Heavy Rain

One of four of the Heavy Rain characters, in titular rain.

Way back when, I had the fortune of picking up Indigo Prophecy for the Playstation 2, a gem of a game that was lauded for its interactive fiction and nuanced return of adventure gaming.  I really enjoyed the title, up until the writers all got slipped a substantial amount of acid and the game went from "what happens next" to "what the fuck is happening?"

I'm all about some weird shit happening in games, but Indigo Prophecy took it just a few steps beyond my comfort zone.  And then just kept going.

Luckily, David Cage and his company, Quantic Dream, moved forward from Indigo Prophecy's less-than-stellar conclusion and went on to make a much more normal adventure whodunit in the form of Heavy Rain.  Set for a PS3 exclusive release, the breathtakingly beautiful Heavy Rain was much anticipated, and the demand met the hype.

Firstly, the game is beautiful.  No one could play Heavy Rain and think: "this just didn't look very good."  You also can't go into the game expecting something (rain) and not get it (it rains a lot).  The problem - as is a problem with several adventure games and interactive fiction models - is that it feels less like a game, and more like a movie that wants you to hold the buttons of the controller in weird ways.  Which is still a hell of a lot better than a movie that wants you to push X every couple seconds.

Whereas Indigo Prophecy starts with you waking up in a diner bathroom covered in blood having just murdered someone and freaking out because there is a cop sitting at the counter filling his bladder up with coffee, thereby winning the award for most In Media Res game beginning ever, Heavy Rain begins with Ethan Mars waking up in his suburban home, eating breakfast, shaving, playing with his kids.  The whole thing is so happy and cheerful you can feel tragedy coming from a mile away.

And come it does!  After taking your kids to the mall and losing one of them (Dad of the year, right there), you chase after him only to find him having wandered across the street like an incredibly stupid dog.  Calling out to him, he runs towards you - into traffic - getting hit by a car and, you know, dying.  It's very Greek tragedy and so ends the non-raining part of the game.  It's all overcast skies and precipitation from here on out.

Scott Shelby, private eye, in - you guessed it - the rain.

Now Ethan is a single dad and you get some immersion action as you decide whether to be a good dad or a bad one.  But the game really gets into the thick of it when your other son is kidnapped by a serial killer/kidnapper who drowns his victims by leaving them in a locked container that slowly fills with water as it rains (hence the title).  You are immediately taken from immersion to "oh crap" in the police station wherein the game asks you to remember what your son was wearing when the police question you.  Holy shit!  A real father would have known that, and I was all of a sudden feeling bad!  Good job, Heavy Rain!  You made me feel guilty about losing my fictional child and not even having the know how to remember the color of his jacket.

The story is then told through the perspectives of four characters: Ethan (aforementioned Dad of the year), Scott Shelby (a chubby, private investigator), Norman Jayden (an FBI agent with some weird virtual reality glasses), and Madison Paige (the plucky reporter with a heart of gold).  You control each character as they work to uncover who stole Ethan's son, and how to save him.  Ethan, for his part, is required to complete gruesome tasks to gain clues about his son's whereabouts including a nasty and gut-wrenching sequence where you lob off one of your own fingers in front of a camera.

The game is exciting and engaging, with everyone pretty much a suspect.  The downside is that despite the game lauding that "every decision matters" (or something like that) - the killer's identity doesn't change.  So that's a bit of a let down.  However, it didn't stop me from playing a few times.

Another frustration is the trophies assigned to this game.  They are unfortunately obtuse and a little random, especially for a completionist like me.

Regardless of those concerns, the game is excellent and definitely worth a nab!  If you haven't already, give it a shot!