Game Review: Heavy Rain
Interactive Drama
Heavy Rain is the third game from Quantic Dream and the second from their new genre of “Interactive Drama.” Personally I like the idea of Interactive Drama since it puts you in the control of the story as one (or more) of the main characters and your decisions have weight and consequence. I always thought it would be interesting to have “game movies” where you can occupy the characters or bystanders or just are able to move the camera around (though some might argue that we already have this with games like Metal Gear Solid 4) and I think the direction that games like Heavy Rain are going are a better implementation of that idea. However, this all hangs on the premise that you have a good story and believable characters that fit in with the world. And I don’t think Quantic Dream is quite there yet.
*** Warning: As with all my reviews I don’t skimp on the spoilers and discuss any aspect I feel like ***
Indigo Prophecy
Their first genre-defining game was Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit in Europe). This starts off fantastic and sets a lot of the new conventions that they will use, like multiple camera views, when it puts you in control a character who has just murdered someone in the bathroom of a diner. You are now free to do as you please, though chances are that you want to try to clean up the evidence and escape as you get a shot of a cop at the counter who starts meandering slowly to the back where the restrooms are. This begins a frantic race against the clock as he slowly approaches. You eventually get put in control of a detective who is investigating the murder and get to play a fun cat and mouse game where you are in control of both sides. Do you create an accurate police sketch of your other character which might help track him down? How actively do you look for evidence? As the murderer you try and figure out what compelled you to kill the victim in the first place and unravel the mystery.
However, about halfway through the game the plot starts taking a completely unexpected course and veers off into insanity that really ruins the story. Once you start throwing in Mayan cults, rogue AIs, the world freezing over, and your character becoming a zombie of sorts (and then having sex with the detective who was investigating you for murder?) it is really hard to take the game seriously. So I enjoyed the beginning parts and both my wife and I agree that it would be better if it just stuck to the basic murder investigation in the beginning for the duration of the game. And that is what Heavy Rain sets out to do.
You Don’t Always Need to Save the World
I think one of the traps that Indigo Prophecy fell in to is that it wanted an epic story and it seems that in order for games to do that everything needs to be at stake. The problem is that this happens so often where the entire fate of the country/world/galaxy is at stake that it starts to lose meaning. I once joked (and partially designed) a game that would be nothing more than a character trying to get back their one missing shoe precisely because of this tired trope. Just as in other forms of media, you can find tension, excitement, and motivation in the simple and commonplace. I think it might even work better because in order to truly grasp the weight of having an entire world’s fate in your hands you need to truly respect the scope of what that entails. But games generally have you follow a (mostly) linearly path and the NPCs that inhabit the world are generally forgettable so you really don’t have much emotional investment in what happens to the world other than as a basic plot point to drive the story along.
Heavy Rain fixes this by having the characters connected through the actions of a serial murderer named the “Origami Killer” due to the paper arrangements that are left by the victims. No world-saving feats are required in the playing of this game, which addresses my biggest complaint of the previous one. Plus adding the additional muscle of the PS3 to this game really helped give you lifelike characters to convey emotion necessary to get the player invested, but the unintuitive controls made the characters lurch around in directions you didn’t intend and it diminishes the immersion. Lastly, the story still doesn’t quite hold up well under scrutiny and the number of plot holes and inconsistencies throughout still leave a lot to hope for.
Driving a Bus Through
One of the first “twists” that they try to throw at you is that you think that the father you control might actually be the Origami Killer. Or at least that he is acting as a copycat because he finds himself blacking out and waking up in the middle of nowhere holding origami figures in his hands. He is convinced this might be the case since he is so overcome with grief at losing on of his sons that he is subconsciously punishing himself by making himself go through trials in order to find his remaining son, who has gone missing and is presumed in the hands of the Origami Killer. The problem becomes when they never explain the blackouts really (though they could be explained due to head trauma he received earlier) or where he would get his hands on origami in the first place. That plot thread is just left unresolved.
Another interesting twist they have is that you are actually controlling the Origami Killer who is posing as a private detective investigating his own case. The problem with them doing this is that I would imagine most players would play him as a good guy and so take actions to reinforce that belief. The detective also accuses another person of being the killer and goes through the trouble of trying to trying to investigate him when it would make no sense for his character to do so. This appears to be precisely done in order to throw the player off the scent, but makes the story’s revelation that he is the Origami Killer less believable because of it. Also when you get to the final confrontation, I wasn’t able to really accept that the detective would fight to the death (his own in my case) with the cops. Since I played him as a sympathetic character, it would make more sense to me if he ultimately turned himself in since the father successfully completed the trials and the Origami Killer was faced with someone who actually loved his son enough to go through that pain in order to get him back. Especially when the final trial where you drink poison that will kill you in an hour turns out to be benign. But I suppose that is the risk you take when you give control of your characters to someone else.
For more examples of the numerous plot holes check out these articles:
http://www.gamesradar.com/heavy-rains-big-plot-holes/
http://gamewit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/11380/heavy-rain-plot-holes/
One Small Step
I don’t mean to be entirely harsh on Heavy Rain. There were several moments that were done exceptionally well. I think they are definitely on to something here and I am eagerly hoping they release another game in this franchise (and that other games are developed in this style). Some scenes like where you need to chop off a finger are truly horrifying (especially to one who can be a little squeamish at times). The voice acting and expressions are top notch (though now that I am playing LA Noire I’d love to take a look at them again, though I doubt time will permit me to do so). I think it was because everything else was done well that the shortcomings glare out even more. But here is to hoping for a bright future for this genre!