Europe during the first fifteen weeks of 2010, ranking it number ten in console software sales in that region. By August 2013, the game had sold three million copies, which rose to 4.5 in 2017 and 5.3 in 2018 in collective sales on PlayStation 3 and 4. It is one of the best-selling PlayStation 3 video games, with Sony profiting over €100 million from it.
At E3 2009, Heavy Rain won GameSpot's Best Adventure Game award and was a finalist for Game of the Show, Best PS3 Game, and Best Graphics. It was a runner-up for Best of E3 PS3 Game at 1UP.com, and nominated for PS3 Game and Adventure Game of Show at GameSpy. The Game Critics Awards nominated it for Best Original Game. GameSpy declared it Adventure Game and PlayStation 3 Game of the Year; IGN placed it in the latter category. In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Heavy Rain the 26th best adventure game. IGN later ranked the game as one of the best of the generation, while Empire listed it among the greatest of all time.
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