Heavy Rain Reviews

Heavy Rain - 4/5 stars Really loved the story and the character building . The way you connect to the characters is amazing, and I felt genuinely invested in their journey. The plot twists and emotional depth kept me hooked the whole way through! 😍 The only downside for me was the controls. I didn’t really enjoy the character movement—it was a bit frustrating, and not my preferred style of gameplay. 😅 I only played for the story, so it didn't ruin the experience too much, but it’s definitely worth mentioning! Overall, a great game for those who love a deep narrative experience, just be prepared for the quirky controls.

[h3][b]I am a father. But I am no killer.[/b][/h3][hr]That quote is a perfect one. So, I first played Heavy Rain back in high school—it was a pirated version. Now, I’ve purchased the Quantic Dream Bundle, which is absolutely worth it. It includes Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Fahrenheit, and of course, Heavy Rain. I played my second playthrough of Heavy Rain in one sitting, and it was absolutely satisfying. This game is a true classic. [i]Before diving in, it's important to note that Heavy Rain is not suitable for players under 18. It contains strong violence, gore, and sexual content.[/i] Heavy Rain is an interactive psychological thriller that plays like a crime movie. It explores deep emotional themes such as love, sacrifice, guilt, grief, morality, and consequences. The game is built on player choice, where every action and decision affects the story. The player’s morality and emotions are challenged through the game's storytelling and gameplay mechanics, making them question [i]"How far would you go to save someone you love?"[/i] Choices can lead to different outcomes, including multiple endings, and any of the four main characters can die, altering the narrative. [i]Real consequences. No second chances.[/i] The story follows Ethan Mars, once a successful architect, devoted husband, and still a father. However, his life falls apart after the accidental death of his eldest son, Jason. He breaks up with his wife, and now lives with his youngest son, Shaun. Ethan suffers from psychological trauma, blackouts, and depression, all because he feels guilty after his eldest son's accidental death. Some time later, tragedy strikes again, Shaun is abducted by the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who kidnaps boys and locks them in storm drains, testing their fathers to do series of trials to prove their love. If the father fails, the child drowns. Now, the Origami Killer has chosen Ethan as his next subject, testing him to complete the trials to save Shaun’s life. The game offers four playable characters, each connected to a single story. Ethan Mars, A father willing to do anything to save his youngest son. Scott Shelby, A private investigator suffering from asthma, hired by the victims’ families to track down the killer. Norman Jayden, An FBI profiler assigned to the case, using a high-tech tool called ARI for investigation, while also battling a dangerous addiction to Triptocaine. Madison Paige, A gorgeous, independent journalist plagued by chronic insomnia, who crosses paths with Ethan and becomes deeply involved in uncovering the truth. One of the most unique aspects is that each of these characters has a personal struggle that affects their perception of reality. Ethan experiences blackouts, Madison suffers from insomnia, and Norman fights addiction. This left me questioning what is true and what might be a misperception from all three characters in my 1st playthrough. Heavy Rain offers a unique immersive gameplay experience that feels more advanced than Beyond: Two Souls but serves as a predecessor to Detroit: Become Human. [list] [*]Unlike Detroit: Become Human, where three characters have separate paths, Heavy Rain’s four characters are all connected to the same story. In certain scenes, two to four characters can appear in the same chapter. [*]The HUD for choices and thoughts is brilliantly designed, shaky, spinning, and hard to read, reflecting the character’s stress level. The more they struggle, the more chaotic the HUD. [*]Quick-Time Events (QTEs) are fast-paced and action-packed, making players stay focused during fights, chases, and high-stakes moments. [*]Playing as Norman Jayden adds an extra layer of immersion with crime scene investigations using his ARI system, where players scan environments for clues connected to the Origami Killer. [*]Small details tie into the game’s themes. For example, the game's progress is connected to the maximum inches of rainwater. During a police briefing, Jayden mentions that it takes exactly six inches of rainwater before a trapped child drowns.[/list]With its engaging narrative and immersive gameplay, this game remains one of the most interactive thriller ever made.[hr][i]"How far would you go to save someone you love?"[/i]

Trata-se de um jogo consideravelmente mais interativo do que outros títulos do mesmo gênero, como os da Telltale, por exemplo, em que as decisões do jogador influenciam diretamente o desfecho da história mais baseado em ação do que falas em si. Embora a trama apresente alguns furos menores, ainda assim, é bem estruturada, especialmente no desenvolvimento do perfil de um serial killer. Apesar de ser um jogo datado e não causar grande impacto nos dias atuais, continua jogável e não chega a incomodar tanto. Além disso, a tecnologia de expressões faciais utilizada foi, sem dúvida, inovadora à época de seu lançamento e ainda impressiona. É plausível afirmar que essa mecânica tenha servido de inspiração para L.A. Noire. Eu aposto nisso. Enfrentei problemas técnicos com múltiplos crashs. A solução que funcionou para mim foi configurar o jogo para "Alto Desempenho" nas configurações do Windows. Embora ainda ocorressem congelamentos esporádicos, os crashs finalmente acabaram.

When Heavy Rain was launched on PS3, I thought it was the most realistic game I´ve ever seen, and it was a game with an incredible narrative. The story is good. It truly is, but it´s an old game. You can expect some weird dialogs and expressions due to this fact. The controller doesn´t respond in some of the QTEs and I´m using a dual shock controller, which should work as intented. But you can find a quick guide here on steam to fix it. You can play with a keyboard and mouse. Of course you won´t have the experience that the devs wanted you to experience playing like that. Despite how goofy some things are, how the controller scheme was planned to work but it doesn´t without a guide, and how pathetic Ethan is as a father, I still recommend this game.

[h1]I finally managed to get through that same $60 soap movie for the third time, but on PC![/h1] Heavy Rain was one of those games that people bought a PS3 for back in the day. Earlier on New Year's Eve between 2012 and 2013, I touched this interactive movie, but for some unknown reason I was able to get through the game before the halfway point. It was due, to my surprise, to improper gamepad synchronization with the console, causing the Sixaxis feature to work intermittently during tense QTE moments. After 8 years I went through the game, but on PS4 and after playing Detroit: Become Human. And the other day I came back to this wonderful interactive game to share my opinion about it. The main thing you buy a console and a game for is the story. Heavy Rain tells us the story of several characters. Earlier this technique was used in the previous game Fahrenheit, all from the same Quantic Dream, but here it is done in a much more interesting way. [i][u]Ethan Mars[/u][/i] [i]is an architect, a happy father, a loving husband, whose life was turned upside down in an instant and knocked out for two years. A man who gave up once, tries by all means to prevent the death of his son. Is the main character of the game;[/i] [i][u]Norman Jaden[/u][/i] [i]is an FBI agent who owns the coolest VR goggles. He uses the technicalities of his gadgets to the maximum in order to find the Origami Killer, works together with the local police station, which results in difficulties;[/i] [i][u]Scott Shelby[/u][/i] [i]is a private investigator, a one of a kind man, ready, perfect in the long run. One of those people who wants to deal with the situation in the classic method, through questioning and looking for clues;[/i] [i][u]Madison Paige[/u][/i] [i]is a young journalist, formerly a war journalist, who suffers from chronic insomnia, so she often rents rooms in cheap Motels in order to relax a bit and get a good night's sleep.[/i] You can, of course, continue to talk about how amazingly twisted the plot is here, how excellent and unhurriedly presented stories about each active person, but here it's better to get into the game yourself, as well as how coolly the main characters intersect with each other. The gameplay of the game is responsible for the variation in player actions. The game made excellent use of this element in its time. With his actions the player could provoke a lot of consequences, and even after 15 years not every game can afford such attention to details. Control on the PC was transferred not in the most convenient way, but in a very obvious way. All Sixaxis chips and a number of actions were transferred to the mouse control, character control is carried out on the classic WASD buttons, and all other actions were transferred to the upper digits. In most moments you can get used to such control, considering that on PlayStation you had to press R2 and steer with the left stick, so that the character could start moving. Speaking about immersion in the game, I can't avoid the topic of localization. In our Russian voice-over you can notice that somewhere they skimped on emotions, and somewhere they overplayed. Most often it happens in those moments when you start to hear the inner voices of the main characters. At the same time you should take into account that even in the original there are sometimes failures in the voicing of characters. Heavy Rain looks great at maximum settings even today, especially by the standards of the 2010 release. Although the PS4 remaster by Virtuos was the basis for the re-release, it's hard not to admire the skill of Quantic Dream's programmers: they made a technological leap in their time. The textures are crisp, the rain effects are beautiful, the models of the main characters are impressive and, to this day. The age gives away mainly the environment. If the interiors look good thanks to the competent work of designers, then the shots with trees and nature emphasize: “Past Gen”. However, this is a minor detail. Most of the story takes place in apartments and offices, and everything is fine there. All these aspects mentioned above, including several endings of the game, definitely create a desire to go through the game again, but already with other routes and dialogues. All in all, putting aside all the gloating about the best platform for the gaming experience of this or that game, I was very pleased that the genre of “interactive movie” finally visited the PC, improving in technical terms. We have before us a perfectly pitched story about the search for the Origami Killer who kills children in rainwater, a great story of character interaction that the player can directly influence. If you like variation games, I highly recommend checking out this game.

[h1]5/10[/h1] [i]Contrived high-school writing, cheesy action sequences, numerous plot holes. Ironically, worse than Fahrenheit in almost everything.[/i]

The game doesn't really run well on modern hardware, due to it being a rather old game. While I have 1.8 hours on record, that is only from trying to make the game run decently during the prologue. Facial animations don't work, lowering graphical settings makes the game somehow run worse for me, and the voice acting isn't that good. If you wanna play this game, I'd recommend just buying a physical copy and playing it on an actual PS3 (or PS4 if you buy the re-release bundle with Beyond: Two Souls). At least from what I can find, there are people selling their copies as low as 45kr (Around less than $4 American).

Heavy Rain is a great, intense, and sometimes frustrating choices-matter thriller that fully embraces its QTE-heavy gameplay, using every button on the gamepad (yes, even the Steam Controller’s gyro) to make even scrambled eggs a challenge, while delivering a gripping story that, despite some questionable twists and a few unsatisfying endings in my playthrough, still kept me hooked from start to finish.

Heavy Rain is a game that i've been wanting to try for so many years now as i'm a huge fan of this style of games, and now that i finally finished it (and even went as far as 100%ing it), i can safely say it's still one of the best games in this genre, and is still very much worth it (to me anyways) even 15 years after the original release date! But i also acknowledge that this genre as a whole is simply not for everyone, so let me state this now; [b]If you hate games where all you do is alternate between making meaningful choices AND completing QTEs then you should stop reading here and completely skip his one[/b], as you'll most likely hate it even more. (It has more QTEs than i've ever experienced in my last 5 whole years of gaming lol, and i played stuff like The Quarry!) Lets start with [b]The Good[/b]: + The graphics still hold up surprisingly well considering how old the game is. (i'm aware that this is a remaster and not the original btw, but my point still stands.) + Very cinematic & atmospheric, which greatly helps to immerse you in the game & cover some of the many shortcomings it suffers from when it comes to the writing. (more on that later) + Minimal bugs if any. + Decently long, choices do matter and the game has many different endings to explore, very replayable! + Comes with some cool BTS extras about the making of the game, of which i only experienced "one" video & was totally looking forward to see the rest, but ended up forgetting about em & already deleted the game, and i'm only now remembering them as i'm typing this review, shoot! :( + A decent soundtrack that very much fits the setting & story of the game. + While a lot of people (understandably) hate QTEs in modern games, i actually don't mind them & even enjoy them when done right, and this game is full of them; like really full of them! something that i didn't really expect when i first got into this, as i'm simply not used to them being featured that heavily even in similar games, but i consider this to be a good thing, if you're gonna go the QTEs route may as well get your money's worth lol! (they might be a tad too quick at times for casuals though) [b]The So-So[/b]: - While i consider the story to be decent & enjoyable enough, one simply can not deny the sheer number of major plot-holes the game has, i don't think i've ever experienced any story in any type of media with this much plot-holes & inconsistencies, insane stuff! I did a quick google search earlier, and apparently there was "a whole supernatural plot that was simply removed from the game late in development" that would've explained most of the inconsistencies, but they decided to axe it to try to keep the plot "grounded & believable", but forgot to make the rest of the story make sense, shame. - Not sure how good the KB+M controls are on this port (as i used an Xbox controller), but for me controls were fine for the most part, except for one major issue right at the start where the game refused to recognize certain interactions using my right stick, to which i had to change some settings on steam to fix it. (If you're facing similar issues here is the fix: Go to the game's page in your library -> Click the controller icon just below the banner (Alternatively, right click your game on Steam & access your controller configuration menu through "Properties") -> Edit Layout -> Joysticks -> Right Joystick behavior settings -> Dead Zones -> Dead Zone Shape -> Pick the "Cross" option and voila!) - The camera is a bit janky & makes certain interactions needlessly hidden or needlessly frustrating to perform, still not the worst thing out there though. - Voice acting is a mixed bag, good on some characters but extremely bad on others, and even varies significantly in quality in a single character's performance from line to line. - Can get a bit tedious & repetitive to 100%, it took me 1 full playthrough + 6! partial ones to do that using a guide showing the most optimal route, it would've been even more tedious had i gone through it blind.. this gets even worse after knowing how long the credits are and the fact that there is no way to skip them, except for the ol' reliable ALT+F4.. - It's often not obvious which route or interaction will advance the plot, making exploration very annoying & discouraged. - Achievements only pop up when loading the next scene (sometimes many scenes later), so you're often left not knowing if you did the thing correctly or not. - I wasn't sure if i should mention this, but i honestly expected more from the endings and was left a little disappointed for most of them, they feel a bit too short & undercooked, but i understand why they did them this way i guess. - Ethan isn't the most interesting & fun protagonist to play as. Now to [b]The Bad[/b]: - Some plot-hole are borderline unacceptable for a game of this scope & size, and can & will 100% ruin the game for certain people. (my advice is to shut your brain off & never think too much about the details, for the sake of your own enjoyment.) - The main plot-twist makes no sense at all if you really think about it. (again, try not to lol) - The writing in itself isn't always the best, and sometimes certain characters will make the most idiotic choices ever for no real reason. Minor spoiler ahead: [spoiler](a certain non-important character barely just survived getting chocked to death after begging non stop for mercy, 0.2 seconds later he proceeds to spout the most vile/insane shit ever for no real reason as his assailant is leaving, stuff that will 100% lead him to die, why?)[/spoiler] - Even though i mentioned having minimal bugs, the game itself crashed for me at least 3 times, always at the end of a scene/chapter, i only lost my progress once (~10-15min of gameplay), not that big of a deal but still worth pointing out. All in all, and despite all the shortcomings i just mentioned i still very much enjoyed Heavy Rain, and i'm looking forward to play the other 2 games as soon as i can get them, i believe the world needs a lot more games of this style so i'll support them whenever i can (as long as they're good), but i also acknowledge how biased i'm, so as much as i want to rate this an 8/10, i think it's realistically more of a 7/10. [spoiler]So happy to have finally experienced the infamous SHAUN!! meme! :D[/spoiler]

(-)Control: Controlling the character in this game feels like teaching a toddler how to moonwalk. (-)Story: Overall, the story was good, but it has too many plot holes. (-)Chapter 3: I remember playing the demo a couple of years ago, and now I understand why it started at Chapter 4… Chapter 3 (Father and Son) was written so badly. (-)Voice Acting: Some performances are great, while others sound like the actors were given the script five minutes before recording.