The Weight of Rain

What makes a video game a video game? You’ll find yourself asking yourself that very question if you play Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain (HR) was made by Quantic Dream, a French developer known for doing very unique things with their games. Unsurprisingly, HR does not change that reputation. David Cage, the head developer there, when asked to describe HR’s genre, described it as an “interactive drama.” While many have given this game critical acclaim, others have slammed it for its non-gaming feel. With that in mind, you should know that this is a very unusual game that could end up making you have the exact opposite opinion of the game that I have. There is quite simply no game like this that I have ever played, except for perhaps another Quantic Dream game, Indigo Prophecy. Quality of the experience aside, you should at least try this game for the uniqueness of it.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to the actual game. HR is the story of four people in modern day America tied together in some way by a serial killer. More specifically, the Origami Killer. The Origami Killer kills young boys every rainy season under mysterious circumstances. Beyond that, I simply won’t tell you anything. This game lives and dies by its story, and if you go into it knowing as little as possible, you’ll be better off. The story is a phenomenal noir thriller that excels in storytelling and atmosphere; the music emboldens every emotional crescent and trough that game contains. When the game setting is tense, you’ll feel tense. When it’s a heart-pounding action sequence, you will be on the edge of your seat. The atmosphere and story of the game is outstanding, excellent, and in many ways unprecedented.

As in all forms of storytelling, one of the key ways to get you to connect to the story is to get you to connect to the characters. HR does this well. Using a combination of fantastic, well-developed characters, usually excellent voice-acting, and an unprecedented amount of detailing in character models, you genuinely find yourself feeling connecting to these characters in a way you usually don’t in games. Using real actors to model off of and to voice act clearly led to this cinematic connection you have with the characters. I can’t emphasize enough how well the lead actors and cutting-edge technology suck you in to the world of Heavy Rain. This type of immersion simply couldn’t happen last generation.

Another point to hammer home before I move on is the maturity of the game. This game is cerebral; it makes you think. It puts you in situations and you respond and feel like you are in that situation. You may have noticed the tagline from the first image: “How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?” You’ll have to answer that yourself. This game puts a welcome emphasis on the power of the father-son relationship that is all too rare in most games nowadays. Indeed, this one of the few games you can point to using literary techniques like themes, symbolism and foreshadowing. The symbolism of the rain is something the 11 year old ADD kid simply won’t catch or understand. While many games pretend to be mature, this game simply raises the bar and laughs at many games out there. It’s no To Kill a Mockingbird, but bring your mind with you should you decide to play this game.

“Well,” you say, “that’s all well and good. But you haven’t mentioned one thing about gameplay.” Good point, my dear reader. What about the gameplay? The gameplay itself is just as out-of-place as the game is. You control characters in a fixed camera environment with incredibly stiff controls. Most of the action happens in quick-time events or dialog choices. The cinematic sequences are extremely well done, but the fact that you’re only pressing buttons to affect the outcome might turn off some players. This is where I’m sure most gamers will have the most trouble. They simply don’t know what to do with a game that doesn’t require their constant input. Is it bad to do this, is it good? Well, I don’t know. I do know that Heavy Rain is a thoroughly enjoyable experience though, QTEs and all.

One final thing to note is where the story and gameplay intertwines: There are no game overs. If you make a bad choice or mess up a QTE, your character dies and the story moves on. Or maybe it’s something less drastic, like you missed a clue or something. Either way, the story branches off at many points and there are multiple endings that can occur. It’s an entirely new spin on the “choice and consequence” gaming trend that is entirely welcome. Having your favorite character die off, or being even aware of their mortality, is a surprisingly effective  method of keeping the player invested into the experience. I think this is one aspect of Heavy Rain that all games can learn from.

To wrap up, Heavy Rain is a cerebral, unique, stunning and atmospheric title. The only true drawbacks to it are its remarkably stiff controls when you navigate environments and its unique interpretation of gameplay. You might also consider its length a drawback as it’s rather short, but its replayability more than makes up for it. Do yourself a favor and get Heavy Rain, one of this generation’s defining games.