Heavy Rain: Fun and emotionally exhausting
I finished Heavy Rain this weekend, which I think is the quickest turnaround for a game for me, in like ever. For all of its flaws (and it does have some, both minor and major), Heavy Rain is one of the most compelling experiences I’ve ever played through. From the opening moments, it grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go, even after I finished it. It is a perfectly placed, a mostly expertly plotted and an emotionally raw and gripping tale, the likes of which you hardly ever see in a video game. The only other game that had such an emotional spell on me would have to be Heavenly Sword, another PS3 exclusive.
It all starts with a beginning that reviewers/bloggers/impatient people have called boring. What Quantic Dream has done, with this opening, is give you a few moments to breathe, before ripping the rug from under you and then throwing you on a downward spiral of emotions, grief, anger and tension. The opening moments (presented in bright, overly cheery colors) do something that most video games do not: it lets you get to know the main character. These opening moments allow you to do practically benign things, such as take a shower, juggle, get dressed, do work (or not), garden (or not)...then you get to play with your children (or not). Does it really have a point, plot wise? Not really. But it does two key things; it gives you some leeway in learning how to play the game, in situations that don’t require quick thinking and it allows you get attached to Ethan Mars, his wife and his two kids. This emotional attachment is important, because within the course of the first hour and a half, it all gets ripped away.
Once the story proper begins, there’s almost no chance to take a breather. Little scenes, almost like vignettes, play out and quickly transition into the next. Most offer tiny cliffhangers before spinning you off to another character. What I found fascinating was how the character’s stories intersected and played off each other and how some of the things that didn’t quite make sense were tied into the story at the end. I do have some complaints with this, however, because there were a couple plot holes or pieces of the story that were just thrown to the side towards the end. Also one plot mechanic doesn’t work well in an interactive fiction.
My biggest complaint is probably the dialogue. It’s translated poorly in spots and the actors are most assuredly not Americans. No one could say “origami” correctly...well, correctly in English. And all of the main characters were obviously French speakers trying to disguise their accents and have an American accent (hence the inability to say “origami,” I think). I wish that they had either went with a French language/English subtitles or hired more American speakers. Some of the side characters sounded okay, though. They weren’t bad actors...they just didn’t seem convincing. They tried to hard to not have a French accent and it ended up being garbled in spots. The script’s translation wasn’t very good in spots either. I have never heard someone say “I’m clean as a whistle” when getting out of the shower. And the word “wasteland” was said way, way too much to describe junkyards/industrial areas. When you combine the two issues, it tends to break you from the moment and take you out of the game.
I was really angry when some ass hat on Twitter randomly sent me a tweet. The Twitter account’s name was “Scott Shelby” and the text in the message (with a frickin’ Heavy Rain hashtag!) was “I am the Origami killer.” I was so angry and pissed off that someone would do that. It reminded me of when a friend of mine was sent an email attachment with a highlighted section of Harry Potter Book 6, in which a major character was killed. Why would you do something like this, other than to be a dick? I think I would have suspected him if I didn’t know, though, because there were some strange things going on...Shelby said he was working for the families of the Origami Killer’s victims...but he kept going to the families of the victims and collected items from them. Things he was going to burn as evidence, it’s later discovered.
The one thing that doesn’t work well with a story that’s interactive is the “unreliable narrator” plot device. When the clock worker is murdered, off screen, you learn later that it’s Shelby that did it. Except you control Shelby at this point in time and it didn’t work well when you’re presented with his murder and then later are given a flashback showing that you killed him. In a movie or a book, where you’re seeing through the eyes of the narrator, having an unreliable narrator works. It’s like Shutter Island or Sixth Sense, where what you’re seeing may or may not be what’s really happening, because you’re seeing only what the narrator actually sees and not the actual truth. But when you’re given control over a character, it feels like cheating, other than the shock it’s supposed to be.
My other complaint was the whole black out thing that Ethan has. He blacks out, wakes up miles away with an origami in his hand. What’s up with that? That was never explained and was dropped in the middle of the game, once it’s revealed he’s not the killer.
Overall, though, the story was tops. I found it incredibly enthralling from the opening moments to the epilogue. It was deeply affecting and moving. The anguish in the characters was palpable and it was all because we spent an hour and a half prior to the action, getting to know them. I loved the ending. It made me feel as if I was inside the main character’s head. It was an intense experience, marred only by a couple design decisions. Quantic Dream is one of my favorite developers and I hope Heavy Rain does wonders for them. I had an absolute blast playing through it.
It all starts with a beginning that reviewers/bloggers/impatient people have called boring. What Quantic Dream has done, with this opening, is give you a few moments to breathe, before ripping the rug from under you and then throwing you on a downward spiral of emotions, grief, anger and tension. The opening moments (presented in bright, overly cheery colors) do something that most video games do not: it lets you get to know the main character. These opening moments allow you to do practically benign things, such as take a shower, juggle, get dressed, do work (or not), garden (or not)...then you get to play with your children (or not). Does it really have a point, plot wise? Not really. But it does two key things; it gives you some leeway in learning how to play the game, in situations that don’t require quick thinking and it allows you get attached to Ethan Mars, his wife and his two kids. This emotional attachment is important, because within the course of the first hour and a half, it all gets ripped away.
Once the story proper begins, there’s almost no chance to take a breather. Little scenes, almost like vignettes, play out and quickly transition into the next. Most offer tiny cliffhangers before spinning you off to another character. What I found fascinating was how the character’s stories intersected and played off each other and how some of the things that didn’t quite make sense were tied into the story at the end. I do have some complaints with this, however, because there were a couple plot holes or pieces of the story that were just thrown to the side towards the end. Also one plot mechanic doesn’t work well in an interactive fiction.
My biggest complaint is probably the dialogue. It’s translated poorly in spots and the actors are most assuredly not Americans. No one could say “origami” correctly...well, correctly in English. And all of the main characters were obviously French speakers trying to disguise their accents and have an American accent (hence the inability to say “origami,” I think). I wish that they had either went with a French language/English subtitles or hired more American speakers. Some of the side characters sounded okay, though. They weren’t bad actors...they just didn’t seem convincing. They tried to hard to not have a French accent and it ended up being garbled in spots. The script’s translation wasn’t very good in spots either. I have never heard someone say “I’m clean as a whistle” when getting out of the shower. And the word “wasteland” was said way, way too much to describe junkyards/industrial areas. When you combine the two issues, it tends to break you from the moment and take you out of the game.
I was really angry when some ass hat on Twitter randomly sent me a tweet. The Twitter account’s name was “Scott Shelby” and the text in the message (with a frickin’ Heavy Rain hashtag!) was “I am the Origami killer.” I was so angry and pissed off that someone would do that. It reminded me of when a friend of mine was sent an email attachment with a highlighted section of Harry Potter Book 6, in which a major character was killed. Why would you do something like this, other than to be a dick? I think I would have suspected him if I didn’t know, though, because there were some strange things going on...Shelby said he was working for the families of the Origami Killer’s victims...but he kept going to the families of the victims and collected items from them. Things he was going to burn as evidence, it’s later discovered.
The one thing that doesn’t work well with a story that’s interactive is the “unreliable narrator” plot device. When the clock worker is murdered, off screen, you learn later that it’s Shelby that did it. Except you control Shelby at this point in time and it didn’t work well when you’re presented with his murder and then later are given a flashback showing that you killed him. In a movie or a book, where you’re seeing through the eyes of the narrator, having an unreliable narrator works. It’s like Shutter Island or Sixth Sense, where what you’re seeing may or may not be what’s really happening, because you’re seeing only what the narrator actually sees and not the actual truth. But when you’re given control over a character, it feels like cheating, other than the shock it’s supposed to be.
My other complaint was the whole black out thing that Ethan has. He blacks out, wakes up miles away with an origami in his hand. What’s up with that? That was never explained and was dropped in the middle of the game, once it’s revealed he’s not the killer.
Overall, though, the story was tops. I found it incredibly enthralling from the opening moments to the epilogue. It was deeply affecting and moving. The anguish in the characters was palpable and it was all because we spent an hour and a half prior to the action, getting to know them. I loved the ending. It made me feel as if I was inside the main character’s head. It was an intense experience, marred only by a couple design decisions. Quantic Dream is one of my favorite developers and I hope Heavy Rain does wonders for them. I had an absolute blast playing through it.