1. At some point, you will cross a threshold and QTE failure means your characters will die, rather than just get bruised and battered.
2. The game does not tell you when you have crossed this invisible threshold.
Heavy Rain is not very good from any perspective, really, but these two small facts imbue the latter half of the game with more suspense than it truly deserves. Regardless of whether or not I really cared about any of the protagonists — I didn’t — the Super Hardcore Gamer in me will always desire total victory, and a quick glance at the trophies assured me that “total victory” translated to, “get to the end of the game with four characters still alive.” Everytime I got into one of the dozens of poorly-motivated QTE fight scenes, I couldn’t help but feel that niggling in the back of my head: “if you screw this up, this person is going to die and you’re not gonna be the Super Hardcore Gamer you thought you were.”
The fact that the game allows character death — that, as in Mass Effect 2, you may have to watch one of your crew die in front of you due to your choices and not be able to immediately undo it via a Game Over screen – is such a goddamn useful tactic that I’m at a loss as to why we had to wait until 2010 (twenty-goddamn-ten!) to see it adopted in any significant way.
Heavy Rain‘s plot may be ludicrous, and its first half may include as much meaningful player interaction as a finicky DVD player that has to be unpaused every thirty seconds, but I can’t deny the inherent suspense in being faced with a challenge and knowing that if I make poor choices, my actions will be permanent and won’t stop the overall story.
I’m still eager to play Heavy Rain, even though I know the plot will suck. Hopefully the permanent character death makes up for a lot.
It’s funny you say that, since I half expected you to be trying to kill them all based on your low opinion of the game.
I have to say, I completely disagree with your statement “Heavy Rain is not very good from any perspective”
For one, just about every review of the game has said that while some texture can be a little off at times, the graphics are nothing short of amazing, and a few have even said best character models of all time(to this point), and I agree.
If anything how you can ignore the graphics is beyond me. Its unfortunate that you do not see to care about any of the characters, maybe play through it again and if you change some of your actions you will like them more? There have been few times that I have not had an option or choice that I was not satisfied with(meaning I felt there should have been more options for me to pick for my character to do)
I completely agree with you though, that it does not make sense that it has taken this long to get a game which adds such a layer of suspense with irreversible decisions with the exception of a few SRPG’s, but its rare that a characters irreversible death in one of those affects us in the way it would in Heavy Rain.
I’m curious to know if you would agree with Jim’s review of Heavy Rain, and to what extent. If you had reviewed it for Dtoid, would you have been more or less favorable to it than he was?
Yeah I think that the review is a bit negative.
funny how “not a very good game” was immediately countered by someone with “It has good graphics!”
by the way, anyone praising the graphics or saying they’re the best character models ever is an idiot.
just look.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd86/THEREALCRUNK/HEAVYRAYNEEEE.jpg
Why dont you PLAY the game. And thats right im not going to counter an argument of “I dont like the game” with “well you should because I did”. But sure, I will say how I feel, which is that it is an amazing game way ahead of its time. So if we are going to play that way, anyone who does not like the game is an idiot. None the less someone who I doubt has even played it.
No, I’m not going to play it. I have no interest. But I’m not saying that it’s a bad game. I can’t make that call, because I’m not going to play it. but I sure as hell can counter your “best character models ever” comment, because jesus christ, look at that image.
Exactly, its an IMAGE. Play the game to see how it really looks! Anyone who wants to bash something and knows a little bit about photo editing can make something look how they want.
And while I agree with my statement, I should have put it in quotations. The words from the Game Informer review are ” These are the best looking video game characters to date, with astounding detail and facial animations”
No matter what anyone else thinks or wants, that was the statement published. While not everyone might say its the “best” find me a review by a major publisher saying the graphics are bad.
And in the defense area…in the review by Anthony, stated “Heavy Rain is not very good from any perspective”. I think we can all agree that the shittiest game in the world could possibly have amazing graphics.
And on the topics of graphics for debate..
The Game informer quote listed above..
Gamespot stated “Highly detailed characters and environments” as one of the good points of the game, as well as giving the game their Outstanding Visual Design and Superior Animation awards.
IGN gave them an 8.5 stating “The characters look great, but some low-res items in the environment make some scenes look a little disjointed. Animation is good overall, but a little spotty at times.”
GameSpy stated “the characters’ beautiful faces are firmly entrenched in uncanny valley territory. ” Not the best comments on the graphics overall, but again, points out the character models.
GameTrailers gave the design a 9.2 ( I can not comment on any direct quotes as I will not watch any video reviews of the game in fear of spoilers, as I am not done it yet)
Could keep this going, but whats the point. We all know what opinions are like…but if anything, do yourself at least a favor of watching the game in action before you bring up an obviously doctored image from someones photobucket account to judge the graphics/character models.
it’s not doctored. those are screenshots taken from various videos posted on gametrailers.com
Anyone can look like an idiot when an out of context still is taken of them from a video. The fact that the game captures this so well is indicative of the attention they paid to realism. It’s easy to sit back and look at a few out of context images and rail on the game for them without having played it, but when it does what it’s trying to do right – and it does quite often – it’s really gripping. I’ll be truly impressed when you can show me a game with unquestionably more realistic graphics than it. Without that your point is completely void. Until next time, I encourage you to enjoy playing your Xbox.
“The fact that the game allows character death… I’m at a loss as to why we had to wait until 2010 (twenty-goddamn-ten!) to see it adopted in any significant way.”
I’m not a big fan of the series, but based on what I know hasn’t Fire Emblem been doing this for years?
Yeah, but the story continues on even if your NPCs die in that game. You can’t possibly lose any of the truly important characters; in Heavy Rain, you can.
I agree Anthony. I like where they were trying to go with the game, but it was poorly executed. Story was lame and didn’t make any sense from the killer’s perspective and with a game like this the story has to be good. Hopefully someone else tries their hand at this type of game and makes one that really shines.
Great Blog. I do hope to sit down and play Mass Effect some day but I don’t think I’ll get the chance to play Heavy Rain since I don’t own a PS3.
i think the story was one of the best written for a video game, the soundtrack is incredible and the characters are engaging and genuine. this is one of the most important games released for this console generation and marks an important revolution in cinematic gaming.
although the same cant be said about the controls
Hey Anthony, whatcha’ saying?
You’ve missed the point entirely because, from the sounds of it, you went into the game intent on hating it. Heavy Rain is by no means perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better than any other game at what it does. Consider the consequences of your actions. I don’t want to spoil anything, but what you do alters the personalities and fates of not only the protagonists, but the antagonist. Step back from it and look at how the story played out as though it was a book or a film independent of your control. It’s tailored to your personality; for different people there will be different underlying philosophies behind the characters. Do they fall in love or are they too suspicious? Are they kind at heart or simply sadistic? There’s a fragile elegance to the way the story acts out that, though you have to look for it, is astonishing. No complaints about having to think too hard, either. Is any great book’s true message presented to you on a silver platter? No, if it was then the book would lose what made it so great, it would turn into moralistic fable with ham-handed delivery. I’m shocked that someone who touts Braid (which, let’s be honest, is just a short story that forces you to solve puzzles to unlock more pages) would dismiss a game as subtle as Heavy Rain so easily.
I played Heavy Rain for about 2-3 hours at a friend’s house. And the scene at the mall pissed me off for one reason:
At the part when your son wants to get a balloon, and after you give it to him, he starts wandering off and the clown asks you to pay him. There is initially an option for you to walk away and get him, so we tried that, and then the clown goes “Hey buddy, pay me two bucks”, and then there is no option to walk away anymore. Not only is the clown a fucking dick, this game is stopping from you to being a good father. You can’t negotiate with the clown and tell him to wait a second so you can get your son, you can’t just run, you have to stumble through your pockets and pull out 2 dollars (which is ridiculous for a piece of rubber and a string, but that’s aside from the fact), which takes about 10 seconds and therefore harder for you to retrieve your own son.
The only reason they did this is because the game needed your son to die (45 minute mark spoiler alert!), but this was a situation that was entirely avoidable. Also, that car did not hit him enough to die.
It should be known that I enjoyed what I played of this game, and I’m relatively lenient about what I enjoy, but I can still get nitpicky.
Ok I’m really not much of an uber-hardcore gamer, but I’ve played a fair share of games in my lifetime. And I can honestly say, Heavy Rain has been the best yet. As everyone is saying, the graphics are amazing, give or take a few small details here and there. But for whoever it was that posted the link to the collaboration of all the messed up faces and what not: two things. One, on the Lauren Winter before and after comparison, the before picture Im pretty sure isn’t even her. It’s a character that got cut from the game; and two, if you pause any movie in a random place, you can capture some very strange facial movements and expressions. Heavy Rain is no exception to that. Ok now that I’m done with you, not to be rude, this plot line is fantastic! Anyone who thinks it isn’t clearly does not have a good grasp on moral issues like life or death, excet for when your options are laid out clearly for you. This game requires you to move outsidebyour comfort zone, and think on your feet, making enormous decisions with limited prior knowledge, but can still utterly change the way EVERYTHING unfolds. But if you don’t like that sort of independence, so be it. Just wait until the next Call of Duty comes out.(Nothing against the series, Modern Warfare 2 was my previous favorite game.) And for the controls, their really not that great and sometimes are quite tacky and take away from the plot, but you’ve got to give credit to whoever came up with that control scheme. Very creative abnd immersive. Thats about all I have to say. Overall, wonderful game. Besides, you can’t go wrong with boobies!
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