Reviews// Heavy Rain

However, like the use of cliché made it easy to get into the swing of the pulp, once I realised that the plate issue had perturbed me so much, I also realised that I had indeed become immersed. Anything that shatters the immersion really is a bother. So, on the micro level, the plates are a problem (a plate patch?) they also highlight how much Heavy Rain succeeds.

It does so bravely. It does so by looking and sounding superb. It also does so with some of the best acting I've seen in any video game, ever. Sure, there's no Martin Sheen or Liam Neeson (thank God for that). There are good, jobbing actors, playing out their parts in really quite beautifully created game characters.

Heavy Rain is certainly a game you can watch someone else play and you can enjoy it. I'm thinking of having a Heavy Rain party, in fact, with people alternating in the roles of PI Scott Shelby, journalist Madison Paige; Ethan Mars and troubled Norman Jayden... but that's a side issue.

So, has Quantic Dream produced a game worthy of your time and money? Yes. I reckon that once you've got past the Uncanny Valley opening, been forgiving of the occasionally frustrating movement, learned the swing of the QTEs and started to think, “Why would they do that?” or “Just give me the answer you old bag” or “Why are we having sex with our clothes on when we had a shower in the buff?”, you'll be a few hours in and you'll really want to know who done it.

Replayability? Yes and no. On finishing for the first time, my initial reaction was “I've got to go back and see if doing that QTE differently or saying such and such alters the denouement”. So, I did. However, not from the start. That opening still really bugs me.

SPonGScore: 91%

Conclusion
You could go back and play Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective or Suspect or even Another Code: R or Cursed Mountain. You'd find the acting, the control systems, the graphics, the sheer ambition and the powerfully created narrative lines less involving than Heavy Rain. At heart this is an inventive, elegant game with a truly innovative take on the PS3 controller. It's spoilt by some dodgy movement, the occasional plot-ripping slap of dialogue and rather vanilla music. But nevertheless if you've got a brain in your head with a working imagination and you want to give over a few hours to some good new-fashioned enjoyment that seeks to raise itself to maturity (it fails on some petty sexual moralising), then give it a go.


Second opinions on Heavy Rain over here.