Heavy Rain, Please Revolutionize Gaming, kthxbai

So, every Monday I go over to a friend’s apartment to play video games. A couple of weeks ago, he showed us the PlayStation3 Heavy Rain demo, and since then we’ve been anxious to see the finished product (and I mean really, really anxious).

Well, this past Monday, I was able to view it in all it’s glory. I wasn’t playing, our friend was, but I got enough sense of the game that I can say.. I want this game to revolutionize the way designers and consumers think about video games.

Is that a lofty statement? Maybe. But I think it’s well within Heavy Rain’s capacity to do so.

The premise of the game is summed up in one question: how far would you go to save the ones you love? It’s an intriguing question, and one you get to put to the test throughout the story with no (real life) consequences.

You are playing as four seemingly unrelated characters: a father looking for his son (presumably a victim of the Origami Killer), a private eye (investigating the murderer), a FBI agent with some very cool, hi-tech glasses (also investigating the murder), and an insomniac. Through really compelling story-telling, controls that mimic the urgency/real action your character is doing, and fitting music you become connected to the characters so deeply it’s hard to tear yourself away from their story (I had to go to the bathroom for about an hour before I finally gave in and asked for the game to be paused).

These are the things that make you feel not only as if you’re a part of the story, but that you ARE the characters. One of the opening scenes as the private eye has you fighting an abusive ex-client of this woman, and my friend said he really felt as if he were in a fight. I’ve seen that fight scene three times now, and each time the private eye has come out looking a little different. Depending on which hits you block, your character may come out with different injuries. At one point, his nose was broken; at another, he had a cut on his head. It’s all dependent on the choices and actions you, the player, take.

Which is what brings me to the most intriguing thing about this game.. the fact that every single decision you make (pull the trigger or don’t? try to sympathize to gain information or play aggressively? etc.) affects the rest of the game. If you kill that character, you may never know what their presence revealed later in the game. If you pissed off that person, they may never tell you important information that will help you. If you let your character die.. well, you’ve lost a view point.

I haven’t played the whole game. I don’t pretend to know everything about it, but from what I’ve seen and heard, Heavy Rain is something special. I can only hope that game designers will be inspired, and we’ll be seeing a new host of new, intelligent, and immersive story-telling games in the near future.

In this market, for a game to really be noticed, it has to step it up in the gameplay and intelligence of the design. Heavy Rain does this beautifully. As this review on GameSpot states: “Though it suffers from its share of plot and technical problems, Heavy Rain is nonetheless a bold and visionary step forward in the medium of interactive storytelling. [...] No matter how your adventure plays out, Heavy Rain is a profoundly personal experience that should not be missed.”

I only wish I had a PlayStation3 to be able to experience this on. Alas, I do not. So I urge everyone who can pick it up to do so as soon as possible, so I can live vicariously through you.