Heavy Rain

Tim Surway

Tim Surway

Joined
Jul 31, 2018
I downloaded this free on PS Plus and whilst playing through have noticed some major similarities to Shenmue. It's basically one long interactive movie utilising QTEs although in my view not particularly effectively, and the baffling thing is that it was only released in 2010 to rave reviews. It kind of gives me some hope that a story driven game like this can still be rated very highly in the era of modern gaming. Has anyone else played it?
 
Played it multiple times and love it! I love David Cage games ever since Omnikrom on the Dreamcast! If you enjoyed it, Beyond Two Souls and most recently Detroit are also recommended!
 
Hey Tim, I remember you.
Surprised you never got around to Heavy Rain until now but ya, I think it's honestly done more in the likes of Shenmue than the Yakuza games have.
Definitely do check out the other games made by Quantic Dreams.
 
I enjoyed it. Started and finished it in one sitting. I know a lot of people hate its over-dependence on QTEs but to me it felt like I was playing a sort of hybrid of the point-and-click adventure game genre.
 
It's definitely their best game. I disagree with the OP's skepticism about the success of story-driven games though. Especially as that had nothing to do with Shenmue's failure...
 
I still gotta play Omakron first, then I'll try this out... I too got it via PSplus...
 
Vyse Hazuky said:
It's definitely their best game. I disagree with the OP's skepticism about the success of story-driven games though. Especially as that had nothing to do with Shenmue's failure...
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I know that had nothing to do with Shenmue's original failure, but I'm sure I'm not the only one worried about the ability of the new batch of Shenmue releases to pick up new fans 20 years later.
 
The irony of this game is that its good story-oriented game with one of the worst writing. Never seen so many plot holes and inconsistencies.
 
JohnBlack said:
The irony of this game is that its good story-oriented game with one of the worst writing. Never seen so many plot holes and inconsistencies.
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Yes there were a few of those. I just finished it yesterday. For example,
in my game I had Ethan kill a guy without covering his tracks at all, yet in the end there appeared to be no consequences as he was shown to be happy and buying a new apartment with Madison. It also never explained why Ethan kept waking up with origami figures in his hand after blacking out. I guess Scott put them there but would have been good to have an explanation.
 
Tim Surway said:
Yes there were a few of those. I just finished it yesterday. For example,
in my game I had Ethan kill a guy without covering his tracks at all, yet in the end there appeared to be no consequences as he was shown to be happy and buying a new apartment with Madison. It also never explained why Ethan kept waking up with origami figures in his hand after blacking out. I guess Scott put them there but would have been good to have an explanation.
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There is a lot of holes really making story unreal. Spoilers coming.
- Why parents still keep clues and didnt pass them to police, somehow really easily Shelby can collect all of them?
- Why Madison is shocked when she heard Origami Killers name, since she and shelby have never met.
- The game is based on following killer with like 5-6 dead bodies on his list. And everyone is going crazy about this maniac. However Shelby can just rampage through mansion killing dozens of people and he is fine.
- How Madison can call FBI guy at the end, since theyve never met too.
And there are more of this everywhere throughout the game :)
 
Although I have to say that all David Cage Games are great, Heavy Rain is my absolute favourite next to Fahrenheit. Omicron is good too and also Beyond 2 souls. Detroit Become Human I have not played yet.

What I like the most about Heavy Rain is, that is the most "realistic" of Quantic Dream Games without any supernatural Elements. I like the supernatural Elements in Fahrenheit and Beyond 2 souls, but the more "realistic" touch of Heavy Rain makes the game really special .
 
I love the ambition of Quantic Dreams games, I think the concept of using video games as a method of interactive story telling through choices is a great step forward to the future of gaming - Many of my favourite games do this. As an interactive medium having your actions/choices take the game in a direction is just very exciting and unique to the medium. I like most of QD's games, Heavy Rain was one of the stand out titles on the PS3 & if you got on PS4 with PS+ I highly recommend it.

I think people are too harsh on narrative inconsistencies, take another game which tried this format and failed - Hidden Agenda. It was very similar to Heavy Rain In many ways in being an interactive thriller. But I found in playing it that the inconsistencies were EVERYWHERE! The worst thing of all was that if you failed to catch the criminal in your 1st play through, the game outright reveals it post credits anyway! Ruining the incentive for replay value.
 
Beyond 2 souls must be one of the worst written storydriven games I've ever played. So stupid yet so pretentious.

Omikron had a great premise, shitty gameplay (those FPS segments were worse than a chore).

Heavy Rain flows quite well, but at the end you start thinking back and realise most of the story had no sense just to keep the mystery going.

Indigo Prophecy starts great, then it drops the ball hard with every cliche on the menu (quite similar to B2S but even less stupidly funny).

Detroit is mechanically the best game David Cage game, the story is just stupid and doesn't really grasp anything really interesting, had too many characters that instead of supporting a main narrative just make it diverge for no reason. Still trying to be "smart" trying to compare androids to racism and the holocaust. He forgets that what makes good cyberpunk is the question "what means to be human", this game goes "ok androids are sentient, case settled, now play it out", robbing you of any real wonder you might have. Still I was amazed at the ammount of choices that the game handles and quite neatly. I think the game could have been better if the focus was only on 2 characters (android cop vs rogue android, cop vs "just want to be human" android or revolutionary vs "want to be human" android), it would have more substance.

I applaud the man, he's a consistent developer, just he's just kinda mediocre in everything (specially writing, and for these types of games is a downer). I think the guy has a nice knack for doing mundane scenes, and has a great mastery of atmosphere, too bad his games jump atmosphere like a horny rabbit on an bouncy castle, with no real benefit to the story (or the game for that matter).
 
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Back in march I preordered Detroit become human deluxe edition. and it came with heavy rain for free. I also downloaded for free beyond 2 souls. and Fahrenheit I have not played it. I have not touched Detroit become human yet or heavy rain for some reason beyond 2 souls I played it beat and want to continue in it.
 
Never got the chance to play Heavy Rain, but Farenheit is one of the worst games I've ever played. Absolutely awful.
 
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