Heavy Rain

When 10 years from now someone looks back at the past decade in gaming, one ps3 game stands out...Heavy Rain. A choose-your-own adventure type of game, this film-noir interactive drama centers around the Origami Killer, who spies on kids and leaves an origami on their trail. You play the role of various characters. It's not easy or hard. It's how you play the game. The game will end quickly if all of the main characters die if you choose different paths. The graphics are pretty good, the sound excellent (minor audio glitches), and the controls are really excellent. Trophies are also good as you can get plenty of them to level up your trophy profile. Definitely worth getting it for $60. Highly recommended.

Let's figure this: you have been dreaming of become a a movie star for a long time, and then someone offers you to star in his adventure movie, and you accept it. This is the case of Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain is a video game - and a movie at the same time, with brilliant combinations of drama, action, adventure, and thriller elements. It has gorgeous graphics with amazing attention to the smallest details, terrific atmosphere, great audio, and one of the most sophisticated storyline ever released as a video game, no one even comes close to it. And get this: no superhero, no alien, no monster, no future setting, no demons, no magic spells - it is about several (well, OK, four) ordinary people deal with extraordinary situations, set in our time.

Well, honestly, Heavy Rain may not be the game for everyone. If you're more into shooting and slashing spree from the start (Ninja Gaiden, everyone?), this game might bore you as hell because it does have its slow-paced moments, especially at the beginning. But now I'm talking movie here, and since I said that this game qualifies as a movie too, let me remind that even fast-paced action movies may be slow at times, so it might be a good excuse to give this game a go.

The actions are simply based on moving and quick time events. No worries of memorizing combos and complicated button assignments here...you will spend more time watching than actually pressing the buttons to play...well, that's one more reason why I call this game a movie.

If you plan to grab a copy, pick the Heavy Rain Move Edition. It is basically the same game with tons of extras: PS Move support (as the title says), nice theme for your PS3, bonus tracks, some behind the scene and promotional footage, and the biggest one - in my opinion that is -, Taxidermist side-story (originally released as DLC) to feed your adventure fetish a bit more after you finish the game - that's ALL in one box.

So adventure PS3 gamers (if you don't have a PS3 then it is not your lucky day) rejoice, for you're on one - no - two really nice treats this time: it is a great game as well as a marvelous movie. What are you waiting for? Go to the nearest store, pick a copy,provide a nice couch along with some snacks, spare some times, and get ready to star in your own movie!

It might leave you baffled, elated or just plain determined not to like it because you aren't blowing up people every five seconds. Yep Heavy Rain will (as expected) not be for everyone, which should be mentioned now as this game isn't for the young or inpatient. But it is everything that was hoped for and oh, so much more.

We play as four characters who are all centered around one particular lunatic who has a hobby of killing people in rain water - hence the title. Ethan Mars, is the character who seems to have the most obvious and complex problems and has to undergo some serious exertion throughout the game to the point where you think what else can they throw at him?! But obviously this is a spoiler-free review so I won't ruin the experience he can choose to take or not. The other playable characters include Scott Shelby a street hardened private detective who surprise, surprise is looking for the killer; Norman Jayden (FBI this one) also investigates the killer, mostly with his superspecs that could make Sherlock Holmes jealous. Madison Paige is our last individual who suffers crippling insomnia and finds solace by sleeping in motels, she finds herself drawn to investigating the killer.

The story is in a word: phenomenal, truly addictive gaming (take that Call Of Duty) as long as your willing to be submerged by it's complexity. But the best thing that really astounds is the huge amount of choice and the sometimes fatal repercussions it can have, it makes the game feel a lot less linear and really does ask 'How far are you willing to go to save someone you love'. Graphically it also exceeds - just take a peak at the loading screen if you are doubtful, I only found the odd hiccup while playing such as the audio occasionly stopping or the love scenes which could have been pulled off by Quantic Dream if the people didn't look like they were trying to suck the air around each other's mouths rather than kissing.

It sometimes feels hard to believe that you can be playing a game that is hugely refreshing and enjoyable despite some of the extreme lengths you have to take. The introduction and end are both oddly satisfying, it uses a cinematic start and knockout finish (no matter which one) with beautiful cut-scene's throughout. Heavy Rain is easily one of Playstation's best exclusive and a style that will hopefully inspire many more to follow its lead. To David Cage I say 'Bravo' on this masterpiece and greatly anticipate the DLC.

Heavy Rain isn't your ordinary game, it's an intense, inter-active experience that guides you into four character's worlds. You have Ethan Cole, father of two, an architect who's living his American dream. You have Agent Jayden, an FBI investigator sent to investigate the latest killing of the Origami Killer. You have Madison Page, a journalist who disguises herself as a photographer to whomever she meets, all she wants is a little inside story on a victim's father about the Origami killer, and finally you have Scott Shelby, my favourite character. A private detective for hire who's out to get leads on the Origami killer and gets closer to the truth. I won't spoil it for you, because it had me by surprise, BIG TIME.

The story shifts around chapters and events with each of the four characters to balance it out. We each get a Point Of View of how the Origami killer has or is affecting their lives. Each chapter has a very depressing tone to it, it rains nearly every single time, and the skies are cloudy, always. The game takes place in the fall season, so it's no wonder why everything is depressing, but according to the investigation, that's when the Origami killer strikes. The Origami killer takes children between ages 8 and 10 every fall, and puts them under a grated pipe with a lock. He kills them by letting the rainwater fall on them till they suffocate. That's all I will tell you for now, the rest is up to you to find out.

Writer and Game Director of Heavy Rain, David Cage writes a phenomenal story that you'd expect to see it win Oscars and Golden Globes. He manages to make you a part of the story, to draw you in. His inter-active drama is about hitting the buttons at the right time, you miss one or two, it's game over for your character, but that doesn't mean your game ends, your story will pick up on to the next 3 available characters and so on. The game is rumoured to have up to 20 different endings, which means; depending on what you do in each chapter and event to your characters or the way you interact with the other non-playable characters in the game; it WILL effect your ending.

This game screams re-playability. Sometimes you wish you hadn't made a choice in one event and you want to go back, well, you can always restart from that chapter and it will erase all your progress that you are currently on, or play the game naturally to see one of the many endings this game presents you with. This game will revolutionize the gaming industry forever and it should. It should inspire other game developers to make you have a more thorough choice and consequence system. Some RPG's do that, but are they nearly as detailed as Heavy Rain? I think not. This game will win a few awards and will be nominated for game of the year 2010. It will win in the male and female voice acting department, because all the actors behind the mo-cap suit are under-rated actors. Especially Agent Jayden, I love his east coast accent, it makes him sound legit, he even looks the part too even though his mo-cap actor is fully European.

So, if you haven't purchased this game, then you're missing out on the game of the year and the game of the decade on a top 10 list. This remarkable game gets my 10/10 for originality, no movie can do this, because it would have to have many different versions of it. Harold and Kumar 2 has an inter-active feature similar to Heavy Rain if you rent the blu-ray, but nowhere near the depth of detail of Heavy Rain. But it does use the same concept, except without pressing timed buttons, just selecting what they will do next. It gets 10/10 for voice acting; some of the best voice acting I've seen so far in a video game, it's so believable as if they were real people. Like I said, Agent Jayden is an under-rated actor as well as the man behind Scott Shelby. Hopefully this game has shun a spotlight for them to act in Hollywood because they truly are gifted individuals. 10/10 for the concept. It plays like no other game has played before. You're taken in to the story and characters, the choices you make will affect the next set of events and ending. The button timers are also a plus to the events and actions your character is doing at the moment, whether it's life or DEATH.

Finally, the game gets a 10/10 for a masterpiece of a story. Even though you can change fates and endings, the background plot that connects everything is phenomenal! The game lets you discover who the Origami killer is on his own, and even if you can't figure it out, its revelation is nuts, it hits you real hard because you wouldn't believe that, that kinda person is the Origami killer. Like I said, I won't spoil, you MUST find this out on your own. It took me by surprise big time. The story makes you like the Origami killer before the character is revealed to be that killer, then when you find out. BAM! Big surprise, your face will literally change, your eyes will widen in awe and you'll say "holy sh*t, I can't believe I never saw this". But the important question this game/story asks us is: How far are you willing to go to protect the one you love? This game will makes you answer that, but also, think about it in real life. If something happened to the one you loved dearest, how far would you go to protect them?

Heavy Rain has to be my favorite game of all time, awesome story telling, the atmosphere of the game is to die for. The storyline is absolutely immersive. Towards the mid-end of the game I felt like I was constantly on the edge of my chair. 1000/10.