PRESS A TO CRITIQUE: Heavy Rain

Some of my earliest and fondest memories as a child revolve around playing N.E.S. and huddling in my family's basement, warmed by the incandescent glow of our wood-paneled television.  The exploits of Mario, Link and Mega Man entertained me for hours.  The exploits of Milton from Milton's Secret Castle...not so much.  Regardless, video games have been an on and off part of my life since birth, and only now am I gaining a new appreciation for them. 

PRESS A TO CRITIQUE is a column that represents my attempts to weigh in on the video games I have played through to completion and compel me to air my thoughts.

      Just last year, I had experiences that involved; witnessing the deaths of Thomas & Martha Wayne through young Bruce's eyes, assisting a wounded cameraman in fleeing from a war criminal's army, and being party to an airport massacre involving hundreds of Russians.

      None of these moments were anywhere near as disturbing as having to press X to make a topless female protagonist squat and take a piss. Alas, this is merely just one moment among many from Heavy Rain that will leave your jaw agape.  It will be up to your own personal sensibilities if that gaping jaw is due to awe-inspired shock or dumbfounded speechlessness.

      Developer Quantic Dream and it's founder/CEO David Cage have brought us what they are referring to as the first "interactive drama" or "interactive fiction" or "interactive interactivity."  What that really means is a game full of quick-time events, all placed on the brackets of a well-worn Hollywood thriller template. The fact that you are put in control of 4 different characters during the course of the game ensures that the gamer will run the range of all cliches found in your traditional "serial killer thriller." 

                               What do you mean you don't sell tacquitos???

      The player starts the game as Ethan Mars, an architect and father of two, assisting him with setting out plates for dinner and dealing with a nagging wife.  It's a slow start to be sure.  As the player progresses, pressing triangle to shave Ethan, square to undress him (Cage seems overtly interested in accurate digital representations of naked skin,) it will be very evident if it is their kind of experience or not.  By the time Ethan has lost his son in what has to be one of the most crowded shopping malls in existence, I was experiencing the intended sense of panic of losing a child in a teeming mass.  In short, I was sold.

       There are plenty of other scenarios (and they feel very much just that, scenarios) that Heavy Rain will throw at you, and you'll be playing as characters other than Mr. Mars, all of which are connected to a local serial killer.  You'll be introduced to; Scott Shelby, a aging, hard-bitten P.I., Madison Paige, a brunette journalist prone to doffin' her top and FBI profiler Norman Jayden, who's voice is ten times more annoying than his name.  Regardless, it's not the characters that will keep you in the game, as much as it is the story.

                     Pootie Tang director Louis C.K knew his past would catch up with him.

    

      I'm not one to typically breeze through video games, but this was a rare exception.  The storyline crafted by Cage is for the most part engaging.  I personally would attribute that to the commitment to basing the events in reality, although very much the "Hollywood" reality.  There are plenty of nods to cinema, specifically references to the Sloth crime scene in Fincher's Seven and the sadistic trials found in the Saw franchise.  While the entire experience is cinematic, the predominantly terrible voice acting and generally stilted dialogue make Heavy Rain feel more like Seven knock-offs.  Suspect Zero and Fallen, I'm looking at YOU!  

      The most compelling aspect of the story is the fact that you are essentially creating your own narrative as you play.  Sure the gameplay itself is far from difficult, but you will find your avatars making very hard choices.  Should you save a shady entrepeneur from having a heart attack, or let him die in his barcalounger?  Will you chop off your own finger if it means getting your son back?  Depending on what decisions you do make, no matter how negligable it may seem, you will reach an ending resultant of your good (or bad) choices.

      All in all, your enjoyment of Heavy Rain will depend on a few things.  If the idea of playing through the first attempted "interactive drama" interests you, and you don't mind minimal challenge, then this is a game worth a pick-up, although not necessarily at full price.  However, if you are looking for something to tide you over for days or weeks, Heavy Rain is not that game.  Chances are it will be completed by even the most casual gamer in no more then a week, and that might not be all that fulfilling.  Regardless, there is something to celebrate here, and that is innovotion in a medium that doesn't see it all that often.  If you can't get behind that, at least you can get behind a game where you get to dry off voluptuous digital breasts, right?