Video Game: Heavy Rain

I don't think I've ever played a game quite like Heavy Rain before. In a lot of ways it's a series of quicktime events, a basic style of gameplay that often isn't so much of "game" as it is just "pushing buttons." But there is a cool wrinkle in the game: you can fail or mess up tasks and you might change the course of the story by doing so. I read that there are 22 different endings to the game, so in some ways it creates a strange blend of being the actor, director, and writer of a film. You can explore and miss clues. You can harm or improve relationships. You can let characters live or die, all of which changes the course of the game's plot.

Opening with a gut-wrenching prologue wherein our main character watches one of his sons get hit by a car, the game then jumps forward a few years to find the protagonist divorced and living alone, struggling to connect to his other son. At the same time, an FBI agent and a private investigator are trying to determine the identity of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who abducts young boys and then leaves their bodies a few days later, always accompanied by an origami figure. Meanwhile, a reporter finds herself exploring the story from a slightly different angle. Throughout the game, you take on the role of all four characters, trying to determine the identity of the killer (sadly, that does NOT vary from play-through to play-through) and make your way through various obstacles and scenes.

As an example, in one scene you have to investigate a garage/salvage yard for clues about the murderer's car (the FBI agent has special glasses that allow him to scan for clues in a Batman Arkham Asylum-esque fashion), question a suspect, fight off an attacker--the last of which you could fail at, meaning the story would progress without your agent being a part of it anymore. The game's maker encourages people to play through one time without resetting, even though you may lose some characters or make bad choices along the way. That's all part of the experience. I did that, with two exceptions--I reset once when I failed to properly remove my fingerprints from a crime scene, and once when I was confused on what I was supposed to do and ran out of time on a particular task. Still, for the most part I decided to let what happened happen, and I enjoyed it a lot because of it.

The game features some pretty impressive graphics, especially given that it's a few years old, well before the PS3 knew how to get the most out of its hardware. Unfortunately, voice acting is another matter. French accents aside (gamemakers Quantic Dream are based in Paris), the actors simply were not quite as good as the writing and story, which was disappointing. Still, it was a great gaming experience, something very different than I'd done before, and I'm trying to decide if I should go back and replay sections to get alternate endings. I like the emphasis on story here, as the more I age the more story becomes my driving motive in playing games, and Heavy Rain engaged its story well.